So back in 2010 I reviewed the self-released debut from Portugal’s Karnak Seti, and it was a surprisingly good melodic death metal effort that imbued the the genre’s once hailed stylings and even reminded me a little of Disillusion‘s landmark debut. Well, the band were kind enough to send me the follow-up, In Harmonic Entropy, […]

Germany’s Klabautamann wowed me with their 2009 release Merkur, which featured a surprising Opeth-meets-Enslaved progressive black metal sound. I was particularly impressed by the soft, jazz/lounge-inspired interludes and the inventive compositions. The fact that the vocalist sounds like a dead ringer for Grutle was a bonus as well, so I slotted the album in at […]

As usual at this time of year, I get a few CDs for review that came out late the year before. Such is the case with Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions who sent me Ave Maria‘s Chapter I and this, the debut from Finland’s Saturnian Mist. And while Ave Maria left me unsettled but only slightly impressed, Gnostikoi […]

Here’s yet another addition to the growing collection of fine but quirky, experimental German black metal. This time in the form of duo ‘A’ (guitars/vocals) and ‘C’ (drums) and their Ave Maria debut, Chapter I. I don’t have a whole lot of reference points for this act, but it’s safe to say they definitely sound […]

Ghost may be snagging all the headlines in this whole retro ‘70s occult/Satanic revival thing that’s been going on (which also includes Blood Ceremony, Jex Thoth, Year of the Goat; call it the NWOSHM if you like), but when I think of mysterious Dutch act The Devil’s Blood, I recall the immortal words of Keyser Soze: […]

So here’s another reason to own a record player (and a cassette player);  Sacred Plague Records. And one of their recent releases  is the second effort from Chico, California’s Black Hole of Calcutta, a noisy, primal punk/grind/hardcore collaboration featuring members of The Makai, Transient and Mammoth Torta. Named after a 1756 incident where 146 prisoners […]

Blood Mortized‘s self released 2009 debut was one of my coolest old school Swedish death metal discoveries during the genre’s current revival. And though featuring former and current members of Amon Amarth and Crypt of Kerberos, the band didn’t seem to have as high of a profile as some of their contemporaries, but with an […]

In my interview with Jon Howard, he sarcastically derided the term “djent” when asked about Threat Signal’s genre classification. Similarly, I dislike that term. Many people like to call Threat Signal a “djent” band, but I like to be simple and just consider them a modern death metal band. This new record sees Threat Signal […]

Anyone has a Latin dictionary? Here is the impressive debut from Minnesota’s Atrum Inritus and as you can tell from the moniker, album title and track titles like “Aegrus Evert”, ” Sacramentum Exeuntium”, ” Tenebris Descendi” and “Ephemera”, there’s no doubt about what we are  dealing with here: Black metal. While all the above and […]

When an album cover depicts four long haired zombies devouring the flesh of the dead from the grave, I expect it to be a very unrelenting death metal album. Dismemberment, mutilation, disembowelment and any other descriptor for human evisceration are what I expect to drive the music and lyrics. Exhumed delivers the splattered gore on […]

Listen, I’ll readily admit to being one of those shallow, close minded types that judges a book by its cover, or a band by its moniker. And quite frankly a band with the name The Gardenerz wasn’t something I was ready to dive into. It’s the same reason I’ve never listened to Weekend Nachos and […]

American black metal is like Japanese pasta—a non-indigenous dish that actually does justice to the original (and perhaps even surpasses!) from time to time. Hence, I’d expect nothing less from the eclectic Abigail Williams, who have really gone off the edge of the cliff this time round and switched to playing an ambient form of […]

Are you tired of your metal bands jumping from genre to genre in order to fill up 10 minutes? Or how about their overuse of wussy acoustic guitar interludes? Or arrogant, meretricious guitarists using their guitars as  a masturbation tool?  And are you just sick and tired of some jack-ass belting, belching, crooning, whining and/or […]

Well fuck! That didn’t take long! After kicking my ass for a majority of 2011 with the likes of Entrails, Cryptborn, Uncanny, Miasmal, Undead Creep, Corpsessed, Gorephilia and such, Dark Descent Records, a mere two fucking days into 2012, has unleashed yet another gem of awesome old school death metal. Despite the label and PR […]

Despite being around since 1991 and with 6 full-length releases under their belt, Germany’s apparent death metal stalwarts Dead are new to me. But after hearing Hardnaked…but Dead, I can’t say I’m too bothered by the fact that I have missed out on their 20 year history. With a tongue in cheek grooving sense of […]

An album able to both warm the bones and embody the cold is generally a good one to have on hand during the colder months. Thank goat for Hammers of Misfortune and their skill at blending both the melancholy and heart-warming aspects of heavy metal so fluidly. Their multi-faceted take on the hardships and triumphs […]

Looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for the power/traditional metal fan? Well, thanks to my crappy timing in writing this review, you’re too late. But you still might want to check out Holy Grail’s holiday 7-inch single Seasons Bleedings. The run is limited to 500 copies – 250 red and 250 green – or there’s […]

First- just look at the cover… (courtesy of renowned fantasy artist Daarken whose work you’ve have seen grace games like Warhammer Online and Warcraft games ). FUCKING LOOK AT IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If that doesn’t make flaming metal skulls shoot from your cocks/vaginas, you simply don’t like metal. Second, how in the fuck is Arkansas’s Vore […]

Do you enjoy your death metal most thoroughly when it reeks of decaying viscera and echoes the sounds of torturous carnage?  You do?!  Then hold onto your butts, for Tormented is poised to offend your delicate fuckin’ sensibilities with the churning tomb stench that embodies Rotten Death, the band’s 2009 debut repackaged and exhumed by […]

I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me? It really does seem quite fitting in the context of another release by NE Ohio sludge merchants Fistula. Is it possible that this is a harsher Fistula? Eh, probably not, but it’s pretty damn harsh. Even better is that the Loser EP is available in […]

Generally, when I’m looking at porn, (I’d Like to think) I’m a fairly typical male. It’s your typical porn stuff, nothing to gross or degrading. But once in  rare while I’ll be in the mood for some thing nasty; some German Bukkake or weird Japanese, submissive ball stomping fetish. Something that makes me cringe and […]

  I’m sorry, SerpentCult.  I tried to like you; I really did.  I played Raised by Wolves in a variety of settings: in the car while driving, in the car while not driving, in the car idling and half asleep and staring mindlessly out the window, at home doing laundry, at home drinking a beer […]

I wondered from time to time if Tacoma, WA’s Infernal Legion was ever going to release a follow up to 2005’s Your Prayers Mean Nothing, a slab of old school based, no-frills death metal that I thoroughly enjoyed. The wait now over, I found third full-length The Spear of Longinus to be an album that […]

So if Ov Hollowness‘s Drawn to Descend was my favorite of recent Hypnotic Dirge Records’ and Ekove Efrits’ Conceptual Horizon was my least favorite, Pandemic Transgression from Canada’s one man black metal maven Vultyrous, is my middle release. As with any good one man black metal project, there’s boons and pitfalls. The pitfall here is […]

Here’s an interesting release from the label behind the recent and solid Ov Hollowness CD, Hypnotic Dirge Records, so you can expect something…well… hypnotic and dirge-y. And in the case of Ekove Efrits, it’s a one man black metal act from Iran, helmed by Count De Efrit. I use the term black metal very loosely here, […]