Every few years a album comes along that changes the game in tech death. Going back to this band’s namesake with Gorgut’s Obscura, Death’s seminal latter output, Origin, Atheist, Cynic, Necrophagist, Theory In Practice’s Colonizing the Sun, the Canadian scene, Gorod and others. And here is another one, in Obscura’s fourth effort Akróasis. These Germans are far from new comers and certainly […]
Though coming up around the same time as bands like Born of Osiris, Periphery, Within the Ruins, The Contortionist, Veil of Maya, The Faceless and many other ‘Sumerian-core’ styled bands, Minnesota’s After the Burial stood out on their second album Rareform, (“The Fractal Effect” is still a damn cool song). But as with the genre as […]
Festering, Norwegian rot is the slophouse gruel served from four-piece skullfuckers The Sickening. The overall attack is a slaughterhouse explosion with cattle guts, pig snouts and delectable innards flying in every direction. Catchy, thrash metal viruses escape from the contamination ward while sloppy, sluggard death metal chug is laid to fecal waste thanks to guttural […]
It seems as of late, that be it fate or just coincidence, I seem be listening to quite a few EP’s and with this, Tales of the Ripper the new demo from Ripping Death, adds to my words of wisdom here at Teeth of the Divine. Ripping Death, consists of members from Italy and Spain, […]
I got to Savannah, Georgia’s Niche just a little bit late because if I was quicker on the draw this would have easily been one of my favorite records of 2015. On Kylesa’s respectable Retro Futurist label, the quartet is accomplished musicians with striking chops, superb songwriting and soaring harmonies that suck you in like […]
So not only do we have a release from the label mecca of adjective/noun named brutal death metal, Comatose Music, we have the second release from the band who features the owner of said label, Steve Green (also in Lust of Decay)who plays guitars and does vocals here. So if you STILL don’t now what to expect here on […]
As if you really needed another reason to check out Dark Descent’s sub-label, Unspeakable Axe, here comes Kingsport, Tennessee’s Manic Scum, with their banger of an EP, Acidic Remains, showcasing an authentic take on late `80’s/early `90’s old-school death metal. From what I can tell, Acidic Remains was originally self-released back in 2014 in a […]
There is nothing wrong with the debut album from France’s TankrusT, nothing at all. There’s also nothing particularly striking about it either. They hail from France and seem to come from the ashes of some underground bands called SIC, One Shot, and Filet o’fish fuckin (yup), and they play a form of modern, tight, chunky, and almost Danish sounding […]
I’m not familiar with San Francisco’s Insanity. They were apparently one of the early legendary and influential US death/thrash bands in the mid to late 80s, but didn’t release an album until 1994’s Death After Death. So they missed the death metal explosion and peak of the early 90s, which I imagine why it was lost in […]
It’s like label boss Kunal and his magnificent imprint Transcending Obscurity has a never-ending well of awesome artists to draw from. Next in a long storybook of metal gems come the Indian-founded, aggressive, symphonic black metal band Diabolus Arcanium and their debut LP, Path of Ascension. Truth be told, I’m probably the wrong guy for […]
When initially listening to San Jose’s Spinebreaker, I’m at first reminded of the now defunct Short lived Skinfather and their 2014 release, None Will Mourn; both California bands, both young ‘kids’ playing a form of mid range, hardcore tinged Dismember/ Swedish death metal , and both releases are vinyl only. Of course that;s a broad generalization, as Spinebreaker […]
Much like death metal’s brutality arms race in the ‘90s, there now seems to be one to become the most inhuman. Spain’s Altarage is one of the latest contenders in this far-flung arena. Their MMXV demo from last March was quickly picked up and released on cassette by Sol y Nieve and 7” by Iron […]
“Never judge a book by its cover”. You’d think I would have learned my lesson by now. When I got Nine Plagues in the mail, with a logo that looks like something I would have drawn on my 9th grade English folder, I set my expectation pretty low. However, as it turns out that the […]
Deformatory is a band that caught my eye a few years ago, as their debut album, In the Wake of Pestilence, was a must-buy brutal death album the minute I heard it. For the first LP in a band’s career, that one far exceeded expectations. So when I heard that they were coming out with […]
Spain is known for a lot of things; its history, its culture, its cuisine and even to some extent it has a respectable death and black metal scene. But I’m not sure sunny Spain is the country people thing of when it comes to despondent, depressive doom/death metal. Well, once again Canada’s Hypnotic Dirge (arguably […]
As a longtime fan of these digitized, Maryland filth-grinders, I’m used to Agoraphobic Nosebleed slowing down with big, tumbling dirge riffs and back breaking weight. They’ve showcased the tactic as early as The Poacher Diaries (split with Converge) and even back in the Honky Reduction days Scott Hull had a knack for busting his knuckles […]
Since transforming into a fully orchestral, symphonic death metal band with 2011 Agony (my very top album of that year), the band has been pretty divisive with an either love them or hate them approach. Some claim the band is soulless, forgetful tech death with no riffs, simply window dressed with symphonics. Others, myself included […]
When listening to the debut from Greece’s Caelestia I’m reminded of a release I covered earlier this year; Dysrider’s Bury the Omen . Big, polished, modern take on melodic death metal, both using operatic female and gruff male vocals and both heavy on the synths and orchestration. Where Caelestia add something is a more Gothic metal vibe with […]
Londoners HAG work up a twitchy, Ritalin necessitating din on their debut full-length Fear of Man. Though I knew virtually nothing of the trio going into this review, it’s without question that I came out as a fan. The highly melodic, walls n’ waves of My Bloody Valentine-esque guitar squalor that runs lockstep with the […]
I can’t say I’m overly familiar with the Lithuanian blackened doom/sludge scene, but the debut, Dugne (seabed? bottom of the sea?) from Deprivacija certainly holds some promise if the rest of the scene is as competent. 6 songs, 55 minutes, a gritty, feedback laden, gravelly guitar tone and delivery despondent slower, crawling riffs and pained raspy screams will give […]
An interesting thing has happened in extreme metal over the last twenty or so years. As a genre, death metal once looked like it was limitless- not necessarily in terms of speed, technicality or the abstract idea of “brutality” but regarding where the style could go creatively. The aforementioned traits no doubt were going to […]
Suppressive Fire is a new, slightly blackened 3 piece death/thrash metal band from North Carolina, and while I’ve never been a huge fan of black/thrash, Suppressive Fire lean a little more to the thrash side and their war laden themes and imagery had me more intrigued than I usually would be with something this style. With […]
The multi-instrumentalist Kris Force and her spacey juggernaut, vapor trail institution Amber Asylum has over 20 years in the music world and stints on known labels such as Relapse, Neurot and Profound Lore for a reason. Never once in the group’s career have they compromised their vision. While the “band’s” line-up is often changing, […]
Recalling the glory years of Scandinavian 90s melodic death metal, Finland’s Suotana and their debut album hearken back to an era of early Children of Bodom, Norther, Lothlorien, Ensiferum, Kalmah and such. Big, epic, keyboard drenched, catchy, bouncy slightly blackened melodic death metal is the order of the day, and while there is nary a […]
When Satan emerged from the dead with their exceptional comeback album Life Sentence in 2013, one of the early pioneers of the NWOBHM triumphed emphatically, bringing their old school retro formula into the modern era with spectacular results. While I’m sure long-time fans were particularly enthralled, I was surprised by the impact it had on […]