I liked a few numetal bands. There, I said it. I once read an interview with Gene Hoglan where he indicated, very strongly, that we are lucky to live in an age where even the shitty metal acts are better than much of the dross he (and, as I am around his age, I) was […]
There was a time in the late 90s and early 00s where England’s Cradle of Filth were one of my very favorite bands, and whether you liked it or not, they were legitimate superstars in extreme metal. I enjoyed 2000s Midian, 2003’s Damnation and A Day, and really liked 2004’s Nymphetamine, but I never really loved […]
Even for well-seasoned metalheads, grindcore is a tough pill to swallow. It takes some very skilled manufacturers to produce grind that can walk the tightrope between borderline white noise extremity and a whiff of actual songcraft and something for listeners to latch onto. Personally my tolerance for grind has lessened in recent years, mostly due […]
I think most death heads will agree that there are a few immensely satisfying experiences when it comes to death metal; 1) a random new find that kicks ass and 2) that moment when death metal is done perfectly, achieving the immaculate balance of speed, power and brutality. Well, on their second album Italy’s new to me acts, Inverted […]
Doom blues don’t get any better than the church crushing abandon of Goatsnake. ¾ of the original line-up return sans bassist Guy Pinhas (replaced by Scott Renner), and the boys haven’t lost a step. Jesus Christ, Greg Anderson’s riffs make me want to get down on my knees and say the lord’s prayer, vocalist Pete […]
Okay, lets see what we have here. If you are familiar with former Angelcorpse guitarist Gene Palubicki in the slightest, you know he’s a dude that does his thing and does it well, regardless of what band moniker he’s currently doing business under; and Blasphemic Cruelty is no different. What we have is about 20 minutes of […]
Dissident Clone’s State of Dysphoria EP makes for an entertaining albeit quick listen at a combined running time of almost eleven minutes. This Minnesota based two-piece combines a lot of different elements from death/grind/groove/crust and I think those are just the main ones that I can hear. The opening track “Waiting to Collapse” creates an […]
A long-standing pillar of sonic strength and consistency, High on Fire has built a body of work that demands your fucking respect, even if the album peaks have slightly varied along the way. The dependable quality of High on Fire’s music is increasingly rare to find in bands that remain active over such a lengthy […]
I have always been a death metal fan, from the moment I first heard it all them years ago – the textures, the percussiveness, the shear brutality. But I have been very slow and finicky about black metal. I was never taken in by the undergrounder-than-thou shit, which I found to have the same amount […]
Hate, the 2012 second album from these Aussie deathcore mongers, was a solid slab of techy modern deathcore/death metal, that grew on me a little bit as time wore on. And now, three years later it appears the hopes of deathcore have been but on TAIM and Holy War as the genre seems to be in a […]
Virginian, dual axe demons Valkyrie are back with this phenom of an album, their 3rd full-length to date and first for Relapse. I make no bones or excuses about loving these guys to death. I’ve seen them live thrice and they deliver more signed n’ sealed explosives than the Unabomber did in his heyday. Guitar […]
Downfall of Nur, both the band name and this album, are inspired in full by the Nuragic civilization that existed on the island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean from the middle Bronze age, until its dissolution in the early Iron age. The arc of this civilization is represented across the five lengthy tracks. Immediately I’m […]
For being a band in it’s infant stages of existence, Sweden’s Monolord certainly carries with it an air of age. I am only vaguely familiar with their previous release, Empress Rising, but they seem to convey a very agile & stable blend of doom with accents of the whole Palm Desert scene and an almost […]
Palinopsia are unsigned band from US, Vermont specifically, and they bring their take of doom to the metal table with this EP release. They describe their music has blackened doom sludge and that is exactly what you are getting. The black primarily in the vocals with some death vocals scattered thru the songs and the […]
Hailing from Ireland Malthusian’s Below the Hengiform is their debut EP released by Invictus Productions. Ireland has definitely been producing some extreme metal acts in recent years with artists like Primordial, Altar of Plagues (whose members are now in Malthusian) and Abaddon Incarnate to name a few. In listening to Malthusian’s first demo MMXIII it’s […]
The UK is notorious for killer crusty sludge/doom and 9 out of 10 times what you’re going to hear is top-notch. Let’s face it, having the ultimate doom n’ gloom band Black Sabbath in the country’s history gives them an edge on the competition. Ghold is following in those footsteps without guitar; a drum n’ […]
Christ…… Just when I think I literally cannot hear anything fresh new and different in metal, along comes Maladie. This 9-person German collective is comprised of folks from various mid-level German Death metal acts like Tombthroat, Deadborn and Spheron, as well as Belgian post-rockers We All Die (Laughing). That totals up to 3 Guitarists, 2 vocalists, a saxophone player and […]
I think most metal/punk folks who have spent time kicking around the underground can agree that splits and compilations are a wholesome part of our musical diet. My collection is full of them, and I have to say that many of them introduced me to multiple badass bands all in one fell swoop. To support […]
Where were you the first time you heard death metal/grind? I was at work, listening to tapes I made of a local radio show that played punk/hardcore and a mix of reggae, rap, underground metal and the odd whatever else. They trotted things out in blocks – now bands that would eventually become Seattle grunge, […]
I really enjoyed Bite Your Head Off, the 2012 debut album from Australia’s King Parrot. It was a fun and rollicking blast which hybridized grind, thrash and punk into a fresh and unique sound, spiked with a refreshing sense of humor. Apparently a lot of other folks enjoyed it as well judging by the rising […]
I’m having a hard time coming to grips with the second album from Finland’s Oceanwake, Sunless. Not that I don’t like it or anything, it’s just its sort of in stylistic limbo between traditional melancholic lumbering Finnish doom metal and a more Post Metal ebb akin to country mates Callisto or fellow Europeans like Desert Beneath […]
You never know what you’re going to get from Finland’s Svart Records. I suppose you could say that their staple genre is doom, but within that it could either be the stoner/doom of bands like Domovoyd, Acid King, and Pombagira, the death/doom of Vainaja, Kuolemanlaakso, and Heavydeath, Essenz’s patented black/doom, or the more progressive/psychedelic approach […]
I can close my eyes and envision being in Aokigahara, A forest in Japan at the northwest base of Mount Fuji that is known as a popular place for suicides. The forest apparently has a historic association with Demons. Enter Osmose Production Record artists Cohol and their second album Rigen. Describing themselves as ‘Blackened Crystal Death’, […]
Don’t always trust tags that someone pulls out of their ass; always listen and decide for yourself. The labelling of “post-rock/blackened hardcore” for Vienna auteurs of execution, Seagrave and the debut album Stabwound doesn’t even begin to do justice. Post-rock always makes me think of something gorgeous, dreamy, hypnotic, etc. Sure, the guitar work on […]
AAaahh Overkill, to me they are the foundation of all my thrash dreams, hopes and wants. They started for me with their 2nd album Taking Over and I was hooked, the music, the anger, the dark humor and just the overall sonics that they sent to through my speakers. I say sonics because when I […]