I don’t claim to be any sort of Slam aficionado or expert, but a few releases have slammed the shit out of me recently; Bloodscribe’s Prologue to the Apocalypse, Abominable Putritidy‘s The Anomalies of Artificial Origin reissue, Dysentry’s Fragments, Whoretopsy’s, Never Tear Us Apart,  Cumbeast’s eclectic Groovy Massacre, and this, the fourth album from Norwegian stalwarts, Kraanium. Much like […]

Falsifier and Born Hanged, the first two EPs from this UK downtempo/deathcore act have become the Sermon of Mockery among deathcore fans, being the holy grail of deathcore collectors  and reaching stupid prices. So Black Tongue have parlayed that and their prior Infant Annihilator infamy (whose releases also go for high prices) into a deal with […]

“Heirless” is the perfect intro for this album. Equal parts foreboding, dissonant, and soothsaying; it encapsulates what is about to occur during the play through of Monarchy; Rivers of Nihil’s second album. On this sophmore release, this Reading, PA band have expanded upon the ability to tell a story, craft a memorably technical song, and […]

  If you enjoy ultra-brutal death metal, played with extra hot sauce from good ‘ole Houston, Texas, well than look no further than Desecrate the Faith.  I see the band being labeled in the deathcore territory.  That’s B.S.  I mean I do enjoy deathcore, but this is slam death metal and yes, there are differences. […]

There is something to be said about family members working together cohesively in heavy metal history that in starting this review of Oakland’s Dimesland is important to point out.  You have The Cavaleras, The Van Halens, The Hoffmans, Vitek and Vogg, Dimebag and Vinnie Paul and I am probably forgetting a lot of others but […]

I had zero expectations for this album. Considering the label’s recent out put, that cover, the moniker and album title that reads as ‘mediocrity’ at a glance. However, with this sophomore effort, these Swiss vets (who have toiled in DarkRise since 2003) have actually , along with Epsilon’s Zu Richten and Tomb of Finland‘s Below the Green, are bringing a […]

You’d never guess by taking a glance at the beautiful, landscape beset by sunset album cover that the UK’s William English is a shit rollin’, mud wallowing sludge hybrid band of the highest caliber.  Formed by three ex-members of the criminally overlooked A Horse Called War, this crush n’ kill quintet get on your back […]

It is hard to believe that it has been eighteen years since the Hate Eternal/Alas demo was released. Hate Eternal being a blistering technical death metal band and Alas being more of a melodic doom project. Both of these projects showing the song writing versatility of Erik Rutan who had been in Morbid Angel and […]

Ok, this one threw me for a loop. I have a pretty limited exposure to Supuration; my only real point of reference was their 1993 oddball of an album, The Cube; and then bits and pieces of the various Supuration/S.U.P. permutations. I was aware of their trajectory following that path that so many innovative bands […]

So South Korea’s Fallen Angel’s productions has been around since 2010, and based on my recent package from them, they have a pretty distinct niche for international, simple, middle ground, lo fi black metal (Pest, Elffor, Dark Plague, Kvalvaag, Skoll, Krigerewolf, Catacumba) and even some home grown nihilism (Taekaury), but one of the bands more recent releases, […]

Primitive Man’s latest ep is an oppressive, aggressive slab o’ sludge…and a bit of grind…fine, slip in some crust parts too.  It’s an anthropomorphic equivalent to the imposing brutalist style housing project high rise that populate the part of town ,as whispered of by parents, “you don’t want your car to breakdown in”.  Zooming in […]

I remember there was once a time when I used to walk to record stores and take a chance on a band solely based on the album artwork. In starting this review I must say I was very much drawn into the cover art of New Jersey grinders Organ Dealer prior to checking them out much […]

You have to hand it to Blast Head Records, they certainly haven’t locked into a singular style for their releases and bands. They got pretty well most genres covered from brutal death metal (Hate Division, Nebulous), epic black metal (Valdrin, Eternium), grindcore (Nervous Impulse) and even Swedish death metal (Morbid Vomit). They also like to […]

Creative center, guitarist and vocalist of veteran US stoner/doom act Starchild, Richard Bennett, scores a rousing success with his latest project, Stars That Move. Their self-titled debut from Stone Groove Records finds Bennett relinquishing the lead vocal duties to his wife Elisa Maria and adopting a trio format with her and Frank Sikes. It’s an […]

I usually dismiss the press sheet that comes with a promo out of hand; I don’t need no PR dweeb filling my brain with their hyperbole, before I create my own hyperbole to fill all of yours with. But for once, the press sheet describing Black Queen as “Witch Metal” is pretty apropos. Even the […]

Technical death metal is almost a term that strikes immediate disappointment in my heart these days. Given the complete saturation of this sub-genre, along with the contemporary tendency to employ an over-produced sound, replete with Pro-Tools nuances, and favouring mechanical instrumental bravado over craftsmanship of a well-written piece of music, it is something I now […]

Ok, ok, Dark Descent Records…stop it, really.  Mr. Matt Calvert, truly over the last 2 years, especially, is making other labels squirm in their chairs.  While obviously having a penchant for the awesome Finnish scene, he signs bands from a variety of extreme genres and goddammit he gets it right every effin time!!!  With the […]

Anymore, I do my damndest to either keep to a minimum or wholly eliminate the “I” persona from reviews when I can.  This works out most of the time, but whenever you are reviewing a band that you have maintained a long-time listening relationship with…well, it gets pretty fuckin’ tough.  Winnipeg’s KEN Mode is always […]

Fuck the Facts is, right off the bat, just the best band name ever. The end. Musically, the band dwells in a grindcore geography, but is not of a grindcore geography. They are more akin to Today is the Day than Pig Destroyer or Napalm Death, and the point of each song is not to […]

OK Mighty Music, THIS is more like it!!!!!!!!!! After a slew of awful rock, Mighty Music has released something that I more expect from the label. Some chunky, beefy European death metal by way of Austria’s Epsilon (formerly known as Side Y)and their second full length album. These guys are new to me, but I like what […]

A “Lychgate” is a gateway covered with a roof found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style churchyard and also a very entertaining ritualistic styled avant-garde black doom metal group from The UK.  Lychgate takes a much different approach to song composition and each track on “An Antidote for a Glass Pill” is […]

It’s always exciting when a curiously undiscovered gem proceeds to pound your ears in all the right ways and assert itself as a genuine force you should have been listening too much earlier. Jamming out over the past decade in relative obscurity, Virginian bruisers King Giant are one such untapped gem returning to smack some […]

I’ve been rather enjoying this current run of lighter, melodic, sometimes folky, sometimes ‘Cascadian’, sometimes ‘post’, artsy black metal influenced arguably started by and influenced by the likes of Wolves in the Throne Room, Altar of Plagues, Deafheaven, Alcest and Agalloch a few years back. Recently, the likes of Vattnet Viskar, Ghost Bath, Downfall of Nur,  Alda, Soar, Wiegedood, […]

The second album from English groove doom heavies Prophets of Saturn practically screams, “Listen to me while high as possible, please!”  The four tracks that comprise the weedy, peer pressuring Retronauts are overloaded with groove, drippy psyche-wah solos, sleepy monotone vocals and a rhythm section that is fresh out of high school.  In terms of […]

Any band with 20+ years to its name is bound to evolve, but Fear Factory has never gone through massive upgrades to their OS (band members though, different story). Soul of a New Machine was industrial death metal in its molten form, and Demanufacture refined it into cold blue steel. Remanufacture sent it through the crusher and the chop-shop. […]