Sorry guys, those of who who clicked on this review link expecting or hoping for a melancholic Finnish or Swedish death/doom band based on the moniker,  will be a bit disappointed , as this is nothing of the sort. However, while you are here let me introduce you to this multifaceted, progressive metal band from […]

After two lauded albums that arguably spear headed the Swededeath revival, Sweden’s Entrails is playing with the big boys now. Residing on Metal Blade Records, (a fitting replacement for Vomitory methinks)  and sitting atop the heap of retro Swedish/Sunlight inspired death metal bands. But the pressure is now even more, especially with the all important […]

I know the same can be said about every genre and subgenre of metal (and for all of music, for that matter), but why does every single goddamned metalcore band have the exact same singer with the exact same voice who sings in the exact same patterns and enunciates the words the exact same way? […]

If there was a musical equivalent to vaudeville (late 19th century variety entertainment) it would be represented in the form of the fourth album from Pensées Nocturnes, Nom d’une Pipe! Like the theatrical genre of years past, this album cobbles together classical, swing, bal-musette, reggae, and jazz in a bleak, disturbing black metal skin. The […]

The creepy Mexicans are back and better than ever! After the splendid Reaper’s Consecration EP last year, the sick duo of Mr. Jacko (bass, guitars) and Mr. Hitchcock (vocals) have returned with their latest slab of Swedish-styled retro death metal in the form of At the Caves of Eternal. Like everything they’ve released thus far […]

One of the bonuses of being a reviewer is that it forces you out of your comfort zone, and as one who listens to an unhealthy amount of death metal, this is a good thing.  Looking for a change I grabbed the debut album from In the Silence.  This album was actually released last summer, […]

Joel Grind’s Yellowgoat Sessions project pays homage to metal’s formative years and 80’s heyday in all its raw and bare bones glory. The Toxic Holocaust main-man cooks up a feisty mix of fast and straight-forward metal tunes inspired by the punk rock fury of Motorhead and the early works of Venom and Bathory. The formula […]

Here is a band from Norway that is hard to define and review. They grab your attention with that cover and album title, and then the style they play is a form of avant garde, experimental, progressive melodic death metal that’s really difficult to pigeonhole. The only bands I could think of that shared some […]

If you want to have your eardrums shattered due to some of the most brutal and apocalyptic sounding death metal you’ll hear this year, then look no further than the new full length album from the UK’s Abyssal. Not to be confused with the Abyssal from Australia, Brazil, Finland or France, this Abyssal is ready […]

Never judge a book by its cover. In this case, I thought I was going to HATE France’s Kause 4 Konflikt: the name, the excessive Ks, the masked, combat fatigue clad band members, the self described ‘offensive war-core’ styled music, every thing screamed shitty Slipknot clone or awful nu metal tripe. And indeed, the opener […]

Hailing from Quebec, Canada, the youngsters in Pronostic are a technical/melodic death metal band trying their hand at adding a sort of  Black Dahlia Murder/Arsis/Allegaeon sound to modern almost deathcore/death metal that’s intricate and busy, but has a few chops and plenty of skill. The thing is, it’s about 5 years too late. Don’t get […]

Throughout the years, split EPs between two or more bands have always been one of the greatest nuances of the entire metal scene. It’s always been an inexpensive (and just downright cool) way to sample a few bands that one might not ordinarily spend hard-earned money on. There is nothing worse than dropping some coin […]

It has been a few years since Inter Arma scorched a trail through the underground with their debut LP. A corrosive whirlwind of doom, sludge, grind, and thrash, Sundown was a welcome blast of fresh air. Since then they’ve been scooped up by Relapse and spent the intervening years writing their sophomore full length. Sky […]

Hailing from Austin, Texas, Morgengrau is a 4 piece playing old school US death metal in the Master/Death/Incantation/Immolation vein. What makes them even more interesting is that the band is fronted by former Autumn Tears/Hod/Ignitor vocalist/guitarist Erika Tandy and the drums are played by another femme fatale, Reba Carls. Not that being females in death […]

Aside from their almost iconic band logo, not much has changed with Immolation throughout the years. When they first bombarded the world with their debut album Dawn of Possession back in 1991, Immolation established themselves as one of the most brutal and uncompromising death metal bands on the planet. Fast forward more than twenty years […]

Having enjoyed their last full length five years ago, nOn, it was good to see The Amenta back in LP land. Their blend of pseudo-industrial death metal caught my attention years ago and I was stoked when I heard this was coming out. On Flesh is Heir, the band picks back up with that same […]

Growing up in Chicago, it was engrained into my brain basically to loathe anything related to Wisconsin. The people, the state, the cheese (though the cheese is great from there) and their pro sports teams. Aside from some good cheap beer, Wisconsin was always a lousy state in which I never wanted to step foot […]

Part of this writing endeavor is getting sent records by unknown obscure bands. Sure, we get to review Soilwork, Nile and other international super acts that really don’t need our lip service — but it’s so more rewarding to get a promo from a band like Russia’s Wandersword, and be able to spread the word […]

This actually might be the greatest album ever recorded and I’m not kidding around, either. Now, ten seconds into Energia!, the stone-faced, grizzled and too-serious metalhead out there will turn it off and squawk something along the lines of, “What the fuck is this shit?!” and quickly reach for his can of Old Milwaukee and […]

The debut from Germany’s Revel in Flesh, Deathevocation, was one of the very best examples of Old School Swedish Death Metal, and one of my favorite releases of 2012. So a mere year later, here is the follow up and what do you really expect here? Of course its the same style, delivered with the […]

I remember the collective groan Morbid Angel received when they said they would be incorporating elements of electronic and industrial in to their next record. While that experiment turned out to be… well… let’s say less than good, the sad reality of Ilud Divinum Insanus should only serve to highlight all the great bands out […]

After 2005’s Absence and 2006’s Anatomy of Life, Finland’s Noumena looked to be on the verge of breaking out and rising to the levels of fellow Finns Amorphis, Insomnium, Swallow the Sun and previous greats like Rapture and Sweden’s Slumber in the realms of melancholic death metal. However, the band took a hiatus and simply […]

Doom/stone metal is typically a subgenre of the metal scene that fans either take or leave. There are some kickass bands in the scene like Fu Manchu, Monster Magnet, Trouble, Down, Sleep and, of course, Kyuss and Black Sabbath. The troubling aspect of the genre is that most of the bands all sound like one […]

Just Before Dawn is a multinational super group of sorts. It was formed by Blood Mortized guitarist Anders Biazzi with old school death metal mercenary Rogga Johanssen (Revolting, Megascavenger, Paganizer, etc.) providing the vocals. However, the project snowballed and a bunch of other vocalists from old school death metal acts got involved and as a […]

If anything is to be clear, it is that the Italian solo artist Nerij has come quite a long way since “Fato Ottenebrato Ghermente Anime Inquiete” of last year, a patchy eighteen minute demo that introduced me to his work on a less-than-satisfactory note. Ripping black metal and dark ambiance in virtually equal measure, it […]