This album starts off with “to meet again,” I never met them the first time. Here is obscure metal from Mexico, care of Moribund, with a nicely detailed album cover that screams bash and bellow war metal. In that sense I am not disappointed. These guys can bash with the best of them, but the […]

Michigan Christian metal act  As They Sleep are back with vengeance on their new album Dynasty. This is their first album on an actual label and with a take no prisoner’s attitude, As They Sleep has managed to make an enjoyable record even though it does have its faults. A rather noticeable trait on Dynasty […]

Listen, I get sent a lot of things in the mail from bands, labels and PR companies; stickers, CDs, shirts, candy and all that, but the main man behind Santa Cruz’s one man black metal act At Dusk, Korihor, has done a first. The cover art of his split CD-R with fellow Santa Cruz act […]

The Way Of Purity is a fairly young Christian metal band from Norway. Crosscore is the name of there debut album and it’s probably one of the weirdest bands I have covered as of late. They look like members of Mushroomhead and sound like a mix between In This Moment and Cradle Of Filth. Just […]

Good Polish death metal (seems redundant, doesn’t it?) on a good Polish metal label. I needed this, as from what I can recall it’s been a while since I’ve had a filling meal from one of Poland’s head chefs. Calm Hatchery’s Sacrilege of Humanity is modern, chunky, and memorable. Chew your food for Christ’s sake! […]

Finally some new jams by Canadian technical death metal act Beneath The Massacre, in the form of an EP entitled Marée Noire. One would tend to think the well could have run dry with a lot of their songs but nope these guys are still alive and kicking. Two years after their second full length […]

Drug Honkey; that name is just so right on so many levels. Perhaps we shouldn’t even delve into the specifics of those levels and instead focus on Death Dub, a series of brain-warping hits from the world’s acidic blotter. There is doom, there is death/doom, there is experimental/death/doom, and then there is this. Experimentally wandering […]

Like a toy that’s temporarily lost its fun factor — maybe a torched doll with plastic skin bunched at the bottom of its fire-mutated face, laying underneath the bed waiting for a facelift — this Dead Neon review got tossed to the wayside until I could come up with the right words to bring it […]

Sometimes I tend to enjoy a poppy metal record or two when it’s done right and when the album bleeds passion. Here we are with the debut album This Is War by the Australian act Forgiven Rival who play modern metalcore akin to All That Remains and Trivium. Catchy songs be damned, this young metalcore […]

Nine albums into their rather underrated career and it’s safe to say that The Netherlands’ God Dethroned have entered into the metal elite inhabited by the likes of Bolt Thrower, Dismember, Obituary and such. No, not quite the genre defining metal royalty, but that small club of bands who have ascended into such a level […]

If you remember that old song “Mama, Don’t let your babies grow up to be Satanists,” then you’ll have an idea about the message conveyed on Nocturnal Blood’s Devastated Graves – The Morbid Celebration. Well, except for the “don’t” part. The work of a lone (like in the sense of “lone gunman”) Californian, this half-hour […]

Lately it seems post-hardcore music is on the rise or I mean alternative music. This is music that requires no talent and no skill to play, music that is just their so teenager’s can feel hard and different from the norm. Music…well this isn’t music, this is an abomination. I really hate when people call […]

It’s been two year since I last heard from Micawber. Their last album Bloodrunner contained some amazing music. Though it was plagued by a demo quality the album was insanely heavy. They return with a follow up album entitled Hell On Earth; this is easily one of my favorite deathcore releases all year. The band […]

The debut from this Sydney Australia progressive folk-metal act was ambitious, but didn’t quite reach its potential. Fire:Water:Ash was a bit too wandering and unfocused for its own good. The maritime themed follow-up however, is an improved effort that sees the act fulfill the promise of the debut. Though hailing from Australia, the influences of […]

Man’s Gin is the side-project of Erik Wunder, one half of American post-black metal act Cobalt – and although it never comes close to that band’s rage, it’s still at times a kindred, gloomy spirit. Instead of Cobalt’s brand of brittle, angular mayhem, Wunder has woven a rich tapestry of dark Appalachian folk and alt-country […]

Finally after three years since their debut EP, Diskreet present us with their first full length album and what an album it is. Hailing from Topeka, Kansas this quintet plays a form of devastating technical death metal that annihilates all who oppose. If machines started to decimate and take over humanity this would be their […]

Ironic that the cover of Kylesa’s new disc is so monochromatic, given all of the color the band has just added to its sound. The past’s last album, Static Tensions (only a year ago), was a tight blend of terse, punchy hardcore and grumbling sludge; with Spiral Shadow, the band has embraced a whole new […]

Phobia, the debut album from Germany’s Athorn, seems to be right up my alley. In the vein of a band like Kiuas, one of my favorite discoveries of the last 10 years or so, Athorn blends power metal melodics with thrash and groove and maybe just a little hint of death here and there. I […]

Brilliant and frustrating – two words that sum up Deathspell Omega. There’s no question that since Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice, the mysterious French duo has offered up some of the most staggeringly complex and challenging black metal the genre has ever seen. However, in their never-ending quest to batter, slash and violate the genre’s boundaries, […]

As the year 2011 draws near, there isn’t anything new about post-rock being combined with metal aesthetics (or vice versa) yet Denmark’s AEDRA showcase themselves in a positive—if not solely unique—light by blending the emotionality of post-rock with slower and much meatier doom elements. But isn’t that what various post-metal/sludge bands have been doing throughout […]

King Conquer are finally gracing us with their new album entitled America’s Most Haunted. Hailing from Naples, Florida, King Conquer play a form of brutal deathcore. People these days tend to think less of deathcore as most of the scene is becoming quite stale. So every now and then gems surface amidst the stale air […]

I’ll preface this review, as I usually do, by admitting to my fanboy admiration for Savatage and the projects of the various members. That said, Zakk Stevens’ Circle II Circle has never completely connected with me since the band’s best effort, their debut record Watching in Silence in 2003. Their last outing, 2008’s Delusions of Grandeur, […]

Oceano is back with their new album entitled Contagion. After jamming this album a couple times I tend to think they should have called the album Depths Pt. 2 or Depths Redux or something. Because in all honesty it seems as though Oceano made a few touch ups and played it a tad bit safe […]

Fans of Symphorce are likely to be split on their latest record, Unrestricted. The album moves the band farther away from the progressive and symphonic elements of their earlier work and puts more of a straight-ahead hard rock spin on their sound. Album opener “The Eternal” gives us a dark piano intro that sounds promising, […]

Saw this New York-based black/death band in the writers’ backlog here at TOTD, so I decided to check out their Myspace. Liked what I heard (from their ‘05 split with funeral doom act Rigor Sardonicus, and also from their full ‘07 release): raw and clattery, with the occasional melodic strain, and huge, gargled demonic vocals […]