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 […]
What you have is 50% hardcore, and 50% death metal, with two members from the heavy as hell Eyes to the Sky, and then two from Jungle Rot/Cyanosis (drummer and guitarist were in both bands respectively). Whilst none of those bands are what you would deem spectacular, they are stout solid and have good songs, […]
Who would have thought that in a year that has seen releases by the likes of Equilibrium, Heidevolk, King of Asgard, Eluvietie, Kivimetsän Druidi, Skyforger and Negura Bunget, that one of the very best―if not the best―folk metal album of 2010 would be the debut from a band hailing from the Basque Country in Northern […]
Amid 2010’s big name death metal releases, some smaller and more obscure but no less competent, enjoyable releases more than likely crept under your radar. Releases by the likes of Tormenticon, Fleshrot, Entrails, Scrambled Defuncts, Aosoth, Grind Inc, Domination Through Impurity, Burial Invocation and Syn:drom, which might not get the praise and attention as say […]
Considering the last CD I heard from Wisconsin’s Nokternal Hemizphear Records was a symphonic Christian black metal from Columbia―which ended up being pretty good―I was eager to hear how the label’s next offering, the debut from the UK’s Wintersoul would hold up… and it’s not too bad either! Not overtly or blatantly Christian (as far […]
So it’s become a bit of trend with all these old thrash bands dusting off their instruments and chops to reform and deliver new material. One of the latest is the Bay Area’s Heathen (but to their credit, they were among the first to actually reform, it’s just taken 6 plus years to complete the […]
Let’s not beat around the corpse. Waking the Cadaver is a death metal band, even if their debut had detractors screaming otherwise. Believing or even promoting otherwise is absurd, and maintaining the perception that they are anything but death metal is a weak argument. However, determining how good their gore slamming racket is, and determining […]
Iron Maiden. It’s been ten years since ‘Brave New World’ came out and now there’s a new album on the block. Is there really a need to review it at all? Everyone’s got an opinion of it already, and so do we. Well, at least one of us does. Read Erik Thomas’ views on ‘The Final Frontier’ and voice yours in the comments.
Fuck yeah, Witchery. I can say this with even more enthusiasm now after being disappointed with their last studio output, Don’t Fear the Reaper – an album I couldn’t get through 4 tracks of without being bored to tears – because Witchkrieg finds the “super group” of sorts back in prime form, new vocalist Erik […]
The name says it all. Kill, you know; like murder, homicide, manslaughter… Like death fucking metal! I got word of the anti-metaphorically titled album by the Polish, uh, killers via a reliable underground U.S. label after said label had secured 10 copies for the distro. In short order, $8 was sent their way and here […]
Holy Shit! This album is fucking evil. Seriously, The Funeral Pyre knows how to create some sick tunes. I love how their riffs have the tendency to dig and crawl underneath your skin. I swear every time I play these guys on my stereo, I feel as if a portal to hell is surrounding me […]
The four years since Black Label Society’s last outing, the lackluster Shot to Hell, have been quite tumultuous for bandleader Zakk Wylde. He’s had some pretty serious health issues, been forced to give up the booze and been kicked out, then brought back in, then kicked out again of Ozzy Osbourne’s band. The good news […]