Year of No Light have been around for a while now. When I listened to 2006’s Nord, I thought it was a competent but unremarkable sludge album. Ausserwelt came out four years later, and their sound had evolved to more than make up for the time elapsed. While that album wasn’t perfect, it contained moments […]

Deprecated were a band who featured bassist Derek Boyer  (Deeds of Flesh, Disgorge, Decrepit Birth) before he joined Suffocation, and now reunited, the band now features Terrance Hobbs (Suffocation), Matt Sotelo (Decrepit Birth) for this, the rerecording and rereleasing  of the band’s sole release, the 1998 EP, Deridng His Creation. And a scorcher it is. […]

Florida’s Brutality return with their first official recording since the outstanding 1996 album, In Mourning.  We only get 2 songs, but they are really good songs and this also marks the return of the original band logo. The 8 minute title track opens the album and the return of the signature Brutality blast beats hits […]

Several years ago, I was reviewing a steady string of super heavy, angular, metal bands like The Minor Times,  The Red Chord, Apiary, Swarm of the Lotus, Harlots, Engineer, Animosity,  Ion Dissonance and Into the Moat. Well, Dallas TX’s Seeker has tapped into that sound on their Victory Records debut and unleashed arguably one of Victory […]

Stuck in a perpetual ’80s thrash-punk time warp, Joel Grind’s Toxic Holocaust are a prolific institution in the retro metal field. Already this year, Grind has released a retrospective snapshot of Toxic Holocaust’s non-album material (From the Ashes of Nuclear Destruction) while also releasing a fun little solo gem with his Yellowgoat Sessions project. Chemistry […]

Hope Drone is from Australia, but listening to their music, one could easily mistake them for a band from the U.S. Their 4-track debut EP demonstrates a bleak style of black metal strongly indebted to the Cascadian variety, specifically Wolves in the Throne Room and Altar of Plagues, played with surprising maturity and aplomb. The […]

When Sepultura burst into the scene in 1985 with the Bestial Devastation split LP in 1985 I was an instant fan and had the pleasure of seeing them on their SOS tour on their Beneath the Remains U.S. tour with openers Sadus and Obituary.  This was a classic show and I spoke at length to […]

Man, I am loving this record! Other than Mortal Infinity’s District Destruction, not much of this thrash revival has grabbed my attention, so the likes of Revocation, Havoc, Toxic Holocaust and such hasn’t really floated my boat , but here comes Canada’s Besieged to kick me in the nuts and remind me why I loved so many metal […]

Calling yourself Ferocity is a risk, because if you’re going to give your band such a powerful name, you better make damn sure you bring the goods.  Luckily Danish death metal band Ferocity has done just that.  If you’ve followed the Danish death scene, there have been a number of heavy-as-hell acts coming out of […]

If you were to listen to the second album from Serocs blindly, with no knowledge of the band at all, you would be forgiven for assuming the band was from Canada rather than Mexico. The band has a distinct Canadian tech death metal sound akin (OK, not akin, exactly like)  to mid era Cryptopsy (Whisper […]

Whores, a band from Atlanta, play a sweaty, fuzzed-out version of Unsane-like noise rock. There is also a heavy 90s vibe- Helmet being the second-closest possible comparison. Their previous record, Ruiner, seemed to center on the absolute bludgeoning power of their tone, but on Clean there is more focus on vocal hooks and catchiness, coming […]

Black and Blood marks the second full-length release in a decade long existence from Boston death metal mercenaries Soul Remnants. And it’s a formidable beast of a death metal album, holding the proud tradition of the genres storied past close to heart. Soul Remnants nail the often elusive knack of songcraft, managing to sound fresh […]

There was nothing particularly striking about the debut from Christian hardcore act Leaders, Now We Are Free back in 2012. It was a pretty standard metalcore/hardcore effort that you’ve come to expect from Facedown. However, on the follow up, Indomitable, California’s Leaders, after a significant lineup shuffle, have taken a page from label mates Those […]

Portland grind metallers Transient have been around since 2007 with a bunch of splits and EPs to their name, and now have released their first self-titled full length. This is the first I’ve heard of the band, and after spinning this one a few times I have no desire to look up their past work. […]

Well, it isn’t exactly easy to review less than 9 minutes of music in any meaningful way. But Phasm’s 2013 demo absolutely smashes together 4 triumphant songs in this time frame. Call it frantic, frenetic, frenzied, or hysterical; each word has a worthy place among the pantheon of eligible descriptors for this wonderfully energetic debut. […]

I completely disregarded this release for a few months because the recording level on this album was so damn quiet, that I could barely hear the music in regular volume. However, while jamming some songs on a large home stereo, these guys popped up and I was actually able to hear the album without really […]

While most of the current old school death metal revival leans towards either the Stockholm worship side or the Incantation-y, ‘caverncore’ side, a few bands are simply going pure old school. The likes of Deserted Fear, Skeletal Remains, Chapel of Disease, Navalm, Resurgency, Wound, Deus Otiosus, are culling from classic death and thrash metal. Add […]

This is my first exposure to Italy’s Lorn. Apparently, they were once a fairly straightforward, traditional black metal act. With no knowledge of their back catalogue, I can’t comment on the band’s change from past to present, but the music on this album is anything but straightforward, and anything but traditional. Wasting no time, “Definitive […]

When samples of this relatively hyped Metal Blade release started dropping, I had several folks hit me up via email, Facebook and even Myspace telling me I should check these guys out and they were something I’d enjoy. And to some extent, they were all right: The Conscious Seed of Light is a pretty solid […]

Profound Lore Records are putting out some killer bands over the last several years and you can add London’s Grave Miasma to that ever growing list. In 2009 they released the outstanding Exalted Emanation ep and followed it up a year later with another ep, Realm of Evoked Doom. I can say without a shadow […]

Calmed By The Tides Of Rain is what I would dub the Russian equivalent of U.S. deathcore/metalcore band The Acacia Strain, but with more of a death metal vibe and with more staying power. Listen, I know when some of you are seeing deathcore/metalcore in a review you’re gonna want to run for the hills, […]

Willowtip’s strength as a label has long been their association with forward thinking and technically proficient metal bands willing to push the envelope and challenge the listener. Naturally they have wisely broadened their roster over the years to include artists of a more cut-throat and straight-forward brand of extremity. Yet my original attraction, and continued […]

Back in 2009 I reviewed the debut EP from this aptly named Italian act, and came away rather impressed with the heavy, lurching salvo and a after a 4 year wait, a debut full length via Italy’s own Memorial Records album has surfaced and it was well worth the wait. The band’s moniker fits perfectly […]

Church of Misery are an institution. When it comes to big, bluesy doom riffs they are untouchable, and if you’re into metal and have yet to hear the band’s serial killer-inspired doom boogie then I suggest you head over to Youtube, punch in “Killifornia” and give a good listen. I’ll wait… All set? Now if […]

After giving the Prosthetic records debut of Skeletonwitch, Beyond the Permafrost a relatively lukewarm review, I simply didn’t give the band’s follow ups, Breathing the Fire or Forever Abomination, the time of day, despite the band growing immensely in popularity with their modern, black thrash meets melodic death metal spin off. I simply lumped them […]