With little fanfare Indie Recordings and The End Records (for the US distribution) have released the eighth album from long running proto-folk black metal act Borknagar. Now, I don’t think I’m in the minority when I say Borknagar’s last two albums (Origin doesn’t really count) after Andreas Hedlund (Vintersorg) joining the fold, have never matched the […]

This Finnish outfit turned some heads with their 2002 release Binding of the Spirit. Mixing a heavy dose of synth-laced melodic black and gothic metal, Throes of Dawn seemed to be the underground band to watch. In 2005, Quicksilver Cloud arrived, and though the black metal aspects were still present, a thicker, gothic atmosphere drenched […]

I can tolerate terrible bands and terrible albums. If your are bad, your are just bad. But if there’s one thing I can’t stand it blatant mediocrity- a borderline musical safety net and status quo that’s just ‘there’ despite talent. And Germany’s Chaos Invocation is such a band. It irks me even more so when […]

Another band out of the recent UK deathcore/death metal scene (Ingested, Annotations of an Autopsy, etc), Machiavellian’s debut 4 song EP, though on the short side offers up 23 minutes of pretty solid and at times sludge laced deathcore that shows a little promise. Though only 4 songs, one of the songs is over 6 […]

If you’ve heard any of At Vance’s past offerings, you won’t be surprised by anything you find on Ride the Sky. The 11 tracks here are competently done but not very exciting pieces of fairly generic melodic/power metal. It’s not their best work. It’s not completely awful. It’s just kind of there. There are moments […]

Being the thrash fan that I am, I’m almost ashamed to admit that Riot Squad is my introduction to Germany’s Paradox. It’s their fifth release, and they’ve been kicking around in various incarnations since the late 1980s. Admittedly, I was a little America-centric in my thrash listening during that time period and discovered most of […]

As much as I’d like for every record I hear to bring something new to the table, I know it’s just not possible. And in some genres, innovation just simply isn’t part of the game, so you look at how well the bands use the conventions. When it comes to European prog/power, Sweden’s Manimal use […]

Metal is full of bands that cull from culture, history and heritage. From the obvious pagan Viking bands of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe to the Saxon throes of Wodensthrone and Forefather, the Middle Eastern themes of Nile and Orphaned Land, Greek metallers Rotting Christ and even Aztec based metal like Mictlantecuhtli. But if ever there […]

Black metal’s bad boy Varg returns to the rock’n’roll scene with Belus, the first Burzum album in ten years or so — and the first since the man got out of the prison system. Read what Teeth of the Divine’s own Grimulfr has to say about the new album.

It’s debatable whether the Rome quartet known as Zu should even be considered metal. True, they have a song on The Way Of The Animal Powers called “Tom Araya is Our Elvis.” Their album sports illustrations of gorillas, a bird’s head in a jar and an exploding volcano. The similarities end there. Zu openly admire […]

Massachusetts’ The Year of Our Lord was a victim of bad timing. Their debut and only full length self titled album was released in 2002, a time when melodic death metal was becoming stale and saturated and US bands simple weren’t supposed to be playing this style of metal. So like other US acts plying […]

The run had to come to an end. I’ve enjoyed a parade of pretty good 1970s and ‘80s inspired rock and metal over the first couple of months of the year. I knew it couldn’t last. Greek trio Wheelrunner has a lot of problems, the main one being that they can’t decide if they want […]

As much as I like metalcore, even the commercialized watered down stuff, the fact remains that the UK’s Bury Tomorrow are so predictable, cookie cutter and utterly devoid of individuality, that I cant think of anything to awfully good to say about their debut album. But also, as a metalcore fan I cant really find […]

Vocalist Christian Rivel (real name Christian Liljegren) has made quite a mark in the last 16 years. As a founding member of Narnia (7 albums), Divinefire (4 albums), Wisdom Call (1 album), Modest Attraction (2 albums) and Flagship (1 album)―not to mention his label Rivel Records―he’s racked up quite a discography. Yet another band/project fronted […]

When Godspeed You Black Emperor! lent itself for post-rock to advertise and gain momentum, little did they know just how saturated the genre would become. Soon after, everyone seemed to have a band that played the music by the book, making it harder and harder for the casual listener to find the progressive elements the […]

There’s a lot to like from the debut of Barcelona’s Pagan metal act Lux Divina. It’s a well produced black metal record full of foresty, heathen pride and regal pagan grandiosity as well as trademark melodic black metal trappings. Versed metal heads will detect the immediate influence of Borknagar and Vintersorg as well as early […]

The rest of the world got this disc late 2009, those of us in North America had to wait till January 26. The limited edition contains a bonus DVD recorded Live at Peace & Love -festival on June 28, 2008 in Borlänge, Sweden. This is almost reason enough to get this album…

Grab your shovel, go out back into the woods, and dig up your great grandfather’s chest, get his bearshirt and put it on. Join in the merriment. Bifröst is a recommended band that has shown great improvements in musicianship and deserves a listen. Modern folk metal is plagued with too many synthesized flutes, too many […]

Here’s yet another entry in the parade of retro records that seem to be rolling in early this year, and like most of the others, Barn Burner’s Bangers is a pretty solid outing. The Canadian outfit certainly draws influence from the early 1980s like the other retro bands I’ve heard recently, but they also dip back […]

The members of Daredevil Squadron wear their varied influences on their sleeves on their debut album Out of the Sun, and, to be honest, it’s quite refreshing. There’s a dash of traditional metal here, a bit of 1970s hard rock there, a pinch of 1980s sleaze, just a touch of blues rock and even an […]

The malignancy seems to have entered remission. The sound is clearer and cleaner, the guitar tone of voice is less threatening with a more expressive feel, mixing in bonafied solos, and the steady strumming has reemerged re-imagined as an actual discernible rhythm. The overarching pacing has quickened to a crawl, and at times a trot. […]

When I wrote my review of White Wizzard’s High Speed GTO last year, I said that if they could deliver an album as good as the title track of that EP, I’d proudly wear the T-shirt, despite my inner editor’s strong objections to their spelling of the word wizard. Well, folks, my shirt is on […]

Wow – Overkill are back, and in a big way. Now, I’ve never been a rabid fanboy, but I’ve always been pretty fond of most of their early material. Post-Horrorscope though, the thrash legends had their share of ups, downs and line-up changes. Ironbound though, is set to change that. I can say with the […]

I had been sort of a casual fan of Arsis before the release of the extraordinary We Are the Nightmare, but that album took my fandom to a whole new level and made me appreciate the two albums and EP before it even more. I felt the inclusion of drummer Darren Cesca on that album […]

Here’s a cool little 7 track EP from a new California act who mange to meld dark, pummeling hardcore, crust and post rock into a solid release that bodes well for the future, even in relatively crowded scene. Definitely recommended for fans on Converge due to some blistering chaos, underlined with some subtle and metallic […]