It’s hard to believe that the origin of October Tide dates back almost two decades now. Jonas Renkse and Fred Norrman started the project during Katatonia’s brief break-up in ‘94 and released two now-classic albums before disbanding in ‘99. Norrman eventually resurrected the moniker in ‘09 after his departure from Katatonia. The decade-long hiatus, lack […]
Bursting forth with 10 vitriolic blasts of hate-fueled extremity, Colorado’s Call of the Void make quite the impression with their debut full-length, Dragged Down a Dead End Path. Stitching together elements of grind, hardcore and crust, Call of the Void keep it short and direct, creating their own violent, murky combo drawing influence from the […]
You may recently have heard the name Ola Englund in death metal circles, as he is the guitarist on the latest Six Feet Under release, Unborn (but don’t hold that against him or Feared), but he has been messing around with other bands for a few years, mostly Feared which has been around since 2010 […]
It’s fitting that the second full-length offering from this mysterious Polish entity is named after a poisonous, hallucinatory plant and the band is named after a book from Lovecraftian mythos, because each night I listened to this release at night time, on head phones, it resulted in nightmares, unsettled sleep, and according to my wife, […]
The Chicagoland area has certainly been home to many a great metal band over the years. Trouble, Master, Macabre and Cianide have paved the way for newer bands Nachtmystium, Cardiac Arrest and Bones. Add to the list of quality metal bands from the Midwest’s greatest city, Terminate, who hail from the northwest suburb of Morton […]
This album starts out promising enough, with a nice chug riff backed by some pounding double bass. But once the overly-nasal, high-pitched pig squeal of vocalist Jaymes Grundmann kick-in (a stylistic choice that’s unfortunately overused through the entire album), you might find yourself reaching for the skip button. This is brutal death metal at its […]
Seems like Ghost (or Ghost BC, as the lawyers like to call them now) has made a deal with the Devil. They got a major advance for their sophomore album – $750,000 buys a lot of face-paint and incense. You can hear it in the production and atmosphere, as thick and as decadent as blood […]
With a name like Asenblut (which apparently translates roughly to Æsir Blood according to a quick and dirty Google translate) I would expect the band to be either an epic melodic death metal band full of Norse and Viking lore in the vein of Amon Amarth or perhaps more of a folk metal band similar […]
I’ll get the big Mumakil out of the room right away. Yes, Utah’s Caladan Brood are heavily, and I mean heavily influenced by Summoning. Plodding but regal, majestic, and somber synth laden black metal with brittle guitars using fantasy literature as a backdrop (in this case Steve Erikson’s The Malazan Book of the Fallen series, […]
Though only active since 2008, Cerekloth is comprised of several members of the Danish metal scene including folks from The Cleansing, Usipian and Altar of Oblivion and following a couple of EP’s (Pandemonium Prayers & Halo of Syringes) the band has finally consolidated a solid line-up and released this accomplished debut album of grimy, groove-oriented […]
Christopher Bowes may be on the verge of becoming a new musical hero of mine. First he gave us Scottish pirate metal, now Scottish epic fantasy metal, and it’s just as much fun. If you’re familiar with Bowes’ other band, Alestorm, it will be no surprise that Gloryhammer’s music is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it’s […]
While a greased up Maurizio Iacono parades around in his pony tails, faux amour and recycles Kataklysm riffs under the guise of Ex Deo, Italy’s Ade have released their second album (I have not heard the band’s debut Prooemivm Sangvine) of truly Romanic inspired death metal, and it’s going to be one of the best death […]
The kids these days just seem to be much more musically advanced at this stage in their lives compared to when “the glory days” were, right? It seems like every day some new band full of teenagers (or dudes in their early-20’s) are popping up all over the place and ripping off intricate riffs, dazzling […]
Skineater is a new entrant into the world of sometimes manic, sometimes melodic Swedish death metal, but these aren’t pimpled-faced kids just starting out. The lineup is filled to the rim with dudes who have been in Dark Funeral, Vicious, In Thy Dreams, Defleshed, Carnal Forge, among many others. It’s expected that Dermal Harvest, the […]
If Frank Zappa had been born a part of the current musical generation, I imagine he would be making music quite a bit like Ben Levin. In many ways, I could easily compare the two- they’re each gifted with a bold musical vision, a penchant for proggy quirk, and no shortage of expertise on the […]
The UK’s husband and wife doom team return with their fifth album of big amps and bigger riffs. Carolyn and Pete have taken their wall of amps and brilliantly fuzzed out tone to a new level on Maleficia Lamiah and produced their finest album yet. The two tracks on offer dump a load of classic […]
While the upcoming Entrails and Revel In Flesh albums will undoubtedly be two of the years most hyped retro Swede-death metal releases, a couple of other bands will at least tide you over with their commendable efforts- the reformed Swedish act Sorcery and their dusty, thrashy Arrival at Six and the second effort, Godconstruct from […]
Downcast Dutchmen, Officium Triste, have been wallowing in misery for nearly two decades, releasing four full-lengths along with a handful of EPs, splits, and demos during that time. Despite having been an avid fan of death/doom that whole time, I somehow managed to miss out on their entire output. I have a feeling that every […]
‘Ole Steve “Zetro” Souza shot himself in the foot right out of the gate with this one, doing a full-court press to the press that he would re-join Exodus in a heartbeat, all the while trying to get the very stupidly-named Hatriot off the ground. This boneheaded move essentially sucked any sort of validity out […]
Brazil’s Nervochaos come charging out of the gates on their 5th album of old school , chunky death metal; “Mark of the Beast” thunders along with a killer death metal romp, as does second track track “Sheep Among Wolves”, and third track “Your World’s Trend”, where the pace starts to sound a bit too similar, […]
I thought symphonic black metal was a horse beaten to death? In the mid-to-late ‘90’s, that style of metal was what crept out from underneath every toadstool, every rock and from out of every darkened cave known to man. A dwarf’s handful of bands survived the explosion and ensuing fallout (Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir) […]
There’s was a nice little run on under the radar technical death metal to finish 2012 and start 2013; relatively new or obscure acts like Inanimate Existence, Devolved, Ophidian I, Scent of Death, and Nebulous aren’t household names in technical death metal, but if you are looking for some solid examples of the genre from […]
Black n roll is a genre that appeals to me greatly despite no one act single-handedly nailing the genre niche. Certainly there are bands that have touched upon it’s appeal in spurts and moments of greatness, but I have yet to encounter a beginning-to-end album that tackles this style and does it well consistently. Enter […]
Necrowretch leader/vocalist/guitarist Vlad apparently is obsessed with the legendary Scream Bloody Gore and said that one day he wants to create his own version of Death’s all-time classic debut album. Not that he wants to record a cover album, but an album so vicious, so gripping the way SBG was for so many people throughout […]
Having recently added the ever respected Rotten Sound to their lineup, Relapse has decided to do a double take and grab another grind band, France’s Blockheads. Unless you’re a big follower of the grind scene, you might not have heard of these guys before. This is actually their fifth full length, and the first on […]