Man, not only has death metal seen some excellent , label released goodness in 2009 (Augury, Gorod, Obscura, Ulcerate, Man Must Die, Nile, As You Drown, The Red Shore to name just a few), along come bands like Cephalectomy, Avicularia, Unconventional Disruption, Burial Ritual, Zealotry and Quebec’s Vengeful to self release some death metal awesomeness […]

Split albums are common in metal but yield mixed results. Far too often, listeners labor through 20 minutes of crap to get to five minutes of goodness. Here’s a combination that works – a dual platter from the bowels of the San Francisco Bay Area featuring death metal veterans Abscess (formed by two members of […]

CONFIDENTIAL INTAKE REPORT, RHODE ISLAND STATE MENTAL HOSPITAL: Presiding psychiatrist:  Dr. Paul Fritz Examination Notes: At approximately 19:00 hours on Nov. 16, 2009, three subjects without any names or aliases other than White Mice were presented for psychiatric examination. The subjects were discovered in a small house in Providence, R.I., after neighbors complained of noxious […]

This young Boston, MA based power trio first caught my attention earlier this year when I came across their debut full length from last year, Empire of the Obscene. It was an impressive mix of technical ability, classic thrash hues, hints of modern death metal, catchy melodies and pummeling groove – it was all over […]

GEORGE took a mammoth hit off the bong, coughed, and leaned back in the beat-up recliner. Eager to get even more stoned, he took yet another hit, let the acrid smoke fester in his lungs, and closed his eyes. Death metal blared from the box stereo system, which was obscured by a seemingly infinite number […]

You know its been a great year for metal when the fifth album from Between the Buried and Me arrives with relatively little fanfare, takes two weeks for me to review and wont be an immediate shoo in for my album of the year like 2007s Colors and 2005s Alaska. Not that The Great Misdirect […]

So a couple of recent Rise Records releases have broken away from the label’s recent trend of emo vocals filled metal or Hot Topic core (Attack Attack!, The Devils Wears Prada, The Bled, Sleeping With Sirens, Miss May I, etc). With two stout death metal/deathcore releases by way of Australia’s impressive The Red Shore and […]

I’ve learned over the years that I am too quick to judge. Actually, most would probably confess to hastily disregarding a certain CD or band, only to find down the road that you neglected something you really enjoy. This is where we start with Timeline Symmetry. This thing sat in my review pile, shunned, while […]

Though Cleveland Ohio’s Salt the Wound fit the annoying template of modern teen metal band complete with ever changing line up, cocked hats, tight jeans, pierced lips, pre packaged logo and loud shirt designs and an obsession of The Black Dahlia Murder, the bands 2008 debut was OK, and the follow up, complete with promising […]

Sometimes an evocative band name and a striking piece of cover art is all you need to guess at the music within. No, I’m not talking about your average goregrind album either – anyone can figure that sort of thing out. I’m talking about the more esoteric treasures out there, such as this peculiar release […]

Slayer bashing. What’s up with that these days? If they’re not being hailed as the best metal band ever, it seems they’re everybody’s favorite whipping post. I myself don’t get it. Sure, their output over the past 15 years hasn’t always been of the greatest quality, but they’ve always undoubtedly been Slayer. Through cries of […]

Like death metal, if you’re into metallic hardcore, you’ve been pretty spoiled this year, what with various amazing comebacks (Earth Crisis, Kickback, Merauder), the underground churning out a plentiful amount of high quality releases (a lot you will probably not know) and even the genre’s principal mainstream standard bearer (yes, Hatebreed) coming back with a […]

I’ve been eager to hear the debut full length from Canada’s Weapon since I read an article about them from the indomitable Nathan T Birk in Metal Maniacs Magazine (before its untimely demise). And while an excellent release, Draconian Paradigm is still a bit of a mystery to me, but I imagine that was the […]

Century Media must be stock piled with cash, absolute mountains of it I reckon. The question that keeps popping in my brain is how this has come to be? Is it thanks to their massive back catalog bringing in the bacon, or something more sinister ala a takeover by a middle eastern monolith or some […]

Poland’s prog scene is a proximate successor to the UK premier representation of the genre, which is expansively reflected in the music conveyed by Polish most ardent disciples, among whom Riverside certainly march in the first ranks, never ceasing to stun progheads all over the globe with their demonically beautiful amalgam of Pink Floyd, early […]

I’ll come clean. I love Converge. Ever since discovering them when The Poacher Diaries came out, I became a manic obsessive, drooling over Petitioning the Empty Sky, and When Forever Comes Crashing, frequently and almost to a point, lovingly. Now, since Jane Doe, came out, my interest hasn’t waned in the band. Far from it, […]

While all the ‘retro’ thrash bands are trying to sound just like 1988, Skeletonwitch has a different take. Sure, their sound hearkens back to the same time period, but a carbon copy they ain’t. Fusing thrash riffs and rhythms with a distinctly black metal vibe (both musically and vocally) and NWOBHM flavored melodies here an […]

When reviewing the latest release by a group with a back catalogue such as Hypocrisy‘s, the question comes up of whether to compare it to previous releases in terms of “success” or whether to let it stand alone. I’ll try to do a bit of both in this review, because it’s only fair. Hypocrisy‘s timeline […]

Italy’s Faust brought in the big dogs for the recording of From Glory to Infinity. Luckily, the musical aspects of said disc far exceed the visual ones (i.e. the cartoon cover of the amply bosomed nun). Feast your eyes on this lineup and you will understand why the musicianship on the album is top notch: […]

The staying power of Nile, not to mention its rightful place among death metal royalty, has been firmly established for years now. They have never released a bad album – not even close – and in many ways redefined the brutal/traditional end of technical death metal (compared to, for example, a band like Necrophagist). Then […]

This is the debut album from these Luxembourg-based thrashers, and at first, Democadencia seems like another rehash of chunky, down-tuned mid ‘00s groove-metal. Devildriver immediately comes to mind. Vocals also stir up some déjà vu – first with the clipped phrasing and bark of Wayne Static (of Static X), and then, in the more melodic […]

Following the departure of Christian Alvestam, Scar Symmetry were left with some big shoes to fill. So what do they do? The hire not one, but two new vocalists, one specializing in clean vocals and providing back up growls (the relatively unknown Lars Palmqvist), the other handling primary growls and back up cleans (Roberth Karlsson […]

It’s not too surprising that Luxembourg act Le Grand Guignol shares a label with Carach Angren – both play a melodramatic, heavily ornamented style of symphonic black metal that’s sure to send the troo and kvlt into paroxysms of bile-spewing rage. However, where Carach Angren is steeped in horror-movie theatrics – all furious strings and […]

Struck By Lightning is the new project of former Mouth of the Architect frontman/keyboardist Gregory Lahm, but those expecting an ambient, massive wall of post rock will be sorely disappointed. Instead, Lahm’s new iteration is a more traditional, dissonant, caustic form of angular hard core based metal rooted in the likes of Coalesce, Botch, Cable […]

Not to make excuses, but Subarachnoid Space isn’t exactly the hardest band to lose track of. Having released three good-bordering on-excellent albums on Relapse’s experimental imprint, Release Entertainment, the instrumental group led by guitarist Melynda Jackson (that’s not her on the cover) has sort of always floated on the periphery of the experimental space rock […]