After trying their hand at Orchid-style screamo and early Isis-style sludgy hardcore, Sofy Major has emerged with their first full length of self described noise hardcore. I’m always suspicious when bands mash genres together to describe their music but, for the most part the noise hardcore tag works. Noise rock and hardcore are the primary […]
There’s a very peculiar sound to Finnish bands that mingle between death and thrash metal. One can’t just throw in a few clear comparisons and call it a day (read: review.) Ravage Machinery, on their latest four song EP The Dystopian Tide, follow that path as they too have a sound that’s ‘universal’ but at […]
After a three year warmup spell upon reforming we finally have a new Einherjer album in our mitts: Norrøn. The offering Frode and Gerhard made at Quorthon’s grave was a good one. Harsher, darker, with overlaying melodic leads that are unencumbered and memorable. They are picking up where they left off, which leaves them more blackened than their […]
Well folks, here it is! Entrails‘ newest album, The Tomb Awaits. For old school Stockholm death metal fans, the follow-up to my 2010’s album of the year and arguably the most anticipated album of 2011; the cherry on top of a pie that’s already been filled with the likes of Undead Creep, Brutally Deceased, Demonical, Morbus […]
As a longtime Opeth fan (my favorite band for almost 14 years), I can’t say I was that surprised when Mikael Akerfeldt announced that the new album would be a completely prog rock affair. No growls, no thick, distorted guitars, no death metal at all. Yet it’s a natural transition for a band that, from […]
Been searching for a modern counterpart to Mercyful Fate? Hell, even if you haven’t, if you call yourself a fan of King Diamond‘s work, you need to hear Portrait. Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae is the group’s potentially unintentional homage to the King, minus some of the creeping horror skulking around most Mercyful Fate/King Diamond material. […]
Correlation does not equal causation, but I’m going to say what everyone is thinking anyway: that Mike Portnoy’s departure from Dream Theater has let the band take a big, deep breath of fresh air. Now look, we can’t fault the guy for wanting to experiment over the years. Dream Theater is a progressive metal band, […]
As fans await the follow-up to 2008’s Be Gone, Pharaoh offers them a little teaser with this six-song EP featuring two new tracks, two rare tracks and a couple of covers. It’s not the four-course meal we may have wanted, but it’s a nice little appetizer. The new tracks are the title track, “Ten Years,” […]
I absolutely hate it when a band releases a top notch debut album and soon after they break up. It’s a total mind fuck I tell you! But at least the bands that break up present us with something worth remembering before they vanish into oblivion. Bring Me Solace–a progressive metalcore band from Portland, Oregon–did […]
Up until a few months ago, I had never heard of ‘slam death.’ Not a big surprise, since my death metal tastes run more towards tech or melodic, and I was never that into Suffocation to begin with (who, I understand, are kind of the granddaddy of the subgenre). Yet, out there are entire blogs […]
I’ll admit I wasn’t too excited for a new Lock Up album. I mean, it’s been eight years since Hate Breeds Suffering, which I really though wasn’t necessary after 1999’s Pleasure Pave Sewers, (which was admittedly one of the first high profile super groups). And let’s be honest, a grindcore side project in 2011 featuring […]
Hailing from Germany, Nothgard play a form of fun, epic and bombastic folk viking metal akin to country mates Equilibrium and Finsterforst, but also cull heavily from the genres other heavyweights, notably Ensiferum. Bouncy happy amicable metal is the order of the day with a power metal back bone beefed up with melodic death metal […]
Whereas label and country mates The Cleansing struck quickly with their second album, Denmark’s Spectral Mortuary took a little longer to muster up a follow up on one of 2007’s most over looked death metal albums. I’m glad to shout that the wait was definitely worth it, as Total Depravity is a monster of death […]
The folks over at Deepsend Records really like their chunky Danish death metal, and particularly if it’s a band that features members of once respected Danish death metal acts. In the case of The Cleansing you have current and former members of Usipian, Iniquity, Corpus Mortale and Panzerchrist. And with label mates Spectral Mortuary, you get […]
I really hope you readers appreciate what I do for this site, because I’m pretty sure that listening to Blut Aus Nord‘s latest effort and De Magia Veterum‘s latest album in close succession for review purposes, I’ve exposed myself to irreparable mental and psychological damage. Damage, that may require long term treatment and anti-psychotic drugs. […]
There’s a good reason it’s taking me so long to review notable 2011-albums from Blut Aus Nord and De Magie Veterum; you simply have to be in the right frame of mind and have some mental patience to punish yourself aurally for that long. In the case of France’s Blut Aus Nord it’s bracing for […]
As much as I love what Dark Descent Records has done in 2011–and will continue to do so–they have to have a blight on their record at some point right? If I’m being brutally honest, for me it’s the second album from Philadelphia’s supposedly legendary death metal act Goreaphobia. Listen. Just because you formed in […]
So we have a one man band called Ov Hollowness from Canada, on a label called Hypnotic Dirge Records, with long songs and titles like “Desolate”, “Winds Forlorn”, and “Drone”. I’ll give you one guess as to what style of music this is. Emocore. Just kidding. The best (in my opinion of course) of Hypnotic […]
Reviewing a Christian metal album is always like swimming in shark tank with a chum jockstrap on. Well…IT’S FEEDING TIME BOYS!!! But I try to stay the course and be objective as I can, and most readers probably don’t realize that I’m actually a devout (?) atheist, so my many Christian reviews aren’t some thinly […]
Obsequiae, a duo black and bold Crafting melodies from cent’ries of old The mists of time unfurl and flicker past And echoed rasps begin their – Eh, enough of that. Writing a review in iambic pentameter is damn near impossible. These guys do a much better job with the medieval slant on their craft. Minneapolis’ […]
I’ve followed the UK’s The Belonging for a while now, from their slightly forgetful 2005 debut, Setting the Scene, to 2009’s Ashes of a Fallen Throne, where the band took an improved step into impressive blackened war metal. And now, in 2011, with their third follow up, we’ve got yet another quality self-released album. Continuing their […]
I really like what former doom merchants, Southern Lord, is doing with their crust/hardcore of late; excellent releases from the likes of Nails, Acephalix, Masakari, Black Breath, Planks, Summon the Crows, Sabarante, and this, the fucking blistering debut of All Pigs Must Die. Featuring Kevin Baker (The Hope Conspiracy) on vocals and Ben Koller (Converge) […]
Despite all the attention that post-rock influenced black metal or East Coast and Pacific Northwest black metal gets, there’s a few nice little unsigned, independent, more obscure USBM bands lurking in the sunny depths of California. Notably Lake of Blood and this mysterious new act, Leucosis. With only six myspace-friends and three of them notably […]
I’m not entirely sure how to describe the second, self-released album from Italy’s Laetitia In Holocaust. I mean, if the moniker and the cover art–a group of giant insects gang banging the planet earth–doesn’t clue you in the level of weirdness contained on Rotten Light, I’m not sure I can help. Falling ever so generally […]
If you need something to tide you over until Entrails‘ new album comes out later this fall, you have two solid options right now: Demonical‘s Death Infernal or the debut from Italy’s Undead Creep. Both will satiate fans of classic Swedish death metal, rendering damn fine examples of mid-range, buzzing, d-beat, Stockholm styled death metal. […]