I can’t really explain why it’s taken me so long to review one of 2010’s most impressive and disturbing black metal albums. I listen to it regularly, mentally gushing over it, and writing the review in my head each time I listen. I actually wonder if some dark occult force is preventing me from putting […]

It’s this writer’s opinion that it’s time for more people to take notice of Florida’s The Absence. What we have here is an American band with a mostly Swedish sound (yeah, nothing new, I know), devoid of any “core” influence, that blows away nearly everyone, including the Swedes, and if I may be so bold, […]

I remember when I used to get excited about a new Blind Guardian release, but since their 1998 masterpiece Nightfall in Middle Earth, everything they’ve released has been somewhat disappointing. That, unfortunately, doesn’t change much with their latest, At the Edge of Time. For me, this record is often maddeningly frustrating as it offers short […]

Back in the symphonic black heyday of the mid to late 90s, Norway’s Limbonic Art released three albums in a highly pompous, gothic, orchestral style: Moon in the Scorpio, In Abhorrence Dementia and Epitome of Illusions. 1999’s Ad Noctum: Dynasty of Death and its follow-up, The Ultimate Death Worship, switched up the Limbonic Art sound […]

For a brief period in the late 1990’s, Texas black metal band Of The Fallen set about terrorizing the territory. Along with Bloodstorm, Demonic Christ and Darkmoon, they helped make up what was becoming a deeply rooted USBM scene. Guitarist Scythe (aka Steve Perez), drummer Scott Palmer, vocalist/keyboardist Crom (aka Jon Quick) and bassist Ogre […]

Gamleby – the town in Sweden in which Demiurg hail from. Slakthus – slaughterhouse. An apt title for such a death metal juggernaut of an album. Their third, Slakthus Gamleby really knocked me on my ass. I couldn’t place it at first – why it reminded me so much of Edge of Sanity, one of […]

For those familiar with my musical tastes, it might come as a bit of a surprise that I was never a big fan of Accept. Oh, I’ve got a copy of Restless and Wild and Balls to the Wall, but for some reason I never really connected with the band. When it was announced that […]

Like their label brethren, A Plea for Purging, Impending Doom are at that “difficult stage,” in their existence―namely that all important third album―which, as stressed in the APFP review, can be the first step to greatness or to decline. The progression on There will be Violence, is in ways similar to that of The Marriage […]

When Killswitch Engage vowed to kill off “Nu Metal,” eight years ago, it was what the masses wanted to hear, and kill it they did, annihilate it in fact; as the scores of terrible bands that had spawned from the late nineties to the beginning of this millennium were all bit exterminated (with exceptions). Although […]

For heavy metal music, the 1980’s was a time when anything was possible. Bands from all corners of the world aimed for the target that bands like Ratt, Quiet Riot, Tesla and Dokken seemed to have hit, hoping for rock star success. Had the internet been a factor in those days, I’m sure we would […]

Residing on the same label that has or had the likes of xRepresentx, OnexChoice, xTyrantx on its roster, there’s no surprise in what Seattle’s Parasitic Skies―despite the lack of an x in their logo―play; tough as nails, straightedge metallic hardcore. No frills, no melodies, no trendiness. Just a beefy (no pun intended) vegan beat down […]

It’s probably not a good sign when your 3-year-old digs a metal album more than you do. But there he was, strapped in his car seat and still singing “Rockin’ and a Rollin’ Tonite!” after I’d skipped past the first track of Armour with a mix of impatience and disgust. Guess I don’t need to […]

I’d never been the biggest fan of Profanatica, although that had as much to do with my limited exposure to the act as any kind of outright distaste of the sonic pungency. While it’s not like I’m a loyalist now, the last couple of years gave me a new appreciation for Paul Ledney’s (Havohej, ex-Incantation, […]

It’s more than common knowledge that the third album is one of the pinnacle pressure points of a band’s existence. Getting the balance right is so important in avoiding to take that wrong turn to the inferno of decline and instead ascending to the heavens of greatness. The immortal list of the eponymous third album […]

The first time I heard Otargos was their blackened death metal waltz “Hexameron” that apropos of nothing turns into this stripper-friendly fuck-me groove featuring what sounds like a sampled philosophy lecture. Okay, fine. Maybe you’re just cooler than me. Maybe you’ve already been into and tired of the whole blackened death-metal, stripper-friendly, fuck-me groove/philosophy-lecture craze. […]

Bear with me here. Despite being a sworn in US citizen, adapting almost all American traditions (good and bad), there’s a few American-isms I just can’t get into. Chewing tobacco and Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The weird thing is that I love peanut butter and I love Jelly―it’s called Jam fer’ crying out loud―when […]

It seems that Profound Lore and Colin Marston (Krallice, Dysrhythmia, Behold…. The Arctopus) have become two of the more respected and wanted elements of artistic, challenging black metal nowadays with anything either of them touch being of the highest quality. In the light of Marston getting producing credits for the likes of Krallice, Altar of […]

Sadistic Crown is the debut EP from Montreal’s Absolve, a young band who have their musical screws turned tight, but are somewhat hindered by a relatively generic sounding vocalist. Lets start on the positive side of things here. Musically, Sadistic Crown is brimming with tight performances, hooky, memorable riffs, molten solos and bruising kit work. […]

Imagine a crack head beating you in the head with a metal pipe. He then injects heroin into your head, beats you some more and tells diatribes of his life whilst speaking in tongues. If you can imagine this, then you’re close to what this album sounds like. Clinging to the Trees of a Forest […]

You gotta love a band who writes songs about killing zombies and transforming into bloodthirsty monsters. Especially when it’s combined with NWOBHM influences and nimble musicianship. Such the case with Raleigh, NC’s Colossus. Abandoning their punk rock aspirations, these five young men fully embraced their love of all things Heavy Metal with the EP release […]

Belarus. Not exactly the place one might expect to find an old school American death metal tailored band slugging it out, but here we have Disgod‘s 2008 debut slab Sanguine Scales to prove otherwise. Now, I’m not as thoroughly versed in my native country’s death metal classics as others (I tend to lean towards the […]

Ten years ago, it was fashionable to break up. After all, it’s better to leave a good looking corpse then become a bloated shadow of your former self. In the past few years though, innovators from 90s hardcore (all strains of it), some of which imploded before their time, have decided that perhaps they weren’t […]

Fredrick Norrman’s departure from Katatonia has unlocked a door that personally, I never thought we’d see open. October Tide, the revered doom/death side project once helmed by Jonas Renkse and Norrman has been reincarnated without Renkse, a new line-up has been devised, and a new album is here in all its glory. After years of […]

Ever wonder why, with all the bands out there paying tribute to NWOBHM greatness, there were seemingly no bands paying equal respects to Floridian, Satanic, 90s-era death metal? Have I got a band for you! Most of what passes for death metal these days, from newer bands anyway, comes off as core-infused, double-kick infested, cacophonous […]

Upon initial glances, Colorado’s Allegaeon appear to be one of Metal Blade’s token second tier signings (Epicurean, The Crimson Armada, Malefice, Aeternam) that won’t really register amid the label’s heavyweights and big sellers (Job For A Cowboy, As I Lay Dying, Cannibal Corpse, Hate Eternal, Whitechapel, Unearth, etc). However, with repeated listens, these talented newcomers […]