Toronto’s eyeswithoutaface is one of the most underrated bands out there in bandcampland. They’ve produced some stellar heaviness on their two full lengths, remix record, and showing an excellent ear for blending and mixing electronic, industrial, noise, breakbeat, and stomach churning sludge. So it is no small wonder that Mike Szarejko, one of the driving […]

I actually feel  a little happy for Carnifex. Despite playing the much maligned deathcore and spending time on Victory Records, I met the guys back in 2012 and they were some of the  nicest  metal dudes I’ve met and were obviously frustrated with their label at the time. Well, they told me they had a […]

Heavy metal, and its various extreme offshoots, can be a serious game.  Searing bouts of rage-filled abrasiveness, disenchantment with society, bleak subject matter, and of course unrelenting aggression are some of the defining attributes that we associate with the backbone of extreme music. And really, we wouldn’t have it any other way, which makes the […]

I don’t know which I love more: Japan, for its endlessly creative, cartoonish, batshit-insane popular culture, or the Interwebz for delivering it all to my newsfeeds and inbox every day. Without either, my life would not have been blessed with the knowledge of black Burger King Darth Vader Whoppers, people injecting saline solution into their […]

Temple Nightside is an Australian black metal band that venture quite a bit into the ambient atmospheric textures of music. Their 2011 ep, Prophecies of Malevolence can best be described as extremely raw black metal with a production that is so low fi, it makes early Dark Throne sound like it was recorded at Morrisound […]

Shortly before recording this album, Erlen Meyer‘s drummer, Romain Djoudi, was killed in a motorcycle accident. The remaining band members’ feelings of anger and grief became direct inspiration during the subsequent recording of this harrowing album. Erlen Meyer play a heavy, dissonant brand of sludgy post-hardcore in the vein of Overmars and later-era Breach, a […]

Ukraine’s Khors have consistently refined their songcraft with each new release since their 2005 debut, something not many bands can sustain over the course of five albums. Their latest, 2012’s Wisdom of Centuries, may have suffered from some overall flow and filler issues, but it still contained some of their strongest songs and, furthermore, some […]

Although they started back in 2000 as a black/death act with nods to early Opeth (hence the band name), now France’s Benighted is a filthy, ultra-groovy and much different beast altogether. Most of their albums, including 2011’s excellent (and, for me, list-topping) Asylum Cave, are like being flung around inside a brutal death/grind bounce house packed with […]

There has been quite a buzz about the debut from New York’s Artificial Brain, the technical death metal band featuring Revocation‘s Dan Garguilo and Biolich/Andromorphus Rexalia vocalist Will Smith. After hearing it, the buzz is deserved, as is Profound Lore’s bold declaration of the band as ‘next level death metal’. Adorned with more striking artwork […]

Derogatory is from California and play a mid 90’s Floridian style of death metal that is quite good. Not quite up to par with the likes of labelmates, Skeletal Remains, but still kick ass nonetheless. After an instrumental intro “Into the Depth of Time”, comes out the starting gates and I’m instantly reminded of classic […]

Perhaps it’s a cynical viewpoint, but it seems thrash metal as a whole is languishing in the midst of a creative rut, with the bulk of bands more content on rehashing the nostalgic 80’s period of the genre’s definitive days rather than pushing the envelope and taking the genre into fresh new territory. Whilst acknowledging […]

For obvious reasons there’s something about winter that makes me lean towards the more furious and frosty spectrum of my black metal listening habits. And this winter, Marduk, Taake, Thromesis, Inferion, Dodsverk and this, the fifth album from The Netherlands’ Sammath have all satiated my need for a more primal and  classic take on the style. However, […]

Everyone likes a good side project right? Even more so when it’s off the member/band’s beaten path and a little different from the full time project. Case in point, Wrong, a project started by Wormed‘s vocalist/drummer Phlegeton, who performs the same duties here. He is joined by David Perez (The YTriple Corporation) on guitars and bass […]

Swedish band Soreption plays technical death metal with the syncopated, razor-sharp riffs of Decapitated with the machine-like djent-chugging of Aeon. Their first release on Unique Leader, Engineering the Void is their follow-up to their 2010 release Deterioration of Minds, which I only became aware of last year. Although heavily technical, Soreption fuses their convoluted riffs […]

The Satanist is a tale of redemption, of perseverance.  Not solely for Nergal and Behemoth, but for this author as well.  I’ll go ahead and get the fact that I’ve been an absolute unflinching Behemoth fanboy for well over a decade now.  I love everything, the early black metal days, the masterfully blackened Grom, the […]

I wasn’t expecting much from this, the debut of Denmark’s Roarback. I mean the moniker, the cover art all screamed old school thrash, which really isn’t my cup of tea. However, the old adage about books and covers came into play, as Echoes of Pain ended up being a kickass little old school death/thrash record. […]

Eye of Solitude is a funeral doom/death metal band from the UK continuing the style that the country forged many years ago with the likes of My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Anathema. Canto III is (obviously) their third release, and it really sees the band peak and carry the mantle from their county mates […]

Sceptre is one of the pioneers of Indian Metal. Been around since 1998, the band has released two albums, the second being  last years  years Age of Calamity. To celebrate the band’s 15th anniversary, the album is being re-released with enhanced packaging and new artwork. What’s remarkable about this band is that the album is about women empowerment […]

Though seemingly named by the same person that came up with the moniker for fellow Frenchman, Destinity, Idensity is an interesting, ambitious band that delivers a symphonic, goth tinged, orchestrated take on melodic death metal. Though the violin is the primary instrument of choice via Mayline Gautié, there is some heavy synth usage and the […]

Xtreem Music return with a classic reissue of Dissect’s debut album Swallow Swouming Mass in a killer 2cd set.  This Holland based death metal act released this debut album some 20 years ago and it was overlooked by a lot of people, which is a shame, because it’s a kick ass record.  Sometimes presentation also […]

Last year around this time, a Unique Leader release by the band Katalepsy set the brutal death world on edge with their album Autopsychosis; it also ended up as one of my top 5 albums of the year. Now early in 2014, label mates The Kennedy Veil have tried to once again recreate what Katalepsy […]

Hailing from Adelaide, Australia, In the Burial throw plenty of curve balls to the uninitiated listener. First off, the moniker had me expecting some form of metalcore. Then the album starts playing and I’m suddenly listening to hyper blasting technical death metal akin to Origin, that’s pretty kick ass. Then on the fourth track “Amaranthine’s […]

France’s Bliss of Flesh are a new act to me, so this, their second album, is my first exposure to the bands style of Black/death metal, but I am very impressed with Beati Pauperes Spiritu, so much so it actually stole a lot of the thunder and attention from Necrophobic‘s Womb of Lilitu. I can […]

It’s a good thing that Autopsy really kicked ass with their last effort, The Headless Ritual, because two bands, Norway’s Obliteration and Germany’s Slaughterday are nipping at tier heels with their own excellent, Autopsy drenched sound that almost outdoes the masters. Named after an actual Autopsy song, with Slaughterday, the influence is unashamedly front and […]

Though not quite as crushing as the recent full length from Comatose label mates Necrotic Disgorgement, the new one from Mortal Decay is yet another fine underground 2013 brutal death metal release.  This is only the 4th full length from these New Jersey natives, though they’ve been honing their craft for over 20 years.  I […]