Are you ready for the Necro Pummel? You damn well better be because on Pissed on Resurrectine Baton Rouge’s Slime in the Current brings it cold, hard and with extreme malice. What a great debut album from a band that formed in 2006, yet whose members have been in “several noteworthy musical projects with over […]

Emerging from a dank cave, reeking of rot and weed, a hideous crone hobbles toward you, a fat cauldron in her arms, bubbling over with a foul-smelling concoction. As she approaches, the smell of death on her breath wafts toward you, encircling you; your vision goes fuzzy.”Driiiiiiiink,” she rasps, “drink deeeeeeeeeply,” her gnarled and greasy […]

Buried under 2010’s avalanche of Old School Swedish death metal awesomeness―from the likes of Entrails, Interment, Nominon and Brutally Deceased―was the third effort from Sweden’s  Evocation. Like Entrails, Evocation were actually around in the early ’90s, and included members from the relatively successful Cemetery, but never quite took off until their resurrection with 2007’s excellent […]

I vaguely recall being asked to review a DarkBlack’s The Barbarian’s Hammer EP for the old Digital Metal and being quite unimpressed. While I don’t, to be honest, remember much about that record, I’m a little more intrigued by the material on Midnight Wraith. I’m not quite won over by it, but it certainly shows […]

Progressive metal has taken on many new side streets over the last several years. No longer does the tag necessarily mean a band trying to recreate/reinterpret Rush‘s or Dream Theater‘s music. These days, bands like Opeth, Bigelf, and even Katatonia and Enslaved get included even within the outer fringes of the genre. Opeth in particular […]

Vocalist Wrath (Dodsferd) plus guitarist Nadir (Stellar Darkness), equals Greece’s Nadiwrath and their greasy, punk infused take on black metal. Nihilistic Stench has some pretty rollicking moments and fun little riffs scattered here and there, but as a 50-minute black metal album—even for the target Darkthrone fans—it’s a little bit of a drag. Nadiwrath are […]

OK, Forcefield Records, you’ve got my attention! Having just returned from a blissful trip through the vinyl corridors of the Cough/The Wounded Kings split LP, An Introduction to the Black Arts, I’m thrown for an even bigger loop by Inter Arma’s Sundown. At least I had some idea of the quality that awaited me with […]

Not counting former Meads member Jaldaboath and his recent solo effort, my last experience with England’s The Meads of Asphodel was 2001’s The Excommunication of Christ, an album that I still find very difficult to absorb, but still enjoy in spurts (particularly “Bene He Elohim”). That still appears to be the case with the band’s […]

Here is yet another black metal super group, this time originating from the UK/France and featuring B.S.T of Aborted, Balrog and Aosoth fame, aided by guitarist James Mcllroy (Cradle of Filth), drummer James Wilding (Aborted, Aosoth, Trigger the Bloodshed) and bassist Peter Benjamin of Akercocke. If that lineup gets you harder than a pedophile at […]

I have no qualms admitting that along with Halo of Flies and Deepsend Records, Michigan’s Saw Her Ghost Records, despite their relatively unprolific schedule is one of my favorite truly independent record labels. However, their 2010 roster―that included odd releases by the likes of Hellas Mounds and Lost Coves―didn’t really tickle my fancy per se, […]

I remember a few years back there was a band called A Day To Remember that played a form of music that involved melodic hardcore and metalcore. Well, they’re still around but the mixing of those two styles is long gone for them… and I’d rather not talk highly of them anymore as the mainstream […]

I remember hearing Black Witchery’s Upheaval of Satanic Might for the first time and immediately thinking “Goddamn!” It was a straight ahead, unrelenting barrage of blasphemy to an almost ridiculous extent. And yet, it worked because of that all-important, yet indefinable, thing called vibe that gets the blood boiling and a scowl imprinted on one’s […]

