The days of getting a new Black Label Society record every year seem to be over, and that’s probably not a bad thing considering the way Zakk Wylde seemed to have burned out of good riffs on the band’s 2007 record Shot to Hell. So instead of a follow-up to last year’s outstanding Order of […]
I’ve not really been a huge fan of the current Incantation worship movement in US death metal. Partially because I was never an Incantation fan in the first place and secondly the current Swedish death metal worship movement is much more entertaining to me. However, the debut full length from Houston’s Blaspherian has got my […]
This is one unholy clusterfuck of an album. OvO create all manner of ruckus on Cor Cordium and cull influences from all over the map to create something as unique as it is difficult to describe. Written as a tribute to English romanticist Percy Shelley, the duo merge droning noise, death metal, doom and noise […]
Parental Warning: Explicit Language. You’ve been warned. You couldn’t possible come up with an album that is better described as “death metal punk.” Punk is the operative word, both in terms of Zach Rose’s (Nunslaugher, Crucified Mortals) snotty, fuck-it-all vocal enunciations, and the short, stripped down arrangements, which also share similarities with Nunslaugher’s primitivism. More […]
The combination of heavy metal and horror is usually a successful one when both aspects share similarities in subject matter and atmosphere. While it’s often attempted, many times the outcome falls short of being memorable. Thankfully, Razorback bands tend not to let listeners down in this area, with Wooden Stake being no exception. And although […]
Horseback is a unique musical entity that challenges the definition and boundaries of the epithet “band”. Of course this notion isn’t entirely new. Many musical outlets exist that seem to morph in and out of “projects” or “collaborations” and so on without being decidedly active or touring regularly. And when the style of musical output […]
And I thought Journal‘s Unlorja was ambitious! Imagine if Kayo Dot, The Pax Cecilia, Orphaned Land, Unexpect , Between the Buried and Me and Opeth all got together and contributed their DNA to a new breed of experimental, musical genetics — the resultant zygote would be Ana Kefr. Meaning ‘I am Infidel’ in Arabic, California’s […]
Well, my ears are still ringing after blasting this one on the MP3 player, so you know those black metal minor note “melodies” were pushing the treble reading beyond the red and into the abyss, as any USBM album worth its corpse paint should. Beyond the infliction of audio terror upon the listener, Bloodbath of […]
You’re a Deceased fan, aren’t you? I figured as much; I could smell it. Odds are that you fancy a bit of ye olde Slayer too. Am I right? Let us assume for the sake of argument that I am in fact correct in my calculated assumptions and throw in the gamble that horror themes […]
Kampfar is back with a new album but one essential ingredient is missing. These are the first recordings post guitarist Thomas. It was a major blow when I read he had left the band and one of those “what can they do to compensate for the loss” moments. The reality is they missed a few […]
Upon beginning this review, it quickly became apparent that typing the words into my computer was somehow an injustice to this album — there is some force about Jordpuls that pulls back to things more natural, and less synthetic. In fact, it was impossible to write until I pulled out pen and paper, opened the […]
Wormrot’s 2010 full-length debut Abuse kicked my ass six ways from Sunday. It seems I wasn’t the only one that left the experience with ass bruises either. In fact, Abuse and Infanticide’s From Our Cold Dead Hands (Willowtip) ended up my two favorite grindcore albums of 2010. The Dirge EP picks up right where Abuse […]
I really enjoy Edguy, but can’t stand Helloween. Same thing with flowery goth-metal – Nightwish is great, but Epica doesn’t do it for me. And as for Blind Guardian, man, do I really want to love that band. They pen catchy, soaring epics, scored by tasteful orchestration and the right amount of power metal crunch. […]
To make this easy and let you decide whether to finish reading this review or not — I’ll lay it out right away: Alabama’s Gideon are essentially a typical Facedown Records band. They are Christian and they play metalcore. There. While not as impressive as label mates Your Memorial or the new Hope for the […]
Listen- this is my first exposure to Woods of Ypres, so this review isn’t going to go into the bands apparent shift from respected black metal into whatever they are being called now (Hippys, posers, sell outs, etc). What I am going to get into is how this Earache re-release of the bands 2009 fourth […]
Guess what? Full Blown Chaos are back with another album filled to the brim with metallic tough guy hardcore that instantly puts to shame all of those faux tough guy hardcore bands that are flooding the scene. Big burly dudes with beards playing tough as nails music and you know what? That’s how it should […]
I can’t say I had super high hopes for the debut CD from Serbia’s Bane; nondescript moniker, clichéd logo, artwork and album title, etc. But when I dove into the album I was actually greeted with some very competent and confident melodic black/death metal. There’s nothing original to be seen here at all here. Solid […]
If you’ve followed the career of Max Cavalera, you won’t likely be surprised by what you hear on Cavalera Conspiracy’s latest outing, Blunt Force Trauma. It’s the same blend of Sepultura-style thrash and groove metal he’s delivered since leaving Sepultura, minus the world music influence. His second reunion with brother and drummer Igor Cavalera is, […]
For over four years now, Jackie Perez Gratz has declined my romantic overtures and while her restraining order against me prevents physical contact within 100ft, I’m still allowed to review her band’s albums. I’m kidding. It’s 200 ft. So here is album number three from vocalist/cellist Gratz and her two compadres Zach Farewell (drums) and […]
Feast your ears on Russia’s answer to Brain Drill, otherwise known as Monumental Torment. Yes, there is an element of simplification in that description, but it is far from inaccurate. More importantly as far as Element of Chaos is concerned, it is anything but derogatory. What we have here is an album spilling over the […]
Of all the recent reissues of classic Swedish death metal, this two disc reissue of Uncanny’s lone album complete with two demos and one split with Ancient Rites is the one I’ve most been looking forward to. Alongside Gorement and maybe God Macabre, this album was long the holy grail for hard to find classic […]
Hailing from Norway, Fester released Winter of Sin back in 1992 and their rendition of death metal was a slower, crawling, almost doomy dusty take on the genre, with black metal rasps that were quite a bit different from the Swedish explosion and the tight clinical US assaults of the time. So Abyss Records has […]
Yet more solid 2010 death metal that I’m just now getting around to. This time, in the way and form of dynamic North Carolina duo, Domination Through Impurity, and their second release Masochist. Domination Through Impurity is the brainchild of guitarist/bassist/vocalist Joe Payne, who has served in Divine Heresy, Lecherous Nocturne, Lust of Decay and […]
Definition of ANOMALOUS: 1: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected: irregular, unusual 2 : of uncertain nature or classification. It would be easy and somewhat accurate to lump Anomalous and their debut full-length album with the likes of Born of Osiris and The Faceless for their progressive and experimental and […]
Among the few facts you can find about this Ukrainian trio online, is that they refer to their music as “aesthetic grind”. My pet peeve about bands inventing their own “one band” genres notwithstanding; I suppose the implication is that Painful Defloration is more concerned with artistic considerations than their genre brethren, which would be […]