I’m not much for gimmicks, but when a CD is sent to me with the ‘jewel case’ cut from a 12-pack of beer, and the track listing is printed on a Camels lights -pack, I’ll admit it: Well played, good sirs! Delivering a proggy shimmery take of spacey, indie/alt rock/punk, mixed with some post-rock, some […]
Jorn Lande makes his return to Masterplan on their latest effort, Time to Be King, and it makes all the difference. The band’s 2007 outing, MKII, without Lande at the helm, was an OK effort, but he was definitely missed. This record makes the absence obvious. With Lande on the mic, they’re a much more […]
Following up on the old school death metal successes of 2009 (Fatalist, Asphyx, Banished From Inferno, Hod, Rape Pillage & Burn, etc), Ibex Moon Records has unleashed two quality, pure old school records this summer in the form of Cardiac Arrest’s Haven for the Insane and this reissued debut from Germany’s Lifeless. While Beyond the […]
I understand that there are some people out there who don’t like Rob Dukes-era Exodus, and I get that. But I, for one, love it. The three records that feature Dukes, including this latest effort, have been some of the heaviest and most aggressive in the band’s entire catalog. If you didn’t like The Atrocity […]
I’ve been digging some d-beat/crust of late such as Masakari, D.I.S, Warvictims, Early Graves, and even pulling out some old Victims and Disfear records, but the best of the bunch has to be this blistering little 15 minute record from South Carolina’s Nails. Due to a super crunchy, mid-range buzzing guitar tone to die for, […]
There’s not a single original note on the debut from the Ukraine’s Acephala, but what they do deliver is a solid slab of slamming Eastern European brutal death metal that should fit right in with the likes of label mates Katalepsy, Murder Intentions and of course, Devourment. With twelve bludgeoning songs (as well as an […]
Assassins: Black Meddle Part I, the first chapter in Nachtmystium’s post-black metal transformation, was aptly named in that it mashed up Floydian psychedelia with the band’s gritty, scuzzy and vaguely punk brand of USBM. When I reviewed the album two years ago, I latched more onto the rippling, expansive sections than the fiercer black-punk explosions […]
I’m willing to stretch my metal arms pretty wide to accommodate a wide variety of the sub-genres that have sprung up in the past decade. This new wave of black metal that Nachtmystium has been courting for a couple albums now was a pretty big deal a few years ago. I still remember the first […]
Looks like the guys in Soilwork have finally dug themselves out of their hole. Opener “Late for the Kill, Early for the Slaughter” is the fastest, most relentless thing they’ve done in a long time, and from that very first blastbeat, it’s clear that Soilwork wants you to forget about Sworn to a Great Divide. […]
The Guessing Game, for all of its metal pedigree has (like the band Cathedral itself) roots equally as deep in early (read: Syd Barrett era) Pink Floyd as in doom progenitor Black Sabbath. In fact, an open-eared listener will hear (uh oh… sit down, metal people) references to ‘70s-‘80s Britpop bands like XTC and The […]
The latest Fates Warning album to be given the reissue/deluxe treatment is 1991’s Parallels. At the time, it was lauded as Fates‘ “commercial” release and certainly cuts like “Eye To Eye” and “Point Of View” (which both received extensive MTV airplay) were examples of more streamlined material from this prog metal band. Listening now, 19 […]
Back in 2000, I was pretty disappointed to hear that Morten Veland was leaving Tristania after their brilliant second album, Beyond the Veil – an album I still consider to be one of the triumphs of the entire goth-metal genre. (I was, however, lucky enough to see the band in one of their few US […]
Hailing from Tennessee, As Hell Retreats is one of the recent addictions to the Strikefirst/Facedown Records family, so you know they play some form of quality Christian metal, and in this case it’s a hybrid of melodic metalcore and crumbling deathcore. Not as utterly devastating as label mates Impending Doom or Earth From Above and […]
Ulver‘s made some great ambient and electronic albums since their big genre switch, but don’t you wish they’d also turned out another Bergtatt or Kveldssanger before leaving metal behind for good? (Or at least took a bass with them when they recorded Nattens Madrigal in that forest?) Well, now you can take a hike into those same misty, […]
It occurred to me a while back that a lot of the stuff that I converse with the most is one way or another—if only barely—connected to black metal. This was a revelation of sorts to me, as I’ve never considered myself a fan or particularly open to the genre. I have no interest for […]
In itself, the formula for a successful female fronted gothic metal act is simple; lush production, lavish synths, some catchy riffs, a ballad or two and all of it sung by some buxom, corset clad beauty. It’s been done to death, resulting in somewhat of a saturation of the genre over the last few years. […]
When I started writing for the now-defunct Digital Metal (around 2002), France seemed like an insular metal nation. There weren’t too many Tricolore-bands that I could mention by name. The bands that did get some airtime, were marginal and quite frankly, seemed to require an exquisite taste simply because they were very—lack of a better […]
So, Christian Älvestam delved into a few projects after departing from Scar Symmetry. The standard melo-death of Miseration, the more aggressive The Few Against Many, and now the Swede is involved in (restrained and commercial) supergroup Solution .45. The presence of Älvestam’s Miseration and The Few Against Many cohorts (guitarists Patrik Gardberg and Tom Gardiner, […]
If you enjoyed Aeon’s recent Path of Fire opus or even thought is was a bit safe, then be sure to check out the debut from fellow Swedes Syn:drom (all the –tion and –blood names are officially taken I guess?) as it delivers a high quality death metal assault that competently mixes brutality, technicality and […]
A 30th Anniversary Special Edition with bonus tracks of an album I’ve never heard of. If you’re going to be obscure, it doesn’t get much more obscure than Christian prog rock. The only other band of this kind I had ever heard of (not counting Neal Morse) is Arkangel, but even that I’ve never actually […]
Projects that feature a who’s who of artists from a genre usually disappoint me. No matter the gathering of talent, it usually just doesn’t quite gel. One exception to that rule in the past has been Tobias Sammet’s Avantasia. Once again, for the most part, he overcomes that with the double release of The Wicked […]
The other half of Tobias Sammet’s two-album Avantasia release, The Wicked Symphony, doesn’t fare quite as well as its counterpart Angel of Babylon. It, too, has its moments, but overall seems just a little too generic power metal in places. Like its companion piece, The Wicked Symphony opens with a longer, more epic number in […]
When you are reviewing an album that has tracks called “Spitting in Infinity’s Asshole” and “Strip Nude for Your Killer”, you know you are in for a good time… and by good time, I mean a sickening black/sludge/doom affair that falls under the same umbrella as Cough, Negative Reaction, Highgate and such. The formula for […]
Montreal based death metallers NEURAXIS have finished writing for their upcoming album and offer a final update before entering the Wildsound Studio next week with producer Chris Donaldson (Cryptopsy, The Last Felony, The Agonist) to start the recording process for their 6th studio album. Vocalist Alex Leblanc comments: “Time for an update… First of all, […]
I’ve been a fan of Jon Oliva since the first time I heard Savatage, and I honestly don’t think that anything he’s ever touched has turned out remotely bad. (OK, I do try to block out Fight for the Rock). In my mind, he’s one of only a handful of creative geniuses in metal, and […]