The sludge scene is very active in France, with bands like Year of No Light and Dirge releasing surprisingly, relevant post-metal, and other bands like Carne and Overmars (RIP) churning out music that pays more debt to the genre’s roots in hardcore. Newly established band Mur, hailing from Paris, falls into this latter camp, and […]

After a 6 year layoff, death metal legends Incantation returned in 2012 rather triumphantly with Vanquish in Vengeance, one of the  more successful reunion/ comebacks of the last few years. But how would the band respond after the comeback/reunion glow and excitement that often fogs objective reactions after long layoffs has faded and the band […]

Uk supergroup Vallenfyre caused a minor ripple in the metal scene back in 2011 with their debut, A Fragile King, a pretty solid doom death outfit with nods to the bands primary members Gregor Mackintosh of Paradise Lost and Hamish Glencross of My Dying Bride and drummer Daniel Erlandsson. It was a solid effort but not great, especially considering the […]

I typically have loved and probably will love everything and anything that Dark Descent Records releases. Their 2014 thus far has been stunning with the likes of Corpsessed, Lie In Ruins, Lvcifyre Thantifaxath, and a Binah EP. However, here is the third album from blackened death thrashers Gravehill, the second for Dark Descent, and as with […]

Here are five 7 ” EPs from Atlanta based Boris Records and all three are rooted in denim and beer or Satan, being retro, old school thrash at their core with various elements of either death or black metal.   Up first is home grown thrashers,  Sadistic Ritual the label’s very own home town in Atlanta […]

Despite being a mid level Swedish super group of sorts featuring former and current members of the likes of Nominon, Just Before Dawn and Killaman, Puteraeon have never really registered with me. I have a vague recollection of their 2011 debut, The Esoteric Order, but I neither own it or really remember much about it, […]

Sagas, the 2008 second album from Germany’s Equilibrium remains a hall mark of epic folk/Viking metal,  but the follow up Rekreatur, fell a tad short and we’ve had to wait four years for a follow up. Granted, last years Waldschrein EP was a nice teaser, if only for the (3 years too late) cover of […]

Poland’s Vader is a death metal institution, long ago confirming their status as one of the genre’s true legends and most durable bands. Over 30 years have passed since the band’s formation and Piotr “Peter” Wiwczarek and co are showing no signs of weariness as they soldier on with their 10th full length album, entitled […]

Seven years. That’s how long it’s been since there has been a new Mayhem album. Seven…Years. But I have to say that it was worth the wait, because Esoteric Warfare is a really good album and a worthy addition to their legacy. Obviously, this isn’t the Mayhem that we know from De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas […]

Psygnosis is a band from France, the home to many things weird and dark in the world of metal. Those two words describe Psygnosis, but beyond that, Human Be[ing] is difficult to define. It’s a difficult listen, for it pulls from many influences and often doesn’t even attempt to blend them. For the most part, […]

A couple of years ago I stumbled across a reissue of a lost gem from the classic early 90’s death metal scene. The album in question was Inside the Unreal, the debut full-length and until now sole album from Italy’s Electrocution. Apparently it was well received back in the day but perhaps due to their […]

It’s been over twenty years since Massacre released their ground breaking album From Beyond, and just over that time period since Promise, which many of us would rather not even remember as part of their catalog. But here, I can safely say that Back From Beyond is NOT Promise, it is in fact a lesson […]

This review is two firsts for me- first review of Russia’s Haarbn Productions (a long running but un prolific label) and a band from the country of Moldova, Chordewa named after a Bengali form of Vampire. But it won’t be the last for either as Haarbn’s latest (Sawlegen, Sand Aura, Narjahanam), releases is solid and […]

As any metalhead will tell you, one of the eminently satisfying things about being a metalhead is discovering an excellent band that no one else has heard. For me, one of those bands was The Mire. Those who were fortunate enough to hear the band’s Volume II EP from 2010 were treated with a surprisingly […]

After years without a full-length release, NOLA’s most famous sludge sons Eyehategod are back with a new, self-titled full-length, and it’s as if they’ve never been away. You would have thought that these miscreants from New Orleans might have mellowed with age (even just slightly), but they still sound as pissed off as ever. Much […]

Sometimes a band has subtle nuanced influences in their chose sound. Sometimes bands are a little more obvious in wearing their influences on their sleeves, and sometimes as in the case of Sweden’s Souldrainer, they say ‘fuck you,  here’s the band we love and we are going to sound exactly like them’. For Souldrainer,  a band featuring […]

Regular readers of this site will know that I’ve never been a huge fan of Satan ‘n’ spikes or beer’ n’ denim styled Black/thrash, with only a couple of exceptions. Well, now there is another exception; the UK’s Cultfinder and their second EP, Hell’s Teeth. I can’t quite put my finger on why I’m enjoying this […]

Deathcore has been waning for a while now, and the only pre- new Whitechapel release that even remotely entertained me recently were Carnifex,  Thy Art Is Murder‘s Hate and Eternal Torture‘s dubstep tinged Lacerate the Global Enemy. But right before Whitechapel’s Our Endless War dropped I got this solid little EP from New Jersey’s Lorna Shore, who […]

The Swiss are putting themselves back on the metal map early in 2014 with the likes of Tryptikon, Schammasch, Near Death Condition and Impure Wilhemina and this, the rather impressive debut of progressive sludge/post rock from Herod. They Were None is above all things heavy as shit.  And while tangibly culling from obvious contemporaries like Neurosis, Isis, The […]

Malaysian grinders Damokis play an odd, distortion filled style of mid-paced grind.  With a few splits and an EP under their belt, Grinding Mother Whore is their debut album, and it’s an odd genre-bender that might grab some, but didn’t really do anything for me. Damokis play a slower, Insect Warfare-ish type of grind, with […]

In 1991 Wild Rags Records released the debut album from Los Angeles, California, grind/punk act Nausea.  I bought it on cassette and cd.  The album is essential grind and we all know that guitarist/singer, Oscar Garcia, had already sang on one of the greatest grindcore albums of all time, World Downfall, from Terrorizer, in 1989.  […]

Despite being around since 1998 and having three fairly obscure releases under their belt, I’m pretty confident in stating that I doubt The Netherlands’ Winter of Sin was on many folks radars for the that time and those releases. Heck, I had never heard of them until now, and I’m sure a lot more folks will be […]

Whenever in need of a new power metal fix, Sabaton has been my go-to band ever since I’ve been high and addicted on Pervitin and their 2008 standout album The Art of War. The hot frying pan of hot lead and tracer rounds is dripping of tasty cheese with the slightly perverted combination of perfectly […]

Lately it seems like the metal scene has fallen into a time warp twenty years deep. Carcass has been touring, At the Gates and Godflesh are both working on new albums, Swedeath is branching out, and I keep seeing Emperor everywhere I look. The lone Swede of Ormgård was ahead of the curve on that […]

California’s Deathevokation released The Chalice of Ages, back in 2007. It has been finally repressed and comes with a bonus second disc containing their infamous 2005 Blood demo, their split eps (with Graveyard and Lie In Ruins) and some live songs. All of their music ever recorded is on here and I have to say when I […]