Long-running UK thrashers, Onslaught, are now armed with a new label, and the first release for the new label is this 2 disc set. The first disc is the band redoing 10 songs from their first three albums, due to how the band plays them live today. The second disc is the band covering many […]

I have a process when I look for new Metal when promos drop: find the weirdest sounding shit possible. So if I see that a band is featuring banjos, a cellist, and a keyboardist… I’m fucking sold. Such is the case with New York’s Weeping Sores and their blistering 2nd album, The Convalescence Agonies. It’s […]

I’m not going to say anything corny about one of my favorite metal bands Byzantine, being back in… You know. It’s been eight years since The Cicada Tree, which makes me think more of mortality and the passage of time than I would care to admit, so the implied above phrase would be appropriate. However, this is […]

Can someone explain to me how Shadow of Intent is unsigned? Especially considering the absolute proliferation of the symphonic/blackened deathcore genre of late? Are the band members complete dicks? Are they independently wealthy? Do they hate labels? Imperium Delirium is the band’s 5th self-released effort, their third after dropping the Halo video game-inspired themes from […]

I’ve been trying to review this album for weeks now. Things kept getting in my way, however, and so now I’m able to sit down and put thoughts to page about this album that stands before me. I’m talking about French/Japanese depressive black metal duo, Enterré Vivant, and their heart-wrenching third album Azukï, from enigmatic […]

Damonacy was a short-lived death metal band from New Jersey, and after a few short years from 1988-1990, they split. They did record a song, “Expectations”, in 1994 for a compilation that never was released. I can’t quite remember, but I may have seen them live during their active years. I saw multiple shows weekly […]

Battlespells, the second album from this Finnish duo, named after a Vlad Tepes song, was one of the more authentic 90s styled black metal albums of recent memory, up there with releases from Northwind Wolves, Mist From the Mountains, Pestilent Hex, and I Am The Night over the last few years. And even with a […]

Perhaps I can be forgiven for being incredibly late on turning in this review. We’re all ‘Human‘, right? Regardless of your penchant for mercy, Gruesome is back with their familiar take on ‘Death‘ Metal. I had to get my puns out of the way quickly before talking about the music, but the question begs, do we […]

Occasionally, an album will hit me with such force that I’m compelled (not by the power of Christ) to put finger to keyboard and rave about it. This is the case with Trivax and their revival of violence on The Great Satan (directed at the Ayatollah Khomeini, who is depicted on the cover as Satan). […]

I keep waiting for the Blackened/Symphonic deathcore movement to burn out, but nope, it appears 2025 is going to be an even better year than 2020 and 2025. Of course, the 800 lb gorilla in the room will be the forthcoming album from Lorna Shore, and then a 600 lb gorilla with Shadow of Intent. […]

I’m going to admit that I didn’t like Midnight at first. I don’t know why they play this DIY style of Punk, Death Metal, and old school Thrash. Stuff I like and by this point they’re pretty fucking good at it. Athenar is a workhorse, putting out a slew of singles, splits, compilations, even a […]

Do you miss early/mid-00s ‘Myspace’ deathcore? Still jamming All Shall Perish, As Blood Runs Black, Embrace the End, The Red Chord, Salt the Wound, Knights of the Abyss, Animosity, The Number 12 Looks Like You, Rose Funeral, My Bitter End, and Dead to Fall? Well, Im right there with you- that era was my mutha-fucking […]

Canada’s most extreme metal band, Cryptopsy returns with their 9th full-length album, An Insatiable Violence.  I have been a fan since the very early days.  When I joined Internal Bleeding in 1994, Cryptopsy were just gaining steam, and we played a string of shows together with them in Canada and some fests here in the […]

The question I get asked the most: “How the hell did you get in here?” The second most asked, “Are you going to clean that up?” Somewhere in those questions, though, is “Do you have any new music to recommend?” For that one, I always have an answer. That’s where Death Rattle comes in. I’m […]

I’ll admit to knowing next to nothing about Indonesia. I know that it’s beautiful (I’ve seen pictures and I love their action movies, so I’m sort of an expert) but I’m not here to talk about traveling, I’m here to talk about the proud and savage Jakarta natives, Tombstone. Coming in hot as a meteor […]

I have been a fan of Germany’s Deserted Fear and their brand of European-inspired melodic death metal since their great 2012 debut album – My Empire.  Their killer second album in 2014, Kingdom of Worms, is still my favorite by them.  Veins of Fire is their sixth album, and their last three albums have all […]

Deathcore duo Larcenia Roe got the deathcore scene’s attention back in 2023, with their self-titled EP, Dereliction. Especially the vocals of Ryan Vail, who made Lorna Shore‘s Will Ramos look like Hansi Kürsch. And indeed, there were immediate comparisons to Lorna Shore. However, Larcenia Roe‘s sound is much more of a grimier, beat down, and […]

Bludgeoned By Deformity is a new underground death metal kinda sorta supergroup with members in three different states.  Devin Swank (Sanguisugabogg, Tomb Sentinel, Earthburner, Immortal Torment, Ablation, ex-Limbsplitter), bassist Ethan Buttery (Jivebomb, Sinister Feeling), drummer Adam Jarvis (Pig Destroyer, Misery Index, End Reign, Fulgora, Lock Up, Scour), and guitarists Bradon Studebaker (Immortal Torment, ex-Rejoice) and […]

Welp, I had literally forgotten about Germany’s brutal death metal/slam band Pighead. It’s been 9 years since they released their 3rd album – Until All Flesh Decays. During that time, the original member, Denny H. (guitars), lost many members, to the extent that he had to put the band back together over the last several […]

Once upon a time, I thought of Melodic Death Metal as the Michael Bolton of the Metal community. It’s pretty, at times brutal as fuck; but ultimately one cancels out the other and it either sucks ass or kicks it. This is not the case with Greece’s Nightfall. I wasn’t expecting what I got from […]

I’m usually a little leery of bands that use the Kult, ‘K’ in their band moniker or album title. However, I also trust almost anything FDA Records puts out, so here we are. Nekrodeus hails from Austria and Ruaß (Austrian for ‘Soot’, but also a slang term for ‘rabble’ or ‘scum’) is their third album […]

When Morgoth ceased to exist following the shitty Feel Sorry for the Fanatic there was a hole left in the Death Metal community. They did reunite, albeit without vocalist Marc Grewe for the pretty good Ungod, but it wasn’t the same. It’s ok though because Leper Colony was formed to fill that sizeable void. As […]

Never question my commitment to metal. I wrote this review while sitting at my hotel desk while on vacation. Sure, the weather was awful, but I was at Maryland Death Fest, babe. And while my right wrist was annoyingly adorned with all the wristbands one could imagine, I wanted to make sure I conveyed the […]

Sweden’s Celtic-themed Melodic Death Metal stalwarts Eluveitie (“the Helvetian” in Etruscan) have been spreading joyful violence since 2002. Theirs is a train I jumped on right away, after doing my daily search for new Metal when I discovered Ven their fantastic EP from 2004. “Uis Elveti,” and “Your Gaulish War” became anthems for me, and […]

Swedish death metal super group Lik (‘corpse’) has been churning out solid Dismember meets Wolverine Blues area Entombed since 2015s, Mass Funeral Evocation and 2018 Carnage. But despite a lineup that features folks from Katatonia, The Resistance, Face Down, Kaamos and such, I feel like they never took that jump into Entrails levels of genre […]