For you whippersnappers out there, the current  incarnation of General Surgery―the one that reformed in 2003 and has released  two full-length albums since―is a far cry from what the band was in 1991 when they unleashed their seven song debut EP Necrology. One of the early super groups, culling members of the then burgeoning Stockholm Death metal […]

The only thing here missing is the logo. Not that the dust had begun to settle on Wormwood―that will take many years―Marduk is back to keep themselves fresh in your mind. The band is cyclical. Many fans want bands to evolve, many do not. Marduk evolves by continually borrowing from their own past, birthing new […]

This is a tricky one. Stillife‘s Requiem leaves a bit to be desired initially, but upon further listening, its appeal starts to break through. The Michigan group known as Stillife has its own unique approach to heavy metal, one that won’t willingly be confined to genres. They sample progressive, traditional, doom, modern and then some […]

Highgate’s follow up to their 2008 debut is like a really interesting movie you end up feeling ambivalent about. A picture projecting sickly foreboding, a sense of dread and imminent mental and physical collapse but the plot meanders and at the end you’re left intrigued with no desire to watch it again. You’re left searching […]

I’ve never really considered myself anything but a relatively casual fan of The Black Dahlia Murder, despite their rather large status in the realms of modern metal. With a sound that’s been cloned more times than Jenna Jameson has had cocks in her, their appeal loses even more luster as I blame them for the […]

Upon hearing In Flames’ Sounds of a Playground Fading, one of our other esteemed writers here at Teeth of the Divine dubbed it Sounds of a Career Failing. I’m sure many fans will feel the same, but being the contrarian that I am, I’ve got a slightly different take. I’ll say off the top that […]

Two years after their dizzying third album Process of a New Decline, French tech-death sorcerers Gorod return with this 5-track EP of inspired remakes and re-imaginings, plus one epic of a closer. First off is “Earth Pus,” a new recording of a track from their 2005 release Neurotripsicks. It’s a blustery, groovy beast, all spidery […]

Extreme metal has many sub-genres. Some would say too many. One that has always seemed to be kind of an anomaly is the sludge metal genre. It’s a genre that’s not tossed around too often, and it seems that one really has to be in the mood for it to really enjoy it. But if […]

As I’ve mentioned in other Dark Descent Records’ reviews, I really like the fact they are balancing out some awesome reissues (Uncanny, Utumno, etc.) with some new acts like Adversarial, Miasmal, Corpsessed, Gorephilia and Washington DC’s sickly heavy, crusty d-beat blackened doom act, Ilsa. While essentially lying in the same murky sludgy and heavy territory […]

Talk about a breath of fresh air. With so much deathcore aping, tech-metal trying to out-tech itself and post-ironic hipster dabbles in the world of heaviness, it’s relief to accidentally come across a record in 2011 that is visceral and extreme without any novelty kitsch. The adventitious record I’m referring to is The Oculus from […]

Whether you’ve been a fan since Paradise Lost or The Damnation Game, you know at least this one truth of Symphony X: everything they release is top notch. The winning combination of stunning technical prowess and flawless songwriting has yet to fail the Jersey boys, and they keep getting better with age. Iconoclast showcases this, […]

What the hell is this? Melody and diversity in an Origin album? More than just skull-pummeling fury and seething insanity? Oh wait, they started that with Antithesis. So the thing you may be wondering about Entity, with its decidedly more varied structure and properties, a huge step in a new direction for Origin — does […]

I’ve been sitting on my review of this simply stunning double LP for a while now for a couple of reasons. First, it’s such a monolithic, emotionally draining and fantastic album that putting it into words is nigh impossible. Second, I just want to listen to and absorb this record over and over again and […]

Despite my relative familiarity with old school Swedish metal, old and new, as well as most of Rogga Johanssen’s many current and former Stockholm-styled projects (Paganizer, Ribspreader, Bone Gnawer, etc.) I actually had never heard of Revolting. It’s even more surprising that their newest effort was released on FDA Rekotz, the label responsible for my […]

I love the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day. Being stuck on repeat, so to speak, is an entertaining premise. The film really works, however, because within that framework of repetition, the main character finds a way to vary the program. So, each day, much as it’s similar to the one before, is different enough to […]

Swedish prog death metal band Scar Symmetry comes back with their fifth studio release, The Unseen Empire, a concept album put forth about the Illuminati — or as quoted from drummer Henrik Ohlsson, this album “seeks to expose the hidden hand of the elite that pull the strings of mankind in order to fulfill their […]

Lost in all the controversy and arguing over the new Morbid Angel album is the  fact that another legendary, godfather act of death metal also returned after a long hiatus in 2011. The difference is…these guys did it right. After two certifiably classic death metal albums in Severed Survival and Mental Funeral, Autopsy released two  […]

Ahhhh… Unearth… one of the pioneers of the modern metalcore scene. Every time these guys come out with a new album it’s like an old friend you haven’t seen in a few years coming to visit – you think they might have changed but you’re hoping not by much. How does this, their fifth full […]

Well folks, Dr.Acula are back for another round of nu-grind violence in the form of Slander. Well actually the whole grindcore scheme of things (beer pong massacre anyone? No well I loved that song) is replaced with a deathcore sound meaning longer songs yet still retaining the same snotty attitude of the old. Slander is kind […]

Here’s a nice little surprise in the form of the second album from Chicago’s symphonic black metal act Withering Soul. With ties to one of first US acts plying the style competently, the underrated Veneficum, in keyboardist/guitarist Krystopher, Withering Soul’s sound has a distinct European tone that obviously culls from the likes of early Dimmu […]

Halo of Flies is having a pretty awesome run of LP releases over the last few months. Going back to last year’s The Makai and Protestant LPs, this year they’ve released the sublime debut of Light Bearer (ex Fall of Efrafa) and Northless’ follow up to 2010’s No Quarter for the Damaged CD/EP. As with […]

I missed the 2005 debut from Speed\Kill/Hate, side project of Overkill guitarist Dave Linsk, but I just might have to go back and check it out after hearing their latest effort, Out for Blood. The 2011 lineup of the band is completely different from the 2005 version, which also featured a couple of other Overkill […]

This has to be a late April’s Fools right? Or some sick practical joke and somewhere Trey Azagthoth and David Vincent are laughing it up, and will let us in on the joke, then release a proper album, right? Because if not, I’m going to be pissed, as are lots of other death metal fans. […]

Did anyone happen to get the license plate of the truck that just hit me? Over and over. For about an hour. Growing up in a rural area long before the Internet showed up in every household giving people access to music from around the world, I was a latecomer to Destruction. I was already […]

Acephalix initially caught my attention in 2010 with their album Aporia, released on Prank Records. That record eventually got an honorary mention on my ‘Best of 2010’ list, in no short part because it had a unique combination of metal and hardcore, and while I realize that sounds like nothing new, they turn this seemingly […]