For 5 years and three previous albums now, Sweden’s Entrails, reactivated from the 90s has been arguably the forerunner and top band in the Swedish death metal revival. After two killer albums on FDA Rekotz/Dark Descent, they were elevated to the big leagues with 2013s Raging Death, on Metal Blade Records, and didn’t lose a […]
There are some United States Underground acts that can construct rituals of dark atmosphere. Look no further than Naas Alcameth founder of the void inducing beast that is Nightbringer who has created yet another side project of meticulous malebolgias of hellish landscapes which are presented for on the 2015 effort ,The Dreaming I. Naas Alcameth […]
To us mere mortals, ten years is a long time to wait between albums, yet I suppose if you’re a band of time-travelling space pirates, a decade is no time at all. That’s exactly how long it’s been since Sverd’s troupe of avant-garde lunatics unleashed their last magnificent opus, Sideshow Symphonies. So, what’s changed for […]
So this “extreme progressive metal’ movement is becoming I thing I see. The Great Discord, Black Crown Initiate, Ne Obliviscaris, France’s Maladie, and this long running Swedish act named after a subterranean lake in Antarctica are delivering metal that switches on a dime between prog metal, thrash, technical death metal, symphonic metal, power metal and everything else under the metal […]
I was not overly impressed with the 2012 debut Symbiosis, debut from this Florida tech death/deathcore act. There was nothing inherently wrong with it, it was just yet another faceless (no pun intended) modern tech death/deathcore record with little soul and all twiddle and breakdowns. The kind of stuff that Ive heard too many times […]
A slab of brute force melancholy from Poland, Oktor’s full-length debut after a string of mini-albums is a grandstand of kiloton riffs and lighter shading. They straddle the fence of sadness without getting too weepy for their own good and bring some of the heaviest guitar work I’ve heard in the death/doom across the eight […]
I’m not usually one to get to reeled in by hype. Even more so for Sweden’s Tribulation, who left me unimpressed in 2009 with a pretty standard Swedish death metal release, The Horror, then their death metal got all proggy and developed with the rather hyped The Formulas of Death, a transition that really didn’t […]
France’s Putrid Offal were one of France’s early death metal/grind bands with a number of obscure splits and demos between 1991 and 1994, but it’s taken them until 2015 to release a full length album, which essentially re-records most of the material from the bands 90s discography and adds a couple of covers for good measure. […]
Here’s an early 2015 release from Switzerland’s oddly named Dysrider ( formerly known as Trophallaxy, a symphonic power metal act) that has grown on me of late as it adds to the recent spat of various types of metal laced with epic symphonics and orchestration. It also recalls some of my favorite releases from the late 90s early […]
You may have noticed a small but notable crop of retro Swedeath bands progressing beyond their throwback stylings over the past few years. Necrovation was the first to make a significant paradigm shift with their 2012 self-titled full-length. Finland’s Vorum seemed poised to take the same leap after their 2013 debut, Poisoned Void, which felt […]
German grinders Mindflair have been around a helluva long-time. Their dirty dozen, blast beat carnage dates back to 1994. That’s a couple of lifetimes in grind years because only a few bands have managed to last for such a long period of time. My only experience with these guys to date was with the ’02 […]
Tucked away in the midst of Dark Descent’s higher profile 2015 releases is this little gem from reformed 90s Netherlands act Eternal Solstice, who released 3 solid albums in the mid 90s. Founder, Ramon Soeterbroek and early member Mischa Hak (also of Sempiternal Deathreign back then) has recruited a couple of young bucks (notably ex Funeral Whore drummer Tim Roeper) […]
I’m not super familiar with the UK crust/D beat scene or this Durham based act who have been around since since 2006 with a number of splits and EPs under their bullet belt. But if debut full length Usurping the Throne of Disease is any indication I need to rectify both issues right away. Coming across […]
Primoridum is comprised of former members of shredding death metallers Heavy Lies the Crown. If you’ve come for technical guitar permutations, forceful mid-tempo chunks, surprisingly melodic lead-work, ultra-clear bass licks and hyper-speed blast tactics, you’ll be in good hands. This is a solid slab of punishment from these Indiana upstarts. As ridiculously brutal as this […]
After classic Swedish death metal, my second favorite style is the burly, blasting, but measured, commanding death metal that’s a step below tech death, that the early Floridian (Monstrosity, Deicide, etc.), New York (Suffocation, Dying Fetus) and Polish scene (Behemoth, Vader, Hate, etc.) did so well, and was encapsulated perfectly last year by the likes of Abysmal […]
So if a member of Decrepit Birth (Chase Frasier) decided to go off and have some fun with a side project, take a guess what it would sound like? And what if he recruited the guitarist from Arkaik (Ivan Mungia)? If you guessed it would be a head-churning, riff-filled, 200 mph tech-death punch to the throat, […]
“And on their skins, as on the bark of trees, Have with my knife carved in Roman letters ‘Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.’ Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things As willingly as one would kill a fly; And nothing grieves me heartily indeed But that I cannot do ten […]
Industrial metal has had a tough time maintaining its integrity as a genre over the years. It entered the ‘90s pissed and oppressive, but left them skipping and holding hands with nu metal. Remember Pitchshifter? Their career was basically like a microcosm of the genre as a whole. A few experimental black metal acts like […]
Hailing from Quebec, this duo take their name from Siberia’s most desolate, northernmost city, and of course it’s home to a ….metal foundry. And while you’d expect doom considering the moniker and label, this isn’t the huge, lumbering, funeral doom, Evoken/Ahab sort of crawl the name and label imbue, as it’s much more varied. These […]
According to my research a “Lachrimatory” is a vase that stores cried tears. If my findings don’t clue you in on what kind of band Brazil’s Lachrimatory are then you are probably beyond my help. This is mournful, gothic death/doom that will have you reaching for the tissues and a shoulder to weep on. Originally […]
I love this band. One of the few current death metal acts that actually tries to assemble riffs and varying moods, death metal as a whole needs this band. Many have felt that their When Landscapes Bled Backwards record was their crowning achievement, and as fine an album as that was, I’m more prone to […]
So Canada’s Blast Head Records has thrown their hat into the retro Swedish death metal movement, and what an entry it is, digging up up Mörbid Vomit from the depths of Finland and compiling the bands 2012 demo and 2013’s self-released I Breathe Hell EP into one festering compilation. But you’d swear they were from the bowels of […]
This is some ferocious shit with an impressive resume. Come Back From The Dead features some of the violence mongers from Machetazo, Nashgul, Asedio, Cenotaph and many others. Their music centers on a sandblasted, scum-bathed crust/doom/thrash/death metal hybrid that calls to mind very early Entombed, Discharge, Autopsy, Venom, Dismember, Celtic Frost and Motörhead…throw all of […]
Based on the artwork and logo, I was fully expecting either unadulterated,, guttural Comatose/Unique Leader styled assaulted of tech death or a burly typically Belgian chug fest (Dehuman hails from Brussels), I braced for the impending assault. However, I was graced with a modern style of death metal that mixed a little of everything from Floridian death […]
Just when you think a band has thought of all the ways to use the word gor(e), along comes yet another new iteration that will surprise you, this one by way of the band Gorgatron and their late 2014 second album, Inner Supremacy. Now at first I thought it was a long lost member of […]
