Willowtip Records have to be one of the most diverse underground metal labels out there.  With over a half dozen new releases on deck for 2019 Jason Tipton has built quite the label lineup of diverse talent (Ceremony of Silence, Vale of Pnath,).  New Jersey’s Hath are no exception.  Debuting way back in 2015 these […]

If you are reading this review, I’m going to assume you know this history behind this veteran Louisiana brother act. If you don’t, here is the cliff notes version: Two brothers from Louisiana form a band called Incubus and band release two pretty influential releases in Serpent Temptation (1988) and Beyond the Unknown ( 1990) […]

I was pretty impressed with my first exposure to Stephane Thirion  and his third album,  A fleur de peau, from his one man project, In Shadows And Dust. It delivered black metal rendered with a Stockholm death metal guitar tone with good effect, and apparently the guys over at Redefining Darkness were also impressed, enough to […]

Greek Metal Masters Rotting Christ have returned with another fantastic release with their 13th album The Heretics. The Tolis brothers Themis and Sakis, fresh off their recent arrest for Terrorism (not that kind-the fearful religious kind) in Georgia (the country, not the state) have given a spirited middle finger to organized religion once again. Although, […]

Every once and a while a band manages to make a few lineup changes and all of the sudden their sound has been elevated.  Thus is the case with Nordjevel’s latest effort Necrogenesis coming out latest this year on Osmose Productions.  Holy hell!  Does this album pair well with -50 degree weather! I must say […]

Remember in the mid/late 1990s when metal took a hard lean to Gothic overtures and bands like Sentenced, Anathema, Tiamat, Katatonia, Samael, Cemetery, Paradise Lost, Rotting Christ softened up and bands like Godgory, Sculpture, Crematory, Agathodaimon were a dime a dozen on Nuclear Blast Records? Well, Finland’s Asphodelus are here to remind you of that […]

Canada’s Gomorrah impressed greatly with their industrial-tinged death metal debut, 2016’s The Haruspex. The album packed Anaal Nathrakh-styled intensity with killer grooves and dynamic song-writing. Three years later the duo returns with a self-titled platter that looks set to raise the stakes for top notch death metal in 2019. Gomorrah expands and improves on nearly […]

I’ve said in prior reviews from this new-ish Ohio based label, I really like the direction the label is headed with a real focus of real death and black metal and some very cool forays into HM 2 boss styled death metal such as Inoculated Life, In Shadows and Dust, upcoming Nocturnal Hollow album and […]

Well I’ll be damned, color me impressed. Brescia, Italy’s, The Scars in Pneuma, and their debut album, The Path of Seven Sorrows, really caught me by surprise with its mature sound and songwriting. While the band cites influences from the likes of Rotting Christ, Mgla, Dissection, Be’lakor and others, in the end it’s just a […]

I rather enjoyed Fallujah’s semi meteoric rise from fairly typical Unique Leader modern tech death through 2014s The Flesh Prevails, (which made my 2014 year end list) and 2016s ambitious Dreamless, as the band expanded into far more atmospheric and progressive pastures. However, some lineup churn (notably original vocalist/guitarist Alex Hoffman and longtime guitarist Brian […]

I had no idea Germany’s Destruction have been around since 1982-Christ Almighty.  I’ve been a fan since their 1984 Sentence of Death ep.  Guess I’ve lost track of time and I have not followed the band since the 1990 Cracked Brain album.  So this is Part I of my Destruction reissue review series.  Germany’s High […]

I’m sure its a coincidence more than anything, but Battle Beast releasing their 5th album shortly after former member Anton Kabanen released the 2nd album from from the band he formed after acrimoniously leaving Battle Beast , Beast In Black, but it sure feel like a more personal, competitive move. However I digress.. So while […]

Minnesota’s Cold Colours return with their fifth full length release Northernmost.  Cold Colours play a style of death doom akin to old Peaceville bands like Paradise Lost or Anathema mixed in with elements of Dark Metal akin to older Samael with maybe just a tinge of Sentenced in there as well. Having been releasing albums […]

Sweden’s Soen well and truly emerged from the shadows of Tool on their exceptional past two albums, 2014’s Tellurian, and 2017’s Lykaia. In the process the band has established their position at the forefront of the modern progressive metal scene, deftly mixing heartfelt emotion and wintry melancholy, with complex, riff and groove heavy arrangements. Soen […]

Guitarist Jim Tasikas is back with Contrarian’s third album and  again, joining is George Kollias (Nile) on drums and vocals ( though Cody McConnell has joined as a live session vocalist), Sulaco’s Brians Mason (guitars) and Ed Paulsen on bass, and the skilled outfit continues their spot on latter era Death homage to precise levels […]

Misery Index return with their 6th full-length album, Rituals of Power and for me this is the best album, thus far for 2019.  Holy Crap, Misery Index is on fire.  As much as I liked their last album, The Killing Gods, Rituals of Power is more aggressive, upping their death/grind approach to the nth degree!  […]

Malaysia’s Humiliation return with their 9th long player and singer, Bear Bee recently informed me they will be recording their 10th full-length album quite soon.  By now you know what’s in store for you with Humiliation’s writing and musical direction.  War-themed death metal lyrics with music heavily influenced by: Bolt Thrower/Hail of Bullets/Asphyx, Six Feet […]

A few years ago bands like Nails, All Pigs Must Die, Trap Them  and almost every other release on Southern Lord was all the rage;  A feral, snarling mix of grind core, crust, death metal and hardcore rendered with a dirtied up Swedish HM2 buzzsaw tone.  Well, the 2018 debut from France’s Nuisible is here […]

Unique Leader never ceases to amaze me when it comes to being on top of Californian technical death metal bands. Santa Cruz California death metallers Continuum’s second album Designed Obsolescence is an absolute treat.  Featuring current and former members of Animosity, Deeds of Flesh, Decrepit Birth, Allegaeon, the bar has definitely been set quite high […]

Sweden’s Wretched Fate is a new band formed by members of melodic death metal band Non Divine Sun, and their debut album, Fleshletting is the album that Bloodbath should have released last year. Yep- I said it, heresy I know, but Fleshletting is a brutal, catchy and dynamic slab of Swedish styled death metal that you’d think a […]

Believe it or not, 2019 has delivered the best In Flames record since 2006’s Come Clarity with I, the Mask.  12+ years later, In Flames seems to be rediscovering themselves as a guitar and drums driven band. As a lifelong fan and someone who appreciates their entire catalog, albeit some albums much more than others; […]

One of the purveyors of the Canadian early death metal scene has always been Rimouski’s, Necrotic Mutation.  I still have the Sepulchre of the Suffering on cassette, from 1993, when I was tape trading back in the day.  Necrotic Mutation had more of an underground cult following and never really got their shit together to […]

When I checked out 2016s King Of Everything promo from this Ukranian act, and the lead single (or at least the video/single that came with the promo) “Words of Wisdom“, I wasn’t overly impressed with the sort of djenty modern groove, nu metal.  But a couple of years later, I started seeing ‘reaction’ videos to a […]

Do you like your death metal old school but brutal? Do you like your death metal sloppy and meaty? Do you like your death metal to be a mix of the first Cannibal Corpse album’s zombified, fetid blasts , Incantation’s oozing miasma and Devourment’s punishing grooves? Please let me introduce you to the third album from Arizona’s Meathook. With […]

I’m always going to consider Malevolent Creation to be in the top-tier of death metal bands. This is probably due to the fact that I am an old-school fan from their first few early 90’s offerings, and those feelings I have for their earlier material, coupled with the fact that the band has consistently released […]