So all we need now in 2015 is a release from Anathema, and have it return to the Crestfallen/Serenades sound and all will be right with the world, right? In fairness, while Paradise Lost, one third of the seminal UK doom triumvirate received much deserved praise for The Plague Within, and rightfully lauded for a ‘return’ to form, […]
I am not a hater of Ghost. I happen to love their prior albums, actually. A lot of people jumped on the hateorade train thinking that Ghost were just an elaborate hoax of a band. I’m not one of those. I mean, how can a classic metalhead slag a band that has influences ranging from Mercyful Fate and Blue […]
Panzerkruezer’s Aurora deliver us crushing war inspired death metal ala Bolt Thrower, Just Before Dawn, or Hail of Bullets. Based on the cover art alone there isn’t much question that, surprise, the drapes match the carpet. The three piece are based in Dresden, Germany. Dresden is infamous for having been leveled after what is likely […]
Atmospheric black metal is perfectly fine as a descriptor, but what it should really be called is headphones black metal. Strap on a pair of your best reality-blockers, close your eyes, and get lost in a blizzard of sound and fury. Mare Cognitum released a perfect experience with Phobos Monolith, my #1 pick for 2014. […]
With the shrapnel of a crushing drum beat kicking off the record and then immediately veering off the side of a mountain into a piercing, minor key guitar drone that lasts for nearly 45 breathless seconds (all music is usurped by said drone), it’s beyond a shadow of a doubt that California quintet Fell to […]
Not content with dropping the reissue of debut, Winterborn on us earlier this year, former Before the Dawn and Black Sun Aeon founder Tuomas Saukkonen is already dropping his new project’s second album on us to fuck up 2015 year end lists everywhere. Whereas the template of the music is still heavily rooted in his past along […]
Krisiun, always the bridesmaid, never the bride…that’s too bad really, because the truth of the matter is that this trio of brothers can put out some terrifically fast, tight, and brutal material that, when done right, can clearly out shine many of the top tier death metal bands that Krisiun often get overlooked for. Most […]
Any fan of hardcore knows the name All Out War, but you can be forgiven if you haven’t heard their name in a while. After belting out 3 straight LPs from 2003-2010, the band has been relatively silent since then. Well the wait is over, as nearly the whole lineup from 1998’s For Those Who […]
In continuing with my presenting different horizons to you, our loyal readers, I present to you Salem’s Lott. At first glance if you see the pictures of the band you may be….”WTF?!?….but if you went just off the music alone without seeing them you may say…okay…not too bad. So with that being said, remember these […]
The hallucinatory, Kyuss-ian chords that entrance “Destroyer Television,” the EP opener of Phoenix, Arizona doom lords Horse Head and their debut release The Missionary may be one of the all-time great red herrings. Aw, what a gracious melody…so inviting, relaxing and warm that it’s like good sex meets a fifth of whiskey…and then planes […]
I find many unjust situations bordering on criminal acts. Here are some examples. The fact that I have been playing the Mega Millions for close to 2 decades and I have only won, maybe 40 bucks over this course. Another one that comes to mind is my damn Dallas Cowboys have only won 2 […]
The Beginning of Times and Circle were both solid Amorphis albums, each with a few memorable standout tracks, yet I haven’t returned to them often. Instead, when I’ve been in the mood for some of the Finns’ melancholic majesty, I’ve chosen Skyforger, which I think is the quintessential album for the band’s now-lengthy third era (by my classification, anyway; era 1 […]
“Somnambulant” is the song on this album that captures most what I feel Anopheli was trying to convey, musically, on this album. A lone bass plucks away a somber melody that wants nothing to do with the light of day. An accompanying drum rhythm kicks in with some cello harmony following suit; this introduction of […]
A sideways glance at the save-some-room-on-your-plate-for-gravy artwork and scraggly logo adorning Philadelphia’s newest dirty needle slingin’ export Pissgrave might lead one to assume that they’re looking at one of the innumerable third-tier groups that sit forever unsold clogging up the CD racks at metal fests. A second look reveals the Profound Lore logo tucked away […]
As bands like Funeral, Thergothon, and Skepticism took doom metal to its ultimate depressive conclusion in the mid ‘90s, the funeral doom sub-subgenre was born. Finland’s Shape of Despair formed around that time under the name Raven, but didn’t release their debut, Shades of…, until 2000. By this time, Funeral had moved on to something […]
Denmark never has a shortage of quality bands and Crocell return with their fourth long player, in their relatively short existence. I had never heard of them until last year when Deepsend Records label owner, Graham recommended them to me. I picked up their discography from him and have been a happy camper ever since. […]
Well, I’ll be damned…I didn’t have high hopes for High Testament, the sophomore album from Ft. Worth, TX’s self-described “heavy-psych power trio”, Fogg. Unfair of me, to say the least, being that I had never heard them or of them before, learning only minutes before pushing the play button, that they were a fuzzy, […]
New to me, Elffor is the long running side project of a Spaniard by the name of Eöl, who also plays keyboardist in Numen and Suffering Dawn. He has been releasing albums since 1998, and this expansive 2 disc compilation from South Korea’s Fallen Angels Productions covers all 6 albums and throws in a couple of […]
This is an interesting release. Way back in the late 1990s, black metal was in a sort of flux; many of the pioneering bands feeling their original raison d’être were no longer there for whatever reason. You started to see established bands like Dodheimsgard, Mayhem, and Satyricon moving on from their original pagan/naturalistic themes, to […]
I remember Prion from hearing their last full length, Impressions, way back in 2008. It was a solid death metal album, and since then these guys had kind of fallen off my radar; though we had to wait seven years for another album, it was worth the wait for this one. Boasting the same original […]
“SLAYERRRRRRRR!!!!” “PLAY SOME FUCKIN’ SLAYERRRRRRRRR!!!!!!” You hear it at every show you go to, it seems. There’s always that one or maybe two douchebags that scream at the band on stage to play some “fuckin’ Slayer, man”. I feel it’s more than likely one of the prime reasons why Slayer gets a mostly bad rep […]
Ahhh good ‘ole Middletown, NY. Growing up, my family and I would always pass Middletown, NY, on our way to The Catskills, in upstate NY. I remember this rest stop we would always get breakfast, memories…. This is where Morpheus Descends hail from. They added the Descends to the name in ’92. The band […]
I learned a long time ago that taking labels like “occult heavy metal” seriously missed the point. Except for the hood and robe crowd putting the music second to their image and dogma, countless bands have enjoyed great success embracing the supernatural imagery so often associated with metal without ever taking themselves too seriously. A […]
I kinda dug, Disgust, the 2012 debut from Indiana’s Yellowtooth, founded and fronted by Peter Clemens who has served in more death metal bands like Invasion (an underrated US band playing Stockholm styled death metal before it was vogue) and Nocturnal Torment. It was a groovy, crusty slab of southern drenched death/doom/stoner metal, and the follow […]
Having Dysentery rules! Said no one ever… Well, that is unless you’re talking about owning the new album from the aptly named slam death quartet from Massachusetts. This is their third full length album, and any fan of the slam death genre (one of my favorites), has no doubt heard of them. If not, then […]
