For the most part, Cyber or Industrial Death Metal has a pretty rigid formula: Beefy, chunky guitars, mechanical pounding drums and the odd whirr or beep and sample here and there with some growled vocals. The Netherlands’ Empire of the Scourged, while generally following those paradigms also manage to changes things up a bit on […]
Wow, my first review for TOTD, and I just happen to pick a split album. Spawn of the Sacrilege? Hmmmm, sounds interesting. Now, normally I like split albums, especially with HPGD since they usually put out some pretty quality ones, but every once in awhile I’ll get one that just doesn’t work out as possibly […]
Back in 2009 I reviewed the second album, The End of an Era from this Tennessean melodic black/death metal act. It was a solid The Black Dahlia Murder inspired slab of shredding metal, but nothing that really upped the game at all. Well, with a significant lineup change (now with even more former and current […]
Apparently a few of the strange Swedes in experimental black metal act, Bergraven, felt like doing something more traditional when they teamed up with their buddy, A. Peterson of De Arma and Lönndom to form Stilla. The project’s 2013 debut, Till stilla falla, was a nice surprise of cold, Polish-sounding (Furia, Mgła) black metal. Ensamhetens […]
It’s pretty simple really- if you look me/my site up, ask politely and personally for a review, send a CD and follow up equally as politely, chances are I will give your album a few listens and publish my worthless opinion on it, good or bad. And the Brothers Guzman, did just that for their […]
Hailing from Philadelphia, PA, Trenchrot’s debut for Dark Descent Records imprint Unspeakable Axe, is an old school death/thrash record that culls from all the old school acts of the late 80s and early 90s from both the US and Europe. Like the recent release from Roarback, it’s a raucous, simple, fun, skeletal affair that makes no […]
Firstly, my apologies to the band for not punching out the review of this early year release a little sooner. Tardiness aside, the debut album from Sweden’s Astrophobos taps into the melodic black metal vein, championed by the likes of Dissection and Naglfar in the 90’s, and does a very capable job of refreshing what […]
Hailing from AustraliaGaped is 1 man death metal project, from Ryan Huthnance, & is some killer death metal. He was formerly in Mortal Sin and my forthcoming interview with him will delve into how he does all the instruments, etc… The Murderous Inception is a 6 song ep that all lovers of Chris Barnes era […]
Formerly known as Bolero, Toronto’s newly remaned Vesperia are part of a suddenly surprisingly strong Canadian folk/Viking metal scene that includes the likes of Will of the Ancients, Crimson Shadows, Valfreya, Trollwar, Nordheim, Battlesoul, and of course Blackguard just to name a few. I’m not sure why the canucks have latched into the sound and delivered […]
How this band isn’t more well-known is beyond me. In a world of musical styles being constantly blended, theirs seems to be a sound wholly their own. A slight mix of down tempo grunge and what could be misconstrued as shoegaze, they manage to not only be consistently rhythmic but also, in a cerebral sense, […]
Switzerland’s Impure Wilhemina have been dark since 2008s excellent Prayers and Arsons, where the band delivered a gorgeous take on elegant post rock a la Burst and The Ocean. However, the band has undergone a large line up shift, resulting in a bit of a style change since that release, and tempered their sound a bit, […]
Rounding out Dark Descent’s excellent trio of early 2014 releases (inc. Corpsessed and Lvcifyre) in the sophomore album from Finland’s long running death metalers, Lie In Ruins (formerly Dissected back in the 90s). And while not as crushing or cavernous as their label mates above, Lie In Ruins still deliver a powerful if more traditional, […]
2008 saw the emergence of this Arizona based guttural death metal act, that due to line-up troubles saw the band almost breaking up. Necrambulant put the pieces back together and their signing to Lacerated Enemy Records helped bring about Infernal Infectious Necro-Ambulatory Pandemic, their debut album. If you have bands like Epicardiectomy, Abominable Putridity or […]
If you’re a death metal fan, one of the Dutch scene in particular, you’ve likely heard of the band Prostitute Disfigurement. In addition to their catchy name, they’ve managed to produce some pretty good albums. The last one of theirs I got into was 2008’s Descendants of Depravity, but then the band broke up in […]
Back in 2002, 7 years before Fleshgod Apocalypse‘s debut Oracles, before Scrambled Defuncts, before. Ex Deo, The Monolith Deathcult, there was a brutal death metal band from the US called Agiel and they were using full on orchestration in their death metal. Now, bands like Hollenthon and Septicflesh were using orchestration and such, but Agiel were […]
Like many FDA Rekotz bands, California’s Morfin play old school death metal but, rather than the Swedish/Stockholm old school sound played by Harm, Wound, Revel in Flesh, Massive Assault etc , Morfin went right for an older, American influence similar to Skeletal Remains, Slaughterday, Deus Otiosus, and Chapel of Disease: good ol’ Death. And let […]
Rogga Johansson is ubiquitous, numerous bands, numerous projects. Are they really necessary? Let’s look at the music – this man knows his Death Metal, he’s doing nothing wrong. He’s not diluting the essence, so to speak, he’s not doing anything ridiculous. Yes, he’s prolific but he’s keeping it interesting between his projects, be it say Revolting, Paganizer […]
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 […]