Had it not been for Britney Spears, the world wouldn’t have been introduced to bad boy gone good Kevin Federline and his monumental release Playing with Fire. What a random statement to pop in my head. In completely unrelated news, I was stunned to find out Finland’s pixie rock outfit Indica had secured a deal […]
Germany’s Twilight Vertrieb is having a solid few months with releases by the likes of Lost Dreams, Mastic Scum, Abrogation, In Slumber, Requiem and the re-issue of The Monolith Deathcult’s White Crematorium album. Nothing ground breaking, but a solid slew of local death metal releases. However, mixed in with all those is the debut full […]
There’s a really dumb old riddle. Goes like this: Q: Where does an eight-hundred-pound gorilla sleep? A: Anywhere he wants. There’s a corollary: That may be, but it doesn’t mean I want that gorilla in my house! Okay, I’ll get to the point. Order of Ennead’s new album is a whole lot more satisfying and impressive than […]
Last week I reviewed the latest from Icarus Witch, a traditionally-minded band from Pittsburgh who’s got the old-school heavy metal attitude down to a T. This week, Teeth of the Divine welcomes back Sweden’s NWOTM leaders Enforcer to the reviews list (debut Into the Night got a review from us in 2008) with Diamonds. So […]
Compared to 2009, this year hasn’t been quite the landslide of killer tech/brutal death metal. But over the last few weeks the likes of Aeon, Brain Drill, Fleshrot, Syn:Drom and Deivos have made 2010 slightly more respectable. As with 2008’s Apocalyptic Feasting, Brain Drill are still plying a form of über technical, noodly, Origin-like death […]
I’ve been a thrall in Tom’s world for thousands of hours over the past nearly three decades. I do not see that changing any time soon. He has created his kingdom, I shall live in it. I am yours eternally. The deep resounding roar of Tom G. Warrior is back. Crushing riffs supply the ultimate […]
Forget the history lesson on Tom Gabriel Fischer, Hellhammer, and Celtic Frost. Turn up the volume, push the play button, and settle in for a harrowing journey. This is one of the heaviest, angriest, gloomiest releases ever. And guess what? All of that heaviness, anger, and gloom add up to one of the most refreshing […]
The amount of music that gets released each year is staggering. Thus, it’s not a surprise that while 2010 is well underway, we still find worthwhile releases from 2009 land in our laps. What’s more, during the past few years Australia has become so much more to the metal crowd―particularly Alchemist, Cemetery Urn and Destroyer […]
Once upon a time there was a little girl called Goldilocks who went for a walk in the woods to look for black metal. After a while she stumbled upon a small cabin, and in front of the cabin was a sign that read ‘ATMF Records’. Being a curious child, she entered the cabin, hoping […]
Icarus Witch is a bit of a hard group to pigeonhole. For one, even though they could be dumped into the traditional metal category, the mysticism pervading their albums hints at the notion that something else is at play behind the music, something you can’t quite hear, but can feel instead. This sixth sense, combined […]
Documentary by Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell This 2009 feature documentary covers the lurid beginnings of the Norwegian black metal scene in the early 90s: the murders, the church burnings, and the media panic that accompanied them. Many of us are familiar with these stories, but this is the first time I’ve heard these accounts […]
Just because you are a French black metal act, have your songs in Latin and French, have ambient intros, outros and 8 minute songs, does not make you the next Deathspell Omega. And when your style is actually a more straightforward ‘wall of noise’ black metal in line with Marduk and Dark Funeral, the 6-8 […]
I could really use a new Sentenced album about now. Unfortunately, that won’t be happening, so I have to settle for the next best thing – singer Ville Laihiala’s Poisonblack. My relationship with Laihiala’s side project turned main project has been up and down. I wasn’t wild about the debut record with a different vocalist, […]
Here’s a nice sophomore album from a couple of former Order From Chaos members (Mike Miller and Chuck Keller), and while the other Order From Chaos member, Pete Helmkamp has gone for the throat with his post Order From Chaos projects (Angelcorpse and the recent Kerasphorus EP), Ares Kingdom are content to deliver metal that’s […]
So former Gorgoroth bassist King, after losing the legal battle with Infernus over the Gorgoroth name has teamed up with Dimmu Borgir’s Shagrath and (somehow) Prosthetic Records to deliver one of the most under whelming black metal records of 2010. I know such a duo should be slightly more dynamic, even more assisted by 1349, […]
If you’ve come here looking for sparkly emo vampires, then we have a review for you. The rest of you should already know that this is the second release from US black metal supergroup Twilight, and like the album title suggests, it is truly monumental. The first Twilight release in 2005 featured an amazing line-up […]
So early 2010 saw the release of two post Order From Chaos Projects- the first being the longer running Ares Kingdom and their second full length album and this debut EP from Kerasphorus which is the project that features Pete Helmkamp, also of a little band called Angelcorpse. It looks like a name change and […]
I don’t search for new bands too actively anymore. Years ago, I would download every bad quality mp3 sample, eyeball every site and seize every possibility to hear a new band. I was more than eager to go through a lot of shit to find what I wanted, which considering my modem speed, resulted in […]
Immolation’s one of those bands where I don’t feel like you need to justify liking them; they’re just that damn likable. I actually got in an argument with an artist I was interviewing when they admitted they didn’t like the band, and my (perfectly reasonable) response was, “what the fuck is wrong with you?” Not […]
I was far from impressed with Pestilence & Peril, the last release from Ryan Lipinsky’s (Thralldom/Unearthly Trance) latest black metal project. But the fact I only recently heard Unearthly Trance’s The Trident and Electrocution has given me a new appreciation for Mr. Lipinsky and Into the Cryopshere, which is a vast improvement over Pestilence & […]
Given the cover artwork, and the name, I figured Scorched-Earth would be some haphazard grindcore band and the Mars experience would be up after, oh, 30 minutes at most. I was also reminded of the old school trajectory-based strategy game Scorched Earth on the PC (come on, space, tanks, and that band name?). Color me […]
Sweden’s Sabaton blew me away few years back with The Art of War and to their credit they reminded me that power metal was still a viable genre. Needless to say, since then, I’ve been waiting for Coat of Arms in my fox hole, wearing an old Finnish M16 helmet. The Swedes are back again, […]
Probably one of the best things about being a fan of metal is that you’re constantly coming across new and interesting incarnations of the music you love; a luxury not so commonly afforded to the “they’ve been there so let’s do that too” mainstream. Another advantage that the underground has over the radio scene is […]
I’ve been telling everyone who will listen about Kiuas since I first discovered them with 2005’s Spirit of Ukko. It was a convincing blend of power, thrash, folk and just a touch of death metal that was a highlight of my listening that year (looking at the recently posted flashback, I realize it should have […]
Better late than never, right? That’s what Cheech said in one of the Ghostbusters movies anyway, and he seems to be a reputable character, so I’m going with it. The subject of this review, Acheron‘s 2009 release entitled The Final Conflict: Last Days of God, saw the dark of night via Displeased and Ibex Moon […]