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, […]
Hi there. It me Bigfoot. I ready to come out and show self to public. Not because I need money but because I sick and tired of stupid beef jerky commercials. I so angry from ads make fun of Bigfoot that I write death metal album to show everyone I not hairy clown. I get […]
The Ruins at Dusk is wholesale riff worship. Archon main man Andrew Jude and his cadre of guests construct towering monoliths, layering slow rolling riffs upon waves of ritualistic drums. The four tracks, spanning nearly 60 minutes, expand on traditionally slow moving sludge/doom with some classic rock wah abuse and psychedelia to produce some truly […]
One of the things I love most about metal is that it’s so diverse and far-reaching that I’ve been able to amass a United Nations of a collection. And sure, we probably all have our share of classic American thrash, British heavy metal, Swedish melodic death and Norwegian or French black metal, but how about […]
So I reviewed the demo compilation by this New York tech metal act a couple of years ago and was rather impressed, especially by the shredding abilities of guitarists Nick Llerandi and Billy Anderson who added some very nice sweeps and solos to the semi deathcore/tech death metal/metal core stylings. However, my only real gripe […]
Another day, another sludge band returning from an extended absence. Rue is back from the depths for their sophomore release, Thorns, a schizophrenic slab of sonic catharsis. Pummeling sludge grooves are coated with a layer of Rust Belt decay and filtered through Midwest hardcore and old fashioned rock and roll. It’s a solid blend that […]
Taking musical inspiration from Black Sabbath is never a bad thing, especially when bands like Iron Man use it to create doom metal that is as heavy and memorable as what is heard on this Shadow Kingdom reissue of 1999’s Generation Void. One of those bands that have struggled for its art through continual lineup […]
Blut Aus Nord’s Memoria Vetusta II is one of my favorite black metal albums of all time – an odyssey both terrifying and graceful, with masterful compositions that flow as much as they rage. So when I heard that Blut Aus Nord’s next releases would be an epic trilogy, I was naturally very excited to […]
The 7” EP was both a blessing and a curse in the 90’s. They were cheap to produce and sell, which meant small labels could produce them easily and that you could walk away from a show with new music even if you only had 2 or 3 bucks to spare. Of course, the rub […]
Few bands can lay claim to the fact that their guitar style spawned a whole genre, but Meshuggah is one such band. Their heavily palm-muted, distorted guitar style known as “djent” has spawned many a copycat. Some bands such as Periphery, Animals as Leaders, Putrescent Secretancy, Textures and others have done a good job of […]
Black metal is a curious beast; it can be a very conservative sub-genre and at the same time, one of the most diverse types of music to be composed. Bands like Enslaved, Dimmu Borgir and Deathspell Omega have shed most of their black metal roots in favor of something different. Whereas, Darkthrone, Dark Funeral and […]
It’s a new release from Comatose Music, the North Carolina label that continues to bring to stand firm in bringing you an unfiltered stream of brutal death metal. And some pretty damn good CD specials too, such as the current “buy three get two free” deal. But I digress…as usual. Right, the new release! It’s […]
A common idiom states: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” something December Flower (taken from the In Flames song of the same name) has taken to heart with In Flames, Eucharist and Dark Tranquillity; at least their earlier forms from the mid-90s. This German quintet, made up of former members of Chronicles of Tyrants, […]
Still a musical anomaly residing on Facedown Records , Finland’s Immortal Souls are four albums in to their career and have yet to truly impress me. Their form of melodic “wintery” death metal has always been solid, but I’m never craving this band. So I’m not sure what’s more impressive, the fact they are still […]
Relapse has reissued some pretty good stuff over the last couple of years, namely the Death reissues as well as General Surgery, Convulse and Nirvana 2002, but along with a couple of the recent Dying Fetus reissues, this one is a bit of head scratcher. For some reason Relapse Records has decided to dust off and […]
Portugal’s Major Label Industries is hardly prolific with their releases, but when they release something it’s usually something creative or unique like Crushing Sun, The Firstborn or Before the Rain. However, with the release of E.A.K‘s second effort, the label appears to have succumbed to releasing an underwhelming home grown effort that does not match the […]
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 […]