2014 certainly won’t be remembered as a banner year for the most deathly of doom metal. Not that the most despondent of metal’s subgenres have ever been highly adored and prolific, but they seem especially forgotten by all this year. That makes this late entry courtesy of Code666 Records all the more welcome, and surprising. […]
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, Canada has a killer, underrated folk viking metal scene; Battlesoul, Vesperia , Valknacht, Will of the Ancients, Valfreya, Trollwar, Nordheim, Battlesoul, and of course Blackguard are all fine acts to rival their Finnish peers. Well, poised to make a move to the top of the scene is Toronto’s Crimson Shadows […]
In 1998 the Dutch death/doom outfit known as Asphyx disbanded for a short period of time and put out an album under the new name of Soulburn, with a crushing album – Feeding on Angels. Wannes Gubbles on bass/vocals, Eric Daniels providing the ultra heavy guitar crunch and Bob Bagchus rounding out the punishing drums. […]
Let’s face facts, chances are if you’re a death metal nut at least one major band that dragged you kicking and screaming into the style’s dungeon of torture is from Florida. I know this site is full of haunted souls with more knowledge than myself, so I’m going to spare you the history lesson. The […]
Not to be confused with Colorado’s tech death Execration or the many other Execrations, Norway’s Execration are an altogether different beast. Sounding very similar to country mates Obliteration, Execration play a murky, psychedelic and heavily Autopsy influenced style of death metal (also, think a nastier, dirtier version of Morbus Chron) that isn’t a quick, easy listen, but […]
Unendlich is the project of Baltimore-based musician Michael Connors, whose debut Monarch of the Damned might come off as a tad ambitious, but also surprisingly professional. Its variety is in line with, say, the recent Abazagorath offering, though Connors does limit himself a bit more within the black metal framework. Haunting acoustics, driving percussion and […]
Time To Die is Electric Wizard’s eighth proper full length in a little over two decades. Reading some of the press releases, interviews, and reviews for this album leading up to its release (and afterwards), I was anticipating an album that would be wholly abrasive and pissed off. I misunderstood because this album isn’t so […]
Me And John Wilkes Booth go back a long time. It was back in the spring of 1865 that I used to hide him up in my attic after that little assassination affair. Seriously though, I’ve been a fan of Long Island’s hard rockin’, hard drinkin’ noisemakers for quite some time now. The band’s debut […]
I have a dream. A dream that it’s 1985. Vladimir Putin decapitates Mikhail Gorbechev with a halberd while riding a chariot pulled by two bears which proceed to fight each other to eat the former leaders corpse on state controlled television. He declares himself the new totalitarian leader over Russia. The Putinator formally dedicates the […]
So both former Cradle of Filth member Paul Allender and lone remaining Cradle of Filth member Dani Filth released their own side project/new bands in 2014. Allender had White Empress, a strange symphonic, female fronted mash up and Dani had Devilment. Devilment features new-ish Man Must Die bassist (and now Cradle of Filth bassist) Daniel Firth, and […]
Generation of Vipers’ Howl and Filth was, in my opinion, one of the top records from 2011. So it was with bated breath that I waited for the follow up, which arrived in October 2014 in the form of Coffin Wisdom. Follow-ups to favorite albums are dangerous, because bands run the risk of letting fans […]
One of the things that makes black metal so interesting as a genre is it unique ability to capture the essence of a particular place and use the listeners imagination to take them there. Winterfylleth is a band that has always made good use of their English surroundings for inspiration and do so again on […]
I haven’t received any promos from Germany’s’ Bastardized Recordings in years, going back to the likes of Six Reasons to Kill, Deadsoil, Soulgate’s Dawn and Feast for the Crows metalcore days of the mid 00s. But they have been fairly busy since then, if not as productive, including the discography from homeland death metal act […]
The cover art attracted me to this album; a man hung from his neck holding a harp while vultures anxiously await a go at his bones. Pretty cool shit. Sometimes you can get burnt going in on the cover art theory alone, but that’s not the case here. Hombre Malo is a quartet of bad […]
After the success of Death, notably Leprosy and Spiritual Healing, a number of European clones also became successful in the early ’90s. England had Cancer, Germany had Morgoth, The Netherlands had Pestilence and Asphyx, but France’s scene lagged behind a bit comparatively speaking, really only offering Massacra, Loudblast and Agressor until Mercyless entered the fray in pretty spectacular fashion in […]
In their relatively short existence, Germany’s Revel in Flesh have returned with their third album in 3 years. Revel in Flesh play a brutal form of old school death metal rooted in the late 80’s Swedish death metal scene, as well as Bolt Thrower-ish moments of rumbling and teutonic heaviness. Deathevokation from 2012 and Manifested […]
While everyone goes nuts for Electric Wizard’s painfully pedestrian Time to Die, I myself will clutch tightly the hearty entrails of NYC’s Blood Farmers, and their third horror doom masterpiece, Headless Eyes. The trio hasn’t lost a step since they proudly stalked the halls of legendary riff label Hellhound Records back in the 90s. If […]
When it comes to progressive metal/rock I’m usually pretty careful with my selections. As much as I enjoy the stunning musicianship and fluid yet unpredictable arrangements, too often prog sacrifices actual songcraft by over indulging, or is simply too bombastic or cheesy for my tastes. Fortunately when the genre hits the spot it can also […]
“I see behemoth coming/I see a serpent coming/I see a beast is coming/I see a deadly heat is coming” –”There Is A Serpent Coming” Being as this is the first song to contain vocals on an Earth record since Pentastar: In The Style of Demons, it’s very appropriate and telling. One could use any of […]
The whole female fronted doom/occult rock format has reached saturation point in recent years, with it becoming more and more difficult to isolate the more credible bands with some actual decent songwriting talent amidst the scores of pretenders. Birmingham’s Alunah have been kicking around on the doom scene since 2008, but up until now have […]
After listening to Harbinger, I am kicking myself for not having listened to Mutilation Rites earlier. Apparently this is their second full-length. From what I can gather of their previous work, Harbinger seems to represent a significant step in a more caustic, less melodic direction in the vein of many a band nowadays purveying in […]
Though around long before, since 2005’s The Gathering Wilderness Ireland’s Primordial has accomplished 2 things; became one of metal’s best bands, and second, locked doggedly onto a sound that’s unmistakably theirs, that none have recreated. So, if you were a fan of The Gathering Wilderness, as well as 2007’s To The Nameless Dead and 2011’s Redemption at the […]
Job For a Cowboy has been quite the polarizing band in their relatively short 10 year career. They rocketed to the top of the deathcore genre very early on, and gained likely as many fans as they did haters during said rise. I really liked and own their first EP, Doom, as well as the […]
Never judge a book by its cover. Or in this case, don’t write off a band simply because they have a goofy name and used to be a scenester deathcore act. ‘Cause holy hell, this cowboy has learned some new tricks at the rodeo. Granted, that’s because the band that catapulted to MySpace stardom and a Metal […]
St. Louis, Missouri is hardly a hot bed of premier metal like say Texas, Chicago or the East Coast. Heck, even Kansas City has more notable bands. I can count the numbers of excellent extreme metal bands I’ve heard from St Louis than had a larger impact on metal out side of Missouri? You can […]