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 […]
Hailing from the Netherlands, The New Dominion is a exciting and talented multifaceted act that features drummer Yuma Van Eekelen, who drummed on Pestilence‘s 2011 effort, Doctrine. And while that once great band’s lackluster return and that particular album might not lure you into listening to this loosely affiliated band, be aware that The New […]
While I am far from the highest authority when it comes to ultra-kvlt, super underground, cassette only, no website Black Metal, it is not frequent that I come across a release from a band, or in this case two, that have been around for nearly half a decade or more, that I have never even […]
When it comes to Swedish melodic metal excellence, Darkane are an underappreciated force with a top-notch track record. Formed in the late ‘90s, the band has never been anything less than solid. Their exceptional debut, Rusted Angel, is something of a minor classic, and their 2005 release, Layers of Lies, was another fist-pumping gem, displaying […]
Sidious is the side project from some of the members of UK doom act Eye of Solitude, and while I generally don’t dig EPs (musical cock teasers), Ascension to the Throne Ov Self is a fucking killer little 4-song release, and I very much look forward to a full-length. Sidious is a complete 180 from […]
They say good things come to those who wait. Well, in the case of the debut from Germany’s Sulphur Aeon, that is most certainly true. Originally released at the beginning of the year/late 2012 on Imperium Productions then licensed via FDA Rekotz, I finally ordered the album after months of waiting, forgetting, and looking on […]
The whole of Anarchic finds Skagos focusing upon their atmospherics and expanding further on the sounds found on the Split with Panopticon (whose tracks form one half of his brilliant On The Subject Of Mortality). This is a complicated record that is “lyrically complex, focusing on the death of the Earth and the renewal inherent […]
Kylesa are, along with such other psychedelic sludgy metal counterparts as Mastodon, Baroness, Black Tusk and Zoroaster are part of the Georgian scene, which at this rate could at some point go down as legendary as the early ’80s Bay Area thrash or the late ’80s Floridian death metal scene. Like their contemporaries Mastodon and […]
Zealotry is a project that features Roman Temin, a former metal journalist for blistering.com, Unchallenged Hate, as well as a couple of other skilled veterans of death and experimental metal. While Temin plays rhythm guitars and does lead vocals, he has plenty of veteran and skilled assistance by way of Philippe Tougas of Chthe’ilist and […]
Oh, good old My Dying Bride, we go back a long way. You commiserated with me during my depressing teen years and helped me feel something whenever life would turn mundane. I’ll admit to skipping over your then-infamous (not so much now) 34.788%… Complete only to discover it’s quirky gloom a few years later, and […]
For those unfamiliar with All Pigs Must Die, they’re essentially a supergroup comprised of members, both currently and formerly, from acts such as The Hope Conspiracy, Converge, The Red Chord, and Blood Horse. Two surprises come out of this musical juggernaut’s output: firstly their sound is not what you’d expect, and secondly this group is […]
It’s not often these days that my mind is completely blown away by a musical album, but the latest output, Coal, from Norwegian progressive metallers Leprous did just that. Not once, not twice, but goddamn, the album rolls throughout the entire 60-minutes. I first caught a glimpse of the band at this year’s Tuska Open […]