There’s a fine line between plagiarism and homage. And in metal, that line is even thinner as many acts have simply said, ‘you know what? We like this band we are going to sound just like them, not to rip them off maliciously but they just rock’. For every Suffocation, Entombed, Morbid Angel and Slayer […]

Taake needs no introduction based upon the three hundred potential friends Last.fm has lined up for me based on Taake in common. Noregs Vaapen features appearances from Nocturno Culto, Attila Csihar, and Demonaz. I’ll leave it to your explorations to find their contributions, for exploring this album is a task well taken up. The album […]

If there is one label that’s almost on par with Dark Descent Records as far as old school Swedish death metal worship, its Pulverized Records. With the likes of Crucifyre, Morbius Chron, Interment, Tribulation and Desultory‘s comeback, they have created their own nice little stable of retro Swedish death metal acts. Well, add Sweden’s awesome […]

When initially approached with the prospect of reviewing this album I was a bit leery. A Montreal band calling them selves ‘trombone core’, named after a Shakespeare character and with a masked trombone player called ‘the hitman’ in their ranks. It all seemed to have the potential to add up to a giant pile of […]

I wasn’t overly impressed with the nu grind, caustic, programmed drum based output of Harpoon‘s last release, Double Gnarly/Triple Suicide, so when this showed up in my mail box I was hardly overly enthused. However, it appears, even with a drum machine still present, the trio of guitarist Tony Costello, bassist DJ Baracca (Lair of […]

With bands like Krisiun, Blood Red Throne, Decapitated and other top-level death metal bands putting out new releases this year, I had high hopes for Vile’s new one – Metamorphosis. With six years between full lengths you would expect somewhat of a style change, and their flashy new artwork definitely hinted at these guys going […]

In their four album transition from typical Finnish doom death outfit to a melancholic melodic (melocholic?) death metal, Insomnium have done no wrong. Each album being better than the last. And album number 5 is no different as the band manages to take slivers of recognizable influences like Rapture, Amorphis, In Flames, Paradise Lost, My […]

For four albums now I’ve viewed California’s Carnifex as a solid second tier deathcore act. Not quite up there with Whitechapel, Oceano, I Declare War or All Shall Perish (my opinion of course) but mired in the vast, faceless but quality  rabble with the likes of Chelsea Grin, Molotov Solution, Betray the Martyrs, Rose Funeral, […]

Released the same time as the killer debut from label mates Obsiquiae, the third album from Maine’s Falls of Rauros was a bit overshadowed, which is a shame as it adds yet another quality album to the genre of woodsy, misty, organic black metal or ‘grey’ metal as I like to call it. The cover […]

After the awesome old school Grave worship of Lavadome’s first release, Brutally Deceased‘s Dead Lovers Guide, I was excited to see yet another Lavadome release in my mail box, this time from Perversity, a relatively long running Slovakian death metal band. And while I was a little disappointed that this wasn’t more old school Swedish […]

There has been a fair bit of buzz about the debut from England’s Vallenfyre, and rightfully so. It’s a super group of sorts featuring Gregor Mackintosh of Paradise Lost, Hamish Glencross of My Dying Bride as well as mercenary drummer Adrian Erlandsson (Cradle of Filth, At the Gates, The Haunted to name a few) , […]

Thanks largely in part to Liturgy, there’s been somewhat of a backlash to USBM — mostly the post-rock, shoegaze -influenced kind. I mean even former darling Krallice has fallen victim to some of the criticism of the genre with their largely unheralded and unlauded 3rd album. So, are the genre’s oft worshiped apex band now open to […]

I honestly don’t know where to start here. I have vague recollections of Ebonylake from the late ’90s due to them being British and residing on Cacophonous Records, but never actually heard their sole 1999 release, On the Even of the Grimly Inventive. So when I got this CD from new French label–this is only […]

Here’s the debut full-length from Louisiana’s Excommunicated, the new band formed by Chad Kelly of Catholicon (and UW Records founder). He’s joined by two cohorts from Suture and Despondency (Jonathan Joubert and Jason McIntyre respectively). The end result is a varied, enjoyable death/thrash record with an expected Southern-hue that deals with the extremely bloody and […]

At this point, Skeletonwitch is near unstoppable. They keep elevating their game to a new level without sacrificing (to the slaughtergod) an iota of what makes them the ‘witch – the galloping rhythms, shredtastic solos and riffing, ear-catching melodies and scathing vocals are all still very much intact, just wrapped up in even tighter packaging. […]

Adorned with some of the more striking album art I have seen in a while, Bluostar is the debut full-length album from one man black metal maestro Fyrnd–and as far as one man black metal goes–Fyrnask has to be one of the more elite acts I’ve heard as of late. Though France has a large […]

Skinny Puppy is an institution. Let’s just get that out of the way right out of the gate. Even if you’ve never heard them, you’ve heard of them. What’s tricky about reviewing a new album from the industrial/electronic pioneers is the question: do you cater to the potential new listeners who haven’t taken the plunge, […]

When it comes down to the new Megadeth album TH1RT3EN, there’s one thing people can agree on: At least it’s not ‘Lulu’. Click on to read our review of Mega Dave’s latest opus.

Landmine Marathon is a band I’ve always loved on paper. Stylistically, the world needs a band like them. That is to say, a younger band to take on the no-frills metal battery style that Nihilist, Bolt Thrower (and many other early Earache Records bands) helped pioneer close to 20 years ago, balancing groove with grind, […]

This takes me back to the good ol’ days in the 90s when Relapse Records was also Release Entertainment and put out albums by cold industrialists like Dead World and Malformed Earthborn. Harsh, bludgeoning and mechanistic, Eyeswithoutaface’s Monotoneoteny is a raging piece of industrial sludge. It’s heavy and it’s abrasive, even as it is quiet […]

Wino is back. After Shrinebuilder, Wino teamed up with longtime friend and guitarist Jim Karow, drummer Matthew Clark and former Meatjack bassist Brian Daniloski to bring the stoned heavy in a new band, Premonition 13. Now, if the name Wino means anything to you, you can go ahead and skip the review because this is […]

Reviewers tend to get caught up in clever descriptions, mostly because it’s sometimes hard to describe exceedingly typical things. You can’t say, for example, “It sounds like average goregrind” for every average goregrind album you review. That would either be incredibly lazy or the most honest thing a reviewer has ever done, I’m not quite […]

Brutal Truth returned from their extended hiatus in 2009 with Evolution Through Revolution, an angular, violent extension of the sound they developed on 1997’s Sounds of the Animal Kingdom. End Time sees the band unleash a blistering whirlwind of grinding fury, continuing the developments of Evolution with a slightly meatier production and a noisier and […]

Now this one is definitely interesting. As someone who tends much more towards the death/extreme end of metal, I signed up for this one having no idea what to expect. Based on what I have read, this band falls under the post-black/folk/shoegaze brand of metal. Being unfamiliar with this genre I have no comparisons off […]

This band literally came out from nowhere to knock me on my ass. Sorry, I just had to – I’m a cheeseball like that. From Spain, From Nowhere are another of those smelting pot type bands, incorporating influences from many sources. They are at once thrashy, deathly, melodic, grooving, and technical. I struggle to find […]