The fact that I was born in 1984 means that I have missed out on a lot of metal history. Sure, it has been documented in the form of records and concert footage, but it’s not the same as actually being at a specific event, such as the early genesis of death metal with early […]

What’s swollen with Swedish pride, rife with heathenism and unabashedly oozing with heavy metal thunder?  Grand Magus‘ newest release, of course.  Sixth full-length The Hunt is a smorgasbord of fine riffs and rhythms that’s certain to please ears the world over.  So it may not be as doomy (okay, there’s really no comparison) as earlier […]

Italy has a surprisingly solid technical/brutal death metal scene.  Of course, there’s the more obvious  monsters like Fleshgod Apocalypse and Hour of Penance, but if you dig a little deeper and actually list bands like Antropofagus, Gory Blister, Illogicist, Vomit the Soul, Unconventional Disruption, Humangled, Psychofagist just to name a few, you start to realize […]

Throw some more incense on the fire, here comes another flaxen-haired acolyte come to join the coven of female-fronted, psychedelic and devil-worshipping hard rock. Last one of these I covered was Finland’s Jess and the Ancient Ones; here are their labelmates/countrymates in Seremonia. This variety of 70s proto-doom is shaggy like a forest nymph in […]

Easily one of the most over-looked albums of the last decade, Epoch of Aquarius will hopefully garner the sort of attention it lacked when it originally was presented to the world in 2006. For those who may not know, Munruthel is a band that fits somewhere inside the whole pagan/folk metal sub-genre but the music […]

Hailing from Texas and featuring The Faceless drummer Lyle Cooper, Absvrdist play a form of vicious modern grind/crust that would sit well on Southern Lord. It will appeal to fans of  Enabler and any other of Southern Lord’s crust/hardcore bands, and it’s got just a dash of black metal (though that might just be the […]

I really kind of wanted to like the debut from Vancouver’s Tribune a whole lot more. They seem like a fun loving group of guys that don’t take themselves too seriously, and the music contained on Elder Lore/Dark Arts is an eclectic mix of thrash, heavy metal, metalcore and melodic death metal. That is also the […]

Splits are always an enjoyable listen, regardless if one or more of the bands on the micro compilation are even halfway decent. It’s always been a terrific way to sample typically unknown bands in small doses and because the listener will usually be treated to multiple songs from each band, splits are almost always more […]

I’m a trad metal fan. It is, hands-down, my favorite metal genre. As much as I try to shake things up with a bit of prog or power metal, my well-worn copy of Mercyful Fate‘s Don’t Break the Oath never strays too far out of my reach. So, with a metal palette like mine, I […]

It does not take a genius to figure out the style of metal played by Melbourne, Australia’s Whoretopsy; look at the moniker, the cover, the album title and song titles like “Cardiac Defecation”, “Potty Mouth”, “Necrobordello” and “Intimate Disgust”. What we have here brutal, ultra misogynistic death metal of the slammiest variety. I’m pretty sure […]

It’s another word for anti-intellectualism. People are stupid, ignorant and seem to be proud of it. This is a disturbing trend.”  So says Adam Laszlo about the meaning behind the name of the project he helms all by himself – Sophicide.  Perdition of the Sublime is an absolute scorcher, made even more impressive by the […]

You know those anti-meth PSA posters where they show a normal person and their progression each month as they become addicted to meth? Well, one listen to Drug Honkey‘s fourth album might result in the same, tooth rotting, skin itching, hair losing, gaunt results. In fact, Drug Honkey might be onto a new sub genre of […]

This year-old Chicago outfit is going out this fall on Obituary’s Carnival of Death tour, which is packed with old-school death (the reformed Broken Hope, plus Jungle Rot), and technical death (Decrepit Birth). Yet the press notes described Encrust as similar to Mastodon, Clutch or Kvelertak, so that seemed an odd addition to the bill. Then I sampled the first track, “Predatory Skin,” and […]

Once again, Halo of Flies Records ensures that I keep a record player in my possession by releasing an impressive 2 track split 12″ from California sludge doom act Amarok and Polish doom band Enth. Both bands are new to me, but I’ll be certainly looking out for releases from both in the future. I’ll […]

Laster, from Utrecht, in the Netherlands, have a classic ’90s atmospheric black metal sound – some might label this as DSBM (depressive/suicidal black metal), a term that gained popularity around the time of Leviathan and Xasthur, but Burzum’s spare and vicious nocturnes needed no such moniker back in the day. Others might also tag this […]

I just reviewed The Netherlands’ Laster, and now here’s Sweden’s Lustre. Laster, meet Lustre. Lustre, Laster. Both are atmospheric black metal from the genre equivalent of House Stark, but Lustre is more ambient and stripped-down. Good for late-night reverie, bad for driving. The four long, highly repetitive tracks on They Awoke the Scent of Spring remind […]

One would desperately hope that a metal album inspired by the events of Chernobyl would be littered with hints of occultism, cloaked in sulphuric blackened nuances, and evoking creepy Silent Hill-ish moments.  Agruss‘s Morok has a little bit of this, but it’s not as effective as it could be.  The genre used to convey the […]

  Entering he goregrind arena is the up and coming UK-based Engorgement, a group of mates who play a rather rudimentary style of gore-soaked and blood-splattered grindcore. Clocking in at a hair past 22 minutes, the seven songs on Excruciating Intestinal Lacerations are what you’d expect from a band from this sub genre of metal, […]

16 are back with the follow-up to their excellent reunion album Bridges to Burn. It’s a decent successor, if a little disappointing. Good enough on its own, Deep Cuts From Dark Clouds isn’t as memorable as their last outing and doesn’t measure up to the band’s earlier work. It’s more aggressive, more direct in its […]

Despite the recent run of excellent album reissues both needed and unnecessary, there has been a large hole in my metal collection and in my heart. As much as I’ve loved and needed reissues of the likes of God Macabre, Burial, Gorement, Uncanny, Convulse and such, there’s been one release missing; Desecrator‘s sole, 1991 album, […]

Arguably since Alcest made it big, the fusion of black metal and shoegaze music has become pretty popular, particularly among one and two-man bands. First capturing my heart with the likes of Lantlos and Heretoir, this appropriately titled ‘blackgaze’ sound offered a much softer approach to the black metal aesthetic, a perfect alternative for sleepy […]

This is the third full-length from St Petersburg’s Epitimia, a band listed as ambient black metal on the Metal Archives. I haven’t heard their previous releases, so I have to assume that’s correct, but on Faces of Insanity, their sound is more like a mix of the lush, melodic death/doom of Swedish and Finnish acts […]

I gotta hand it to Relapse – Results is one hell of a cut-throat release in terms of deathgrind songwriting. It’s experimental, without departing from the outlines of what defines this genre as the game-changer of extreme metal throughout the ages; still, it dares go into whatever direction it damned well sees fit, and I’ve […]

Last year, Minnesota’s Your Memorial dropped one of the year’s best metalcore records, Christian or otherwise.  And since then Facedown Records has struggled with a bit of staleness with their subsequent releases and even lost one of their best bands, Sleeping Giant, to another label. Well, Your Memorial is here as the savior to Facedown […]

Ufomammut has been one of the most consistent doom bands of the past decade. The band released five albums from 2000 to 2010, not including the brilliant collaboration with Lento, and there’s not a mediocre album in the bunch. They’ve cultivated a unique sound that layers ebbing tides of lashing doom riffs with synths and […]