“Negative as Fuck” hardcore act Lionheart return with their new album Built On Struggle. Continuing where the last album (The Will to Survive) left off, Lionheart has managed to create another brutal and punishing slab of hate filled hardcore. Judging the book by its cover is a safe bet this time around. Looking at the […]

I was a little disappointed with Yngwie Malmsteen’s last outing Perpetual Flame, primarily because of the underuse and uninspired performance of vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens. It was a combination I had high hopes for. Malmsteen’s latest outing, Relentless, doesn’t correct the underuse factor, featuring Owens on only six of the 15 tracks, but it does […]

Satan has risen – and he’s got a Hell of an ear for melody. The mysterious Ghost come from Sweden, but not much else is known about them aside from a few promo shots, which feature shadowy figures led by a skull-masked Satanic priest. Rumor has it that this is actually a side project from […]

Though The Animal Spirits was a latecomer to the game (of 2010 metal releases), its addition to numerous ‘best of’ lists was no doubt cemented after a few spins, provided the listener was susceptible to its straightforward vibe, gut-wrenchingly emotive guitar and vocal work, and expertly crafted tunes; in other words, a Slough Feg fan, […]

Even though 2010 is officially over, I’m doing my best―in the early stages of 2011―to at least sort through the pile of remaining 2010-releases and serve notice to you, teethofthedivine readers, of releases from last year but still worthy of your attention. One such release is black metal super group Nidingr who, while unprolific (two […]

Serbian crossover thrash. On a Chinese record label. Man, I love the Internet. Drzavni neprijatelj broj kec is an explosion of vintage ’80s thrash – raw, dirty and frantic – though it tilts much more towards the jagged riffs and drumming of hardcore punk than the more cleanly-crafted melodies of Metallica, Kreator or even early […]

After a promising debut EP back in 2008, France’s Diluvian have unleashed their debut full length album, and while it continues the European melodic death metal meets deathcore stylings of their EP, its seems to lean a little more ion into deathcore realms. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Fans of polished, beefy modern […]

With a moniker like Offending and vocalist named “”Jesus the Butcher”, there’s no real surprise that France’s Offending play death metal. What’s surprising is that even with the above elements, Human Concept is a pretty solid death metal album. Much like label mates Fleshrot or Porkfarm, Offending aren’t doing anything new, but they are doing […]

So in a year that saw some truly excellent self-released efforts grace my year end list (Iron Thrones, Norse, Contaigeon, Shadow of the Colossus), and a last minute entry (Deathspell Omega’s Paracletus) along comes Italy’s Amia Venera Landscape and pulls a utterly unfathomable hail mary to nudge its way right onto my [yet unpublished, -ed.note] […]

The Mire are a band from the UK that play a form of post-metal that’s similar to their brethren in Devil Sold His Soul. With their second album on Eyes of Sound records, The Mire have a created an album that is emotionally direct yet progressive and intelligent. The album opens with a short but […]

It seems so easy. Take some folk, mix it with some metal, add some tribal-this, some ethno-that, heat until fused and ta-da!–awesomeness. But as Finntroll, Korpiklaani, Moonsorrow or even the relatively rougher Eluveitie prove in endless genre-mix soufflés, things usually collapse under the weight of whimsy, uneven beauty/beasting, or heavy-pretense (yes, I’m thinking of the new Agalloch‘s tendency to meander, or Swan‘s pointlessly […]

It has been three years since Helrunar‘s Baldr Ok Íss. This follow-up album was started in the summer of 2008. According to the label’s press packet: “Helrunar set about erecting a memorial in their own honor. Sól are two conceptually linked albums of tremendous depth, combining contradictory attributes such as catchiness and complexity in the […]

Old-school fans of Southern sludge bands like Eyehategod, Buzzov*en and Crowbar might not like all the dreamy post-rock that’s been mixed into that genre of late (Isis, Burst, Cult of Luna, etc), so here comes Virginia’s Salome to drag things back into the mud again. Armed only with a seriously down-tuned guitar (no bass!), drums […]