Fans of the slightly more brutal style of traditional death metal will surely gobble this one up and praise it for all its blood-soaked, gory glory. Excruciating Existence, the debut full-length album from Brazil’s Escarnium, is everything a fan of this genre of metal loves: it’s guttural, has crunching guitars, it’s straightforward, without frills, without […]

Dynahead is a band that has inspired some buzz in progressive metal over the past few years. Not unlike their fellow Brazilians in Mindflow, they play music that takes in influences from all across the prog metal spectrum, most notably Dream Theater, and Opeth. Although it’s safe to say that this more eclectic approach is […]

One of the best kept secrets coming out of the German black metal scene they have been overlooked for far too long. Secrets of the Moon are back with their fifth full length release. They have been kicking around in one form or another for quite a long time, with sG being around for all […]

If Satyricon weren’t boring they’d be Panchrysia. I hadn’t heard of these Belgian black metallers until recently so I had a peek through their back catalog. I was surprised to find how familiar the riffs were. After two releases with an oppressive, Zyklon-esque production, 2008’s Deathcult Salvation adopted more of the cold, clinical style of […]

Thy Serpent’s Cult, the debut EP from France’s Torture Throne has a lot working in the band’s favor. However, there’s also a cornucopia of issues working against it. This is a novice band just piecing together their visions of what great death metal should be so a ton of flack won’t be tossed their way. […]

Save for your factory-produced, target market-oriented teen pop sensations, all bands are ‘underground’ at some point or another. Doing some research into this band from Boston, it seems like quite a few people have high hopes for Protean Collective  breaking out to a wider audience, and after hearing their self-released album ‘Divided‘, I can see […]

The first impression that Lyriel’s Leverage makes on the listener is a little deceiving. After listening to the title track, which is the first real song on the record, I thought they were a pretty good Lacuna Coil knock-off with some traditional metal leanings. Heard it before, I thought, but I’m glad I pushed forward. […]

I have to admit I wasn’t at all familiar with Gianluca Divirgilio’s works in Arctic Plateau before digging into this release, but I’m quite pleasantly surprised and satisfied with what I’m hearing. The Enemy Inside isn’t a metal album by any means. Once that fact is straight out of the woodwork and looking you in […]

So here is last of fledgling Blast Head Records’ three initial releases. Hailing from Roanoke Virginia, Human Infection self released Infest to Ingest last year, but Blast Head picked it up for release earlier this year, and unfortunately of the labels  first three releases, this is my least favorite. Human Infection play death metal. Bog […]

“Terrible way to die,” Óspakr said, expelling plumes of breath into the frigid night air. “Never seen no man swallow a snake before.” Geirr grunted his affirmation, lost in thought. The guard was still scanning the horizon, watching for moonlit glints on armor, a reflection on a blade, listening for a barely suppressed cough. It […]

Bands like to create albums that feel like a cohesive experience with a beginning, middle, and end, sort of like a good story, whether or not they’re telling one. And as such you’ll find a ridiculous number of albums with intro tracks that are sometimes really cool but are generally disposable. Warbeast MMVIII (since renamed […]

Phylum Morph-Apokalupsis is an 8 song split CD between two of New York finest,  gurgliest, messiest, grinding death metal/goregrind acts. You get 4 from each (though one of Animals Killing People‘s track is a cover) and the only real difference between the 2 sets of tracks is a few members here and there (both bands […]

Well thank the goat and Odin that I wasn’t asked to review the 80’s TV soap of the same name. Dynasty are a West Coast outfit playing the musical style often referred to as ‘hardcore’. Admittedly, I’m about as familiar with metal-infused hardcore as I am with 80’s TV soaps, although I know enough about […]

From the frigid nether region of Halifax comes the debut album from Select and Dismember, an excellent maiden voyage into the overcrowded and polluted waters of brutal death metal. Annihilation Foretold is a swirling, barbaric slab of extreme music in vein of Krisiun, Hate Eternal, Diabolic, and Sinister, though the band thankfully doesn’t just blast […]

