I grabbed this promo as it is the same label behind the excellent Pathogenic album that came out earlier this year. And also because the ‘For Fans of’ band listing was this: The Black Dahlia Murder, Dimmu Borgir, Prayer for Cleansing, At The Gates. Ok, ya got me. So yeah, an altogether different beast than […]

Oh man, this shit right here is fire. Denver’s Victim of Fire has been around since 2016, and this is their third album. They describe themselves as ‘Stadium Crust’, whatever that is. But what I’m hearing is an utterly nostalgic throwback to the early second wave of metalcore, when Maiden, At The Gates, and dual […]

There are so many highlights on this album that it’s stupid to reduce them to a review, especially one coming from a writer such as myself (read: a shitty one). For once this isn’t about me, but the new album from The Ukraine’s Jinjer, called Duél. I’m this close (damn, look at how close my […]

Being a near-40 year old who grew up in the Northeast, it probably comes as little surprise to you that the American Metalcore and New Wave of American Heavy Metal movements of the early ’00s played a pretty pivotal role in my music fandom. While I certainly cut my teeth on the usual suspects of […]

Sometimes I step out of my comfort zone, it’s not often but when I do it tends to go extreme. Such is the case with Nu metal/metalcore act Knogjärn. This is definitely a different style and genre-wise; meaning that I’m in semi-uncharted waters… oh well, I’ve been in those before; so let’s get it going. […]

The debut album from Denmark’s Neckbreakker is a deathcore album. Unless you’re the boss, that may be a dirty word. I haven’t found much to like in what is inconceivably still the “it” genre. Don’t get me wrong, though. This is not THAT kind of deathcore. This is death metal with a heavy emphasis on […]

Get out your pitchforks sluts because we’re about to talk about nu-metal. It’s a dirty phrase for some, but like it or not, it is making a comeback. As inexplicable as that may be, Vended are in that realm, but their famous fathers who are as well are bound to shed some light on the […]

I don’t hear a lot about bands from Iceland. Sure, there’s Solstafir, and I’m positive many others, but they don’t come to mind. Duft is one such band, so add them. The country of origin is notable, but it’s not as if we have a new Solstafir. They’re entirely different. However, you should be paying […]

Despite being around the scene for a bit now, I don’t have any real experience with Wristmeetsrazor, and I’ll be the first to admit a good part of that comes right down to the fact that the word I’d heard most often associated with the band when they first crossed my radar, how ever many […]

Did you know Darkest Hour was still together? I didn’t. I mean the last thing I reviewed by them was 2009s The Eternal Return. They have released 2 albums since then with 2014s self-titled effort and 2017s Godless Prophets & the Migrant Flora, I own apparently but lord knows I could not tell you when […]

So here is a reunion I’m not sure anyone was really clamoring for. Fall of Serenity came up with fellow Germans Heaven Shall Burn, releasing their first material on a split with HSB in 1999. They released four albums between 2001-2007 that all delivered the same sort of metalcore/hardcore/melo death sound (although their debut was […]

Cariosus is a new young Chicago duo comprised of Alex Pfister on vocals/bass and Kevin Kryszak on guitars (I can’t find any drummer information, so maybe programmed? They sound fine if so). The duo plays a form of modern metal that pulls from metalcore, melodic death metal, deathcore and such that leans into bands like […]

Mouth For War hail from Colorado and outside of this release are new to these ears.  Having released An Ear Kept To The Ground ep in 2019, and Life Cast In Glass full-length in 2021.   Bleed Yourself is their second full-length album. Mouth For War play a beatdown version of metalcore with nods to bands […]

If you’re not into modern metal, or what some painting with the broadest of brushes calls “metalcore,” you’re not going to like this. However, I am going to make like the gallon of milk I left in my car, spoil it, and let you know I do. Why do I like it, though? I’m so […]

God damn it feels like I’ve been waiting on this one forever – and for all intents and purposes, it has been a long time coming. After dropping the unrelenting (and criminally underrated) Firsthand Accounts in 2019, Long Island’s Johnny Booth released their first new single all the way back in March of 2021 (The very good, […]

This is a great metalcore album. More than that, it’s just a great album regardless of genre. I hadn’t listened to Death Ray Vision’s last one, but enjoyed the first mainly because I’ll listen to pretty much anything in which these metalcore masters are involved. Add Brian Fair of Shadows Fall and you have me. […]

Certain things will always bring me back to my adolescence, like every time I see a 90s Dodge Caravan (my first car), eating a chicken cutlet wedge (that was just a thing where I grew up, I dunno), seeing someone wear a studded belt, or gods help me, if I ever have a chance to […]

So, a little personal life update that no one asked for – I’ve been in the process of trying to cut coffee out of my daily routine. Let me be clear, this isn’t a battle against caffeine addiction or anything like that – when I was drinking coffee it was usually one cup every morning, […]

As someone who was really cutting his teeth in the more extreme metal scene during Metalcore’s heyday, it’s safe to say that it will always have a special place in my heart. Even when the genre fell out of fashion and became more a butt of every gatekeeper’s jokes, it remained a regular part of […]

If you’re like me, and for your sake I hope not, you’ve been looking forward to a follow up to The Offering’s stunning 2019 debut Home. Its mix of power, trad, and metalcore would have placed well on my AOTY list, but I wasn’t writing for the site yet. It was thoroughly enjoyable and remains. […]

I can’t even describe how excited I was to hear the new Imonolith full length. I am a big fan of their debut, owning a signed copy, which was from a pre-order. However, considering this album has 10 songs, including 3 demos of previous songs, a cover, and a re-recording of another, to call this […]

While newer bands like Countless Skies or Hinayana have given Melodic Death Metal a somewhat renewed amount of energy and attention, for the most part it takes a release from the genre’s seasoned veterans to gain any kind of real hype ahead of its release. We’re talking, of course, the likes of At The Gates, […]

Whales Don’t Fly, eh? Who is going to tell Gojira? Considering I mentioned on my year end list that their latest album was not a masterpiece but was indeed just okay, maybe it should be me. After all, I’m pretty good at breaking bad news. What I’m not good at is finding promos to review. […]

Every so often a band comes around that makes me just childishly giddy. In the past its been Between the Buried and Me, Blind Guardian, Wilderun, and more recently in the symphonic/blackened deathcore explosion, bands like Sin Deliverance, Until We Die, and Lie to the Silence have added to bands I already enjoyed ( Lorna […]

One of my favorite albums of 2021 was the fantastic Decadence and Decay from Oregon’s Silver Talon, an album and a band that certainly have plenty going for themselves on their own merit, but the album was an immediate hit for me not because it was something I’d never heard before – but instead it […]