Fleshgod Apocalypse‘s second full-length album, Agony was my favorite album of 2011, so I’ll warn you, you can throw objectivity and unbiased opinions out of the window right now. I love these guys. However, Agony was surprisingly divisive as the band integrated full-on orchestration to their vortex of Italian technical brutality, with the end result […]

When it comes to Black Metal in Kentucky, I typically think of bands with the ‘atmospheric’ touch. Bands like Wheels Within Wheels, Panopticon, and Merkaba are the standard fare it seems. It just so happens that Austin Lunn from Panopticon started Anagnorisis in 2003. After the first release in 2007, Austin left the band to […]

The Swedish death metal revival keeps on rolling and FDA Rekotz has found another fine German act to go alongside Revel In Flesh to add to their roster of solid old-school death metal. Whereas for most of this wave of retro bands, the primary influence is Entombed and/or Grave, Wound have a slightly different approach, […]

This is a remastered/reissue of the first 2 classic albums from Hypocrisy, the 1992 debut, Penetralia and the 1993 sophomore release Osculum Obscenum. I’m not here to give a history lesson on this legendary Swedish act, but suffice it to say, these 2 albums have become huge influences in the death metal genre, even over […]

I had high hopes for an album named Frostbitepanzerfuck, but alas, the debut full-length from this Pennsylvania quartet is a maddeningly inconsistent release that sputters between sleazy blackened thrash and punky, sorta Autopsy-ish, crusty metal, and neither is really that well done. And while the band obviously has their tongue in cheek with the album […]

Although Black Sabbath are credited for inventing the slower, bleaker strand of heavy metal known as Doom Metal, it wasn’t until bands such as Witchfinder General, Saint Vitus and Trouble arrived in the 1980’s that the genre really took off and was given a title. Nowadays the world is awash with this style of metal, and Indianapolis’s The Gates of Slumber are another band […]

The magic of the late ’80s/early ’90s underground metal is well documented and revered, but the often-overlooked three-year span of ’94 to ’96 was something special in its own right. With the brutality race pretty much over, established death metal bands like Tiamat, Hypocrisy, and Cemetary along with upstarts such as Crematory (DE), Novembre, and […]

Revocation’s highly anticipated fourth album comes on the back of significant momentum gained through the one-two punch of 2009’s brilliant Existence is Futile, and 2011’s worthy follow-up, Chaos of Forms. Firstly, forget all the over-analysis about the band’s decision to self-title this latest platter. There’s no drastic reinvention at play here, yet the important thing […]

Continuing with tradition, Adam at Gilead Media has yet again released another of the undeniable best records of 2013. Northless‘ second full-length, World Keeps Sinking is an absolute behemoth-sized mash-up of their blend of Sludge, Doom, Post-Metal, and dare I say I feel a little Prog in there? Shhhh, it’s okay. Picture a shootout between […]

Despite featuring members of bands like Marduk, Pan-Thy Monium, Edge of Sanity, and Incapacity, and my love of all things Stockholm sounding, I never quite sunk my teeth into Rotten Death, the 2011 debut from this old school Swedish death metal group. Whether it’s the fact I was still reeling from the debut from Entrails […]

In early 2007 there was a massive change within the ranks of Norwegian gothic/symphonic metal veterans Tristania. Long-time female vocalist (and face of the band) Vibeke Stene departed Tristania, which elicited shrieks of horror and shock throughout the band’s fanbase. It was assumed that nobody would be able to replace her angelic voice and carry […]

Canada is not exactly the frozen, snow-capped, northern land I think of when I’m looking for Black Metal. It is especially surprising that Neige Eternelle (French for Eternal Snow, go figure) hail from my neighbors to the north when their sound is so distinctly Norwegian, and so very 1995. It definitely seems there are two […]

Prior to 2011’s surprisingly excellent All Guts, No Glory (which I still heard about a year after the fact), my last experience with Exhumed was 1998’s Gore Metal, which I never really cared for. So imagine my surprise when I was hearing a latter Carcass clone complete with melodic solos and hooky, catchy riffs, which […]

I’m not sure why it took me two months to crank out a review of Autopsy‘s 6th album, their second since reforming after a near decade layoff, but sometimes I get in a reviewing groove and get a hankering to review something specific. Also A) it’s fucking Autopsy, and B) this albums kills. While 2011’s […]

You know that ominous drone that sets off every record that’s supposed to have a “dark” atmosphere? It’s here. Don’t get me wrong, I love that drone. You hold a note for 79 minutes and put it on a CDr; I’ll buy it, or at least download it from your BandCamp. You know that growly […]

For a band to have the honor of playing the esteemed Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands should be enough of an indicator of how good the music is – but it’s worth looking a bit deeper into the music of Liverpudlian self-styled ‘Caveman Metal’ act Conan. The album begins with a wall of feedback, before […]

There are a few quality Amon Amarth knock offs out there; Heathen Foray, Asenblut, Wandersword and even Evocation are an Amon Amarth clone now. Adding to that list but adding some rather weird gore and undead themes into the Viking mix is Spain’s Vikingore and their fair to middling debut album Wolves in the Battlefront. […]

There’s nothing like a dose of visceral, filth-ridden sludge to lift the spirits. Italy’s Grime delivers the muck and the misery through eight deep, festering cuts comprising the band’s second release. Although Grime is clearly not out to reinvent the wheel, they sure know how to crank out seething, despondent sludge anthems, with smatterings of […]

About this time last year, I reviewed the 3rd album from Malaysia war mongering, death metal stalwarts Humiliation, From Strength to Strength, and it was a pretty damn solid affair of Bolt Thrower-y and Jungle Rot styled barbaric simplicity (I still rock the heck out of “Preposition of Violence” on my ipod). Well, the band […]

As great as metal music is – the greatest of all music on the planet, of course  – most of the bands who sport some sort of image are, in all actuality, a bunch of fake posers. Seriously, they are. We’ve all seen it millions of times: a band represents something only to find out […]

Featuring members of hardcore act Momentum and of course former Fall of Efrafa frontman Alex Bradshaw, the UK’s Light Bearer have quickly established themselves as one of atmospheric sludge/post rock’s most amazing bands, or one of the best metal bands of any genre for that matter with their stunning 2011 debut LP Lapsus and subsequent […]

Huntress, huh. Semi-cool name, female vocals not descended from heaven on angel wings. Worth a shot. Interestingly enough, the music player has labeled Starbound Beast as Blues. This is clearly incorrect…though hoping this album would be interesting and then listening to it has caused a case of the blues. The lowdown: Starbound Beast is essentially […]

Profane is my first exposure the France’s Svart Crown, despite it being their 3rd full-length album, but considering the brilliance of French black metal that has crossed my path in that time frame, it’s not surprising that these guys slipped under my radar. And while this is more of a blackened death metal record as […]

There aren’t too many styles so well suited for each other as metal and symphonic music. While heavy metal may have had its first roots in blues, many later acts owe just as much of their inspiration from classical tradition. With this having been said, it’s no wonder that so many metal bands have worked […]

Swiss grind metallers Mumakil are a band I’ve been following for a while. From their little known debut LP Customized Warfare, to follow up Behold the Failure, these guys have been blasting through the underground with a style of grind they call “blastcore” (because yeah that’s all we need is yet another sub-genre). But categories […]