Bordeaux France’s Exocrine waste no time in laying down some quite nutty technical death metal with their third full length release Molten Giant. “Scorched Human Society” opens with a slight intro into some incredibly clean scalar runs. These guys do an excellent job of breaking up the technical section with groove laden bridge section that […]

Wow! Wow! Wow! Biggest surprise of the year so far hands down.  Minnesota’s Inexorum have hit a colossal homerun with the debut album Lore of The Lakes.  Inexorum is the genius of Carl Skildum who I know from The Minnesota Death/Thrash group Anti-Verse (Also way worth checking out).  Lore of The Lakes is five tracks […]

I don’t know how Dark Descent continues to do it but man do they find palpably, pummeling old school death metal bands.  Turkey’s Burial Invocation waste absolutely zero time with their debut full length album Abiogenesis.  Featuring former members of the group Cenotaph I was expecting more of a brutal, gore styled form of death […]

Oakland California’s Abstracter have really conjuring up some gnarly tunes with their 3rd full length release Cinereous Incarnate.  Having not been familiar with this band I was recommended them through word of mouth.  Abstracter do not disappoint with their grime covered approach to blackened/sludge death doom.  From what I have been able to tell from […]

It has been nine years since the last full length Immortal Record All Shall Fall.  Gone is the trademark, raspy grimace of Abbath whose voice had been the nebular raven cadence of the group since all the way back to the first album Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism.  Enter 2018 and Immortal’s ninth full length studio record […]

I jumped out of my chair the second I received notification that Construct of Lethe’s second full length record Exiler was available to review.  Having been a fan of this group since their 2016 debut, Corpsegod.   There was a bit of a shift in sound from Corpsegod to Construct’s 2016 EP, The Grand Machination.  Both […]

German Progressive Death Metal Super Group Alkaloid have returned with the follow up to their 2015 debut The Malkuth Grimoire with Liquid Anatomy.  The brainchild of former Spawn of Possession and Aborted guitar Danny Tunker. Alkaloid also features three former members of the group Obscura in drummer Hannes Grossman, Bassist Linus Klausenister and Guitar Christian […]

2018 has been a busy year for melodic Swedish metal with releases from groups like Necrophobic, The Crown and At the Gates. Germany’s Fragments of Unbecoming make their presence felt with their fifth full length release Perdition Portal.  I must admit that it has been some time since I last heard a release from this […]

Excellent!!!! I say out loud to myself as a twiddle my fingers with euphoric glee! YES! YES! YES! New Zealand’s Organectomy make their presence felt numerous times over with their first full length album Domain of the Wretched.  Organectomy are more than a standard, run of the mill slam band.  I would consider more a […]

Boy I got to start off this with review by giving a shout out to Tito Vespasiani owner of Everlasting Spew Records.  2018 has already been off to a solid start for his label with releases from Convocation, Galvanizer, and Quantum Hierarchy.  With releases like Valgrind and Construct of Lethe coming later this year Everlasting […]

Nashville Tennessee’s Inferi have become quite the force in U.S underground Melodic Death Metal.  I was turned on to this group back in 2014 when I was recommended their album, The Path of Apotheosis.  At the time I felt like Inferi were quite far ahead of other similar melodic death groups in terms of technique […]

France’s Autokrator came across as a group of interest for this reviewer when I discovered Kevin Paradis of Benighted was associated with this group. I must admit that the cover art is what drew me in to checking out this album. What is interesting regarding the cover art is that it was constructed by the […]

Well call me a sucker for French Black Metal bands garbed in plague masks.  Abduction return with their 2nd full length record. “Sous les Cendres et la Pierre” opens up the album with some lovely clean guitar lines and accompanying tom rolls from the percussion section.  The song continues to build and transitions effortlessly for […]

California’s Skeletal Remains have composed and performed one of the year’s best death metal albums with their 3rd studio full length record Devouring Mortality.  The attention to detail exhibited is outstanding.  Starting off with Dan Seagrave’s brilliant cover artwork (Morbid Angel, Entombed, Malevolent Creation), these guys clearly wanted to present the look of an early […]

  It seems like every year there is a handful of massive funeral doom albums that are so meticulous that they take numerous listens to analyze.  Funeral doom in and of itself can vary depending on artist and approach to instrumentation.  This writer was caught a bit off guard in discovering Mournful Congregation’s fifth full […]

I must say I enjoy listening to albums of groups like Necrophobic.  I started becoming a fan of underground music as a teenager and Dark Funeral Secrets of The Black Arts was one of the first Swedish black metal albums that really resonated with me. Blackmoon’s influence on Dark Funeral added to the strength of […]

Finland’s Galvanizer waste no time in cranking up the Boss HM-2 Pedals and blast-beating your souls away with their debut full length Sanguine Vigil.  Having released some demo material and been around since 2013 these guys could give Rotten Sound or Nasum a run for their money.  I love the cover artwork done by TG […]

Sacramento’s Alterbeast are bringing in the New Year with their 2nd full length release Feast. I really have to hand it to Unique Leader they waste absolutely zero time transitioning from year to year and continue to find outstanding groups with outstanding musicianship. With that being said opening up an album with a piano instrumental […]

Well, this certainly was an awesome recommendation.   New Haven Connecticut’s Xenosis have literally blown me away with their third full length album, Devour and Birth.  The opening track “Night Hag’ mixes progressive elements from bands like later era Death, with the melody and harmonies of a band like Spawn of Possession or Beyond Creation. I […]

Ever wonder what it would sound like if Angel Corpse and Dark Funeral spat forth some sort of infernal Black Death hybrid that aggressively mean and just down right nasty.  Sweden’s Degial’s third full length effort Predator Reign is savage listen that wastes no time in pummeling the listener right off the bat.   Opening up […]

  Every once and a while a release comes out that truly drops my jaw and leaves me salivating for more.  Such is the case with Cracow Poland’s Redemptor fourth full length record Arthaneum.  I consider myself a fairly well traveled connoisseur of polish technical death metal.  This record goes beyond being a technical death […]

Canada’s death metal scene is much like many death metal scenes in other countries in that there are dozens of groups across the country putting their own spin on their own sound and approach.  Enter Canada’s Deity with their debut album Deity.  I could have very easily missed this release this year but after reading […]

Well this is a most unrelentingly brutal release to get us moving into the fall season. Italy’s Daemusinem debut with their first release Thy Godly Defiance released by Willowtip Records. I was excited to hear about this project in being a fan of the group Putridity.  Daemusinem is in no way like Putridity other than […]

Contextually, this album was a challenge for me to write. As a fifteen year old some twenty two years ago I was fortunate enough to Bergen Norway’s Enslaved at Mirage in Minneapolis along with fellow Osmose Productions label mates at the time, Absu.  Unfortunately for me Mirage in Minneapolis has not existed for many years […]

As a metal reviewer there is no greater feeling than stumbling upon something that is mind-blowingly awesome.  I hope 2017 continues along this trend of new amazing bands popping up from all over the world because it definitely seems like each week I am finding more and more releases from around the world that are […]