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 […]
Cleanteeth refer to themselves as “beard impregnating doom metal.” I’m not sure what exactly they mean by that. If this genre tag is a victim of the hyphen thief, it means that their music makes beards pregnant, a prospect which does not initially appeal to me. If not, they mean that their doom metal impregnates […]
I love surprises. Not the “oh, you are putting that where?” surprises, but musical surprises where you get an out of the blue email from a completely unheard of band asking for a review (meaning our little site is growing) and that subsequent release ends up being pretty damn awesome. Such is the case with […]
Here is one of those 2013 releases that I slept on until now. From the label that brought the likes of The Great Old Ones, Ebonylake, Pensées Nocturnes comes some really interesting avant garde French black metal that is well…various shades of black. There is A LOT going on here. The band is, if anything, […]
I was genuinely excited for this, the debut album from now guitarist Steve Tucker, former Morbid Angel vocalist/bassist and recently Nader Sadek frontman. But now he has his own band under the moniker of Warfather and is aided by a few cronies such as drummer Diemos (Temple, Severe Torture) and Nick McMaster (Krallice, Nader Sadek, […]
There’s something about Cannibal Corpse. It just doesn’t get old. Generations of bands have come and aped them the way they want. There are two eras of Cannibal Corpse worship as well – the Chris Barnes one and of course the Corpsegrinder one. Germany is most notorious where it comes to Cannibal Corpse-influenced bands, especially […]
I had wanted to give this album the attention it deserved last year, but circumstances conspired against it. The digital promo impressed me enough to want a physical copy for review. Unfortunately, North American distribution was nonexistent, so it quickly became lost in the stampede of amazing 2013 releases that were available in US distros. […]
Even though the band’s moniker may lure in casual Nile fans, France’s Nephren Ka is actually centered around Frank Hebert (Dune author) themes, despite the fact their style of modern, clinical, technical death metal, still is actually a bit Nile sounding, just without all of the Egyptian instrumentation and sand in your crack. Unfortunately, the […]
There is something foul afoot in England. Not since the late ’80s early ’90s has there been this much of an explosion in quality metal arising from the once fair isle in the last couple of years. And it’s not just the quality, it’s the substance of the music that is surprising; Binah, Grave Miasma, […]