After a few relatively quiet months,  Dark Descent Records has unleashed an unholy duo of crumbling doom/death metal in the form of Emptiness‘s experimentally depressive Loss and Anhedonist‘s crawling, lumbering debut, Netherwards. However, when truly unearthing Netherwards one word comes to mind more than any other; Cavernous. Playing a form of subterranean doom/death metal Seattle’ […]

Alcest’s ‘Les Voyages de l’Âme sure as hell is a niche album. Clearly, Neige’s intention with his approach to shoegaze is to convey a positive and mellow type of ambiance, and while he’s succeeding in said task in a few songs (while drifting into depressive musings in others; at least according to what I could […]

It’s been awhile since I’ve had anyone satisfy my yen for Dimmu Borgir-style symphonic black metal. For awhile, and mostly in the late ’90s, it seemed to be everywhere: Old Man’s Child of course, but also Mactatus, Mystic Circle, Stormlord, Morgul, Anorexia Nervosa, Thyrane, Carach Angren, Ninnuam, and so on. And although most of those […]

Hailing from Queensland, Australia, Ocean of Zero have decided to release their two demos onto in one package. Comprised of both The Wake and Shun the Light, Ocean of Zero seems to be taking their time in creating an official full-length release. For what it’s worth, it’s always much better for a band to release […]

It’s actually been a couple of months since I reviewed some Christian metal core on Facedown Records, so why not get back into things with the debut album from a band whose introductory EP last year grabbed my attention with its no nonsense, almost All Shall Perish styled delivery  of brimstone, metallic sermons. Unfortunately though, […]

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about stoner bands are the unapologetically straightforward band names. Bongzilla, King Bong, Space Bong, Belzebong, Dopefight, Dopethrone, Weedeater… Frankly, I’m surprised no one thought to use just plain old Bong before these guys started up in 2005. It’s easy to think sing this kind of name is too obvious, or […]

God dammit!!!!  I wanted this to be good and really like it more. But alas, the debut album from renowned and respected metal uber artist Mark Riddick (who plays drums, keyboards, guitars and bass) and some dude from Belgium on vocals fall flat. Way flat. The intent is there; to create a dirty sloppy old […]

“Black,” the first song on Holy Wrath, the debut album by Latvian band Diseim, is an absolutely fantastic death metal song. Big, groovy riffs; odd time signatures; a melodic-without-being-wimpy chorus; guttural, double tracked vocals; and simply great songwriting. It makes a loud, bold statement. Aaaannndddd… I should just leave it at that. I kind of […]

This is one of those special sort of interviews for me since guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke’s contributions to one of my all-time favorite bands, Motörhead, had such a huge impact on me growing up and still does to this day, not to mention his work in Fastway, particularly that brilliant first album. I still recall purchasing Motörhead’s No Remorse cassette at a record store in San Antonio, Texas during a visit one summer, a consumer product decision that changed my life (grabbing a copy of Celtic Frost’s To Mega Therion didn’t hurt either). But enough with all that nostalgic blathering and on to the business at hand. It’s taken two decades, but Clarke is back in a big way with a fantastic new Fastway album, one that should blast any remaining memories of the questionable material that followed All Fired Up right out of your head. Clarke is joined by vocalist/bassist Toby Jepson and drummer Matt E on what is without question a great hard rock album called Eat Dog Eat. Welcome back Eddie and welcome back Fastway. Read on.

Blending hallucinatory technicality and one astonishing sense of striking melody into one sole album wrap-up is a challenge quite a wide community of bands have been undertaking over time, and it’s gotta be said that hitting each fucking minute mark with just the right balance of both elements is a uniquely gifted talent to have. […]

Oh Yay! Another boring release from Job For a Cowboy, however this time they add a little more nuances to their sound for a little bit of an enjoyable experience. I tend to wonder why this band gets as much attention as Suffocation or Cannibal Corpse. Because for one all their albums were utter crap […]