To me, the career path of Australia’s Psycroptic has somewhat mirrored Poland’s Decapitated: 7 albums in, early career highlighted by a couple of critically acclaimed technical death metal albums, then both had a divisive vocalist change with Psycroptic moving to the Jason Pepiatt  and Decapitated moving from Sauron to Cowan then a slight style shift into less tech death metal realms. Those familiar […]

So two major label, modern tech death metal bands are going to be vying for your attention this spring. On Metal Blade we have Rivers of Nihil and their  ambitiously evolved Where Owls Know My Name, on Prosthetic Records,  we have Orlando’s ‘philosophical’ (not all of the band members are Christian),  progressive death metal new comers, […]

I’ve been keeping tabs on this Minnesota act since the demise of With Dead Hands Rising, one of the oos early and better deathcore/metalcore acts, as they feature some former WDHR members. And finally they have released a follow up to 2014s self released debut,  Poison of the Earth, and it’s quite the follow up. […]

In my year end list for this site, the two albums I put on my “Please Don’t Disappoint in 2017” list were Analepsy (the first glimpses of that one sound incredible), and Hour of Penance. I have been a big fan of Hour of Penance since The Vile Conception and the two LPs following that […]

Speaking for myself and when listening to metal, I look for the energy, speed and aggression, well most of the time, there’s also time for nuance and subtleties in the darkness but still nothing is quite like in your face aggression, speed and bombast. Spain’s Noctem have been on my radar for a bit, I […]

Despite playing Swedish death metal, my favorite genre ever, the 2015 debut EP, The Insurrection, from these veteran Swedes really didn’t grab my attention and seemed a little like Prosthetic Records desperately dipping their toe belatedly into the genre to grab some of its resurgent popularity. So here is the full length follow up, and it appears […]

Crikey. If you thought the second album, Contradiction, from these Swiss dark metallers was ambitious at 2 CDs and 80 minutes, wait till you get a load of their third album, Triangle. 3 CDs, exactly  100 minutes, each CD clocking in at 33 minutes and change and each covering a different musical style and concept. You have CD I: The […]

Last Poem/First Light, the 2013 debut from these NYC blackgazers, was a gorgeous affair, layering dramatic (and real) orchestration and choirs on top of a Deafheaven-y black metal backbone. Since signing on with Prosthetic Records, the band is reaping the rewards, and has increased the orchestra size from 10 to 30 for their second release – which is a full-on […]

Switzerland’s Schammasch made quite stir last year with their second album, Contradiction (it made my 2014 year end list), so Prosthetic Records has reached back and dug up the band’s 2010 Black Tower Productions debut Sic Lvceat Lvx  (meaning ‘Thus, let the Light shine’), given it a nice new mix and remaster and new cover. And […]

Blackened quartet Wayfarer hail from Colorado, and put on a melodic, mental institution clinic on their debut Children of the Iron Age.  Formerly an independent release, Children of the Iron Age has been picked up for CD/LP distribution by Prosthetic Records, which should help the band’s mixture of midtempo, tuneful chaos, despondent doom and rural, […]

After listening to Harbinger, I am kicking myself for not having listened to Mutilation Rites earlier. Apparently this is their second full-length. From what I can gather of their previous work, Harbinger seems to represent a significant step in a more caustic, less melodic direction in the vein of many a band nowadays purveying in […]

So, if like me you were underwhelmed by the last Triptykon record, here is another Swiss metal act to fulfill your needs for controlled, slower, moody and progressive dark metal that is a real undiscovered gem in 2014s metal releases. Contradiction is Schammasch’s second album albeit my first introduction to this trio, but it won’t be my […]

“You’d better turn it up.Or turn it off.Or get fucked”. That pretty much sums up The Hell, a fun loving, foul mouthed hard core band from Watford, England, who on their Prosthetic Records debut indeed drop the groovehammer with a raucous mix of brute force beefy, American core mixed with a piss n sneer of […]

You’d think I’d be more familiar and versed with Greece’s long running Septicflesh. They are after all part of the long running and somewhat influential Greek metal movement from the early 90s along with Rotting Christ, Thou Art Lord, Varathron and Necromatia and of course, one of the early death metal bands to add cinematic orchestration to […]

Along with the likes of Origin, Spawn of Possession, and Beneath the Massacre, Hour of Penance has been one band that has been at the forefront of the technical brutal death metal genre.  Their style, along with the others mentioned, comes at you from all sides like an infantry battalion, with riffs flying all around […]

For all of the subgenre division going on in metal, there is an equal amount of incestuous cross-breeding. A growing number of bands now practice a fusion of crust punk, grindcore, and a dash of black/death metal–notably Nails, among others. Trap Them made a significant impact themselves a few years ago with their previous album, […]

After giving the Prosthetic records debut of Skeletonwitch, Beyond the Permafrost a relatively lukewarm review, I simply didn’t give the band’s follow ups, Breathing the Fire or Forever Abomination, the time of day, despite the band growing immensely in popularity with their modern, black thrash meets melodic death metal spin off. I simply lumped them […]

When it comes to Swedish melodic metal excellence, Darkane are an underappreciated force with a top-notch track record. Formed in the late ‘90s, the band has never been anything less than solid. Their exceptional debut, Rusted Angel, is something of a minor classic, and their 2005 release, Layers of Lies, was another fist-pumping gem, displaying […]

Trying to get a reissue some face time in this day and age is a near fruitless endeavor. Chances are, someone out there has the album in question, and probably has gone to great lengths to post it as a torrent. Therefore, the term “reissue” loses some of its muster for a band like Montreal’s […]

This scribe thought Ancient VVisdom would be the next breakout band from the swelling devil rock field; the sidebar act to Ghost’s carnival appearance and The Devil’s Blood straight-faced, no frills approach. They certainly had the album to do it in the form of last year’s A Godlike Inferno, which married mysterious acoustic rock with […]

Technical death metal is a unique beast. When pulled off well (Origin, early Neuraxis, Decrepit Birth), it is one of the few genres that can make you stop and go – “Whoa… what the hell was that?!?”; leaving you reaching for the rewind button on your cd player to re-listen to what you just heard. […]

Do you hate your life? Are you on the verge of a big break-up? Or do you just plain wish everyone was dead? If you said yes to any of these then your ears should not be treated to this record for fear of suicide or mass murder. Well actually fuck it listen to it […]

Looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for the power/traditional metal fan? Well, thanks to my crappy timing in writing this review, you’re too late. But you still might want to check out Holy Grail’s holiday 7-inch single Seasons Bleedings. The run is limited to 500 copies – 250 red and 250 green – or there’s […]

At this point, Skeletonwitch is near unstoppable. They keep elevating their game to a new level without sacrificing (to the slaughtergod) an iota of what makes them the ‘witch – the galloping rhythms, shredtastic solos and riffing, ear-catching melodies and scathing vocals are all still very much intact, just wrapped up in even tighter packaging. […]

Landmine Marathon is a band I’ve always loved on paper. Stylistically, the world needs a band like them. That is to say, a younger band to take on the no-frills metal battery style that Nihilist, Bolt Thrower (and many other early Earache Records bands) helped pioneer close to 20 years ago, balancing groove with grind, […]