For $5 how can you go wrong? That may depend on whether your life revolves around daily financial decisions concerning choices between items like a pack of Pall Malls and diapers for your woefully neglected infant. But for the rest of you, Vanhelgd’s Church of Death is a steal at that price. Old school and […]

Oh. My. Fucking. God. Imagine, metaphorically speaking, that two high speed trains are careening towards each other on a unavoidable collision course. One train is Origin‘s ultra technical, brutal, but intelligent form of death metal. The other train is Sigh and their over the top orchestral symphonics and theatrics. BAM!!!! They collide, each train melting […]

I’ve had the same problem with the last few Sepultura records. They all struck me as pretty good albums straight out of the box, but after a few weeks I put them away, and most of them haven’t gotten any play since that initial listening period. This is the second record with guitarist Andreas Kisser […]

All Shall Perish‘s sophomore album, The Price of Existence was my favorite album of 2006. Unfortunately, their 2008 follow up, Awaken the Dreamers was a bit of a let down. In part due to the precedent set by the prior album, but also due to some more commercial moments, clean vocals and even ballads. So […]

Requiem is a veteran death metal band from Switzerland that have just released their fifth album, Within Darkened Disorder on Twilight Vertrieb. Requiem plays a form of war death metal with old school influence as well as a more melodic tone (blackened). One thing is for sure that this album is powerful yet kind of […]

Have you ever heard an album that doesn’t suck nor does it rock the shit out of everything in its path… an album that’s just, uh oh, decent? Switchtense self-titled second full-length is that album. For its duration, it’s all entertainment and cupcakes, but after it ceases spinning, that’s it. It doesn’t leave a mark. […]

OK, I reeeeeally need to revisit Incantation. Not only have I been enjoying the likes of Corpsessed, Gorephilia, Blaspherian and such, but the current wave of old school death metal has even got Century Media on the band wagon with the excellent Sonne Adam. Profound Lore Records has simply decided to truly dig into the […]

Medeia’s previous album, Cult, floored me with a blindside haymaker; the blend of melodic death metal and mainly Gothenburg-less metalcore really stuck out from the competition. The songwriting was tight, the riffs were tighter and the delivery was full of primal rage and enough technical finesse to make it all interesting. Three years later, the […]

So in my 10 or so years of this reviewing gig, I’ve seen the increase in ethnic and cultural influences within metal. Of course, there’s the obvious folk/pagan stuff, but bands like Melechesh, Orphaned Land, Mictlantecuhtl, Negura Bunget and others have brought the world to metal.But never in a million years did I ever think […]

A Strike First Records release you know the deal, Christian music at its finest. Ark Of The Covenant is their name and the Separation EP is their game. If one is familiar with bands such as Creations, or sadly the poop fest that is The Great Commission, then as you know breakdowns are the key […]

Hellmouth is the music equivalent of their hometown Detroit: violent, grimy, pissed off and ugly. Their debut, Destroy Everything, Worship Nothing was a feral but ultimately forgetful  crossover assault of black metal, thrash and punk, but on their follow up, Gravestone Skylines, with the same musical influences,  the band has improved their sneering sonic violence, […]

Somewhere in Boston , MA at the intersection of doom, post rock, sludge and fucking awesome lies the band Morne. A new act to me, but after seeing some positive press and the band being on Profound Lore, I just had to check their second album out. I was greatly rewarded, as will you upon […]

This is metal the Chicago way, baby! By that I mean Bones’ self-titled debut is raw, in your face, no frills death metal with a whole lot of dirty rockin’ groove.  It is a trio of ex-Usurper members Jon Necromancer (vocals/bass), Carcass Chris (guitar), and Joe Warlord (drums) that delivers this album of herb-enhanced, beer […]

On their full-length debut Curse of the Artizan, Florida-based Artizan walk a line between the classic sounds of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and a lighter weight brand of power metal, detouring just occasionally for some prog. The results are mixed. When it’s good, it’s really good, but too often, it doesn’t quite work. Artizan’s […]

War and death metal have been ingrained within each other since the genre first started. And it seems a certain style of death metal has been associated with war. Sure there’s a few black metal acts and so called ‘war metal’ acts that that do the whole war thing, but I think most would agree […]

Abnormity finally unleashes their first full length of modern, brutal, slammy death metal to the masses in the form of Irreversible Disintegration. Their must be something in their vodka because Russians have a knack for creating some truly nasty ultra brutal death metal (Cranial Osteotomy, Abominable Putridity, Aborted Fetus). For some the constant barrage of […]

This little booger slipped through my highly efficient, organizational skills and structured teethofthedivine office space (i.e the pile of CDs and my daughter’s Disney DVDs on my computer desk at home). But a track randomly popped up on my Ipod warranting further investigation.. I’m not going to try and dance smartly around the divisive white […]

From Olympic to Crash to Napalm to Victory (and that’s only since 2004), Wisconsin’s death metal war machine soldiers on without missing a beat, much less taking prisoners. If you’ve not dug it to date, then Kill on Command may not change your mind nor does Jungle Rot have any intention of changing their patented […]

Trials are a modern metal band from Chicago. They’re not bad but their style of music is somewhat predictable; clean vocals, Pantera riffs, weird gothic talking and radio friendly everything else. Modern metal bands are a mixed bag, on one hand they can deliver extremely catchy music (All That Remains), but on the other, well […]

Man, after the bands 2009 self titled debut EP, I said I’d keep an eye on these Christian shredders in hope they would deliver something better. And boy did they ever! I didn’t quite see anything this good coming though. Adding a dramatic symphonic element to their early A Plea For Purging/ Woe of Tyrants […]

What is in the water in Canada? Between Gorguts, Kataklysm, Cryptopsy, Beneath the Massacre and numerous other, the hockey-loving country to the north has turned out a veritable who’s-who in the death metal world. And does anybody remember an unsigned band named Vengeful that dropped one of the best death metal albums of the year […]

Not to be confused with Sutter Cane (“Do you read Sutter Cane?”), Finnr’s Cane is a three-piece hailing from the frozen wastes of Canada (yeah, they have those there too), and if you’ve never heard of them yet, take note, because you’ll be uttering their name alongside other naturalistic black metal luminaries in years to […]

So Benedictum isn’t exactly a new band, but somehow they’ve flown under my radar until Dominion, their third release. My first impression wasn’t the best, either. When the techno-dance beat at the beginning of the opening title track kicked in, I thought perhaps taking this record on was a really bad idea. But by the […]

Right-wing yahoos in this country may still hold the French in contempt, but those of us in the underground know better. Not only has France been dominating horror the past few years with brutal films like Inside, Martyrs and the work of Alexandre Aja, but it’s also got its share of stylish, unfuckwithable metal acts. […]

Adam Kalmbach has been a busy individual. Since I reviewed Old Ways,  his third CD of impressive, one man black metal back in 2009, he has released 6 more albums under the Jute Gyte moniker, including a couple of atmospheric experimental albums. There obviously isn’t a lot to do in Springfield, Missouri (I can attest […]