A good portion of the first decade of the new millenium marketing in both underground and mainstream rock music has been a question of labelling all the new, increasingly interchangable product of independent and corporate labels. It used to be readily apparent which bands were indie and which mainstream, but those lines have been blurred […]

Released as digital only EP, Warsaw Rising is a stop gap release from this Dutch super group (members of Asphyx, Gorefest, Thanatos) with 2 new songs, a cover song (Twisted Sister’s “Destroyer”) and three live songs (“Red Wolves of Stalin”, “Nachthexen” and “The Crucial Offensive”) from the excellent …Of Frost and War debut. To be […]

What to make of Brazil’s Dark Celebration and its sophomore full-length, Phlegeton: The Transcendence of Demon Lords; that is indeed the question. It’s actually not that complicated. First and foremost, the vibe is one of vintage death metal with blackened edges and an atmosphere that approaches that whole Latin American dark ‘n dirty death metal […]

Continuing their trend of releasing solid Christian metal in environmentally friendly digipacks (A Hope for Home, Earth From Above, The Great Commission, Hope for the Dying), Facedown Records, subsidiary label, Strikefirst Records has come up with yet another thunderous Christian deathcore outfit akin to Earth From Above. Right, now that 90% of you have left. […]

*Rant mode ON* You know, I love thrash, and when this whole thrash resurgence came about, I was pretty damn excited. But truth be told, I’m flat out tired of it now. Why? Because the labels won’t stop signing every last one of them they find. Every label has to have one in order to […]

I’ve been swamped in quality Australian metal of late: Destruktor, Defamer, Futility, Be’lakor, Orpheus, and now my first exposure to Adelaide’s doom metal veterans Mournful Congregation. Despite being around since 1994, this is only the bands 3rd full length album and has certainly delivered a top notch doom effort that will have me seeking out […]

Though still on a similar wavelength as their last effort, Crescent Shield’s newest release, The Stars of Never Seen, is more grandiose, more expansive, and packs less punch. The NWOBHM-paced gallop woven into 2006’s excellent The Last of My Kind has gone by the wayside of a looser (and more progressive) sound. Progressive is not […]

Those zany Poles in Dead Infection are at it again, this time bringing the high-speed muck in the form of new MCD Corpses of the Universe. The term “Goregrind” gets utilized so much now that it has lost some of its descriptive appeal, but there is no mistaking it, Dead Infection is goregrind. Yeah, I […]

(im•bro•glio) 1. A misunderstanding, disagreement, etc., of a complicated or bitter nature. 2. An intricate and perplexing state of affairs; a complicated or difficult situation. 3. A fittingly named, noisy, Converge inspired band formed in Dayton, OH but now residing in Syracuse, NY. I discovered this band and new, Illinois based label through a sports […]

If you could travel back in time and play some of our current tech-death for the death metal bands just starting out in the early years of the genre, would they be amazed that their efforts would one day spawn something so intricate and complex? Or would they just take off their instruments and give […]

What names do you recall when it comes to Power Metal from Australia? Perhaps Vanishing Point? Pegazus? Lord? Maybe even Dungeon? Well, add to this an outfit by the name of Ilium. I did some research and found out that Ilium is a science fiction novel by Dan Simmons, the first part of the Ilium/Olympos […]

One of the guys on the board mentioned this one in the Avant-Garde Death/Black thread, with the description “progressive black metal Opeth.” Those are three of my favorite metal-related terms, and I’ve always been on the lookout for something that fits the bill. However, aside from moments on last year’s excellent releases by Janvs and […]

Snarkily nodding to their small but fiercely dedicated following with this album title as they did with the preceding EP, You Waited Five Years For This?, Cleveland’s finest mostly instrumental four piece is back and they haven’t skipped a beat, or rather drummer Will Scharf is still skipping beats left and right, but that’s a […]

What a year. Seriously, new albums by Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Cannibal Corpse is one thing in a year, but when the underground is also churning out slabs of equally if not more ferocious material then it shows that the good times truly are a rolling. Now for a band that’s legacy was built on a […]

On its face, Imperial Vengeance seems like a fascinating proposition. Symphonic black metal courtesy of two dapper British gents, with inspiration from British military history, mythology and literature? And mixed and mastered by Brett Caldas-Lima, creator of the stunning progressive death masterpiece Kalisia: Cybion? I was really eager to hear this. The symphonic intro instantly […]

I guess I missed the debut album from Italy’s Malfeitor, but I sure am glad I got a copy of Incubus to review. It is one hellishly righteous cauldron of boiling black metal. Featuring bassist/vocalist M. Fabban (Aborym), Malfeitor play in a traditional Scandinavian style, in this case one that crosses the ferociously fast and […]

How many genres fold in other cultural sounds and themes as energetically and creatively as metal? We’ve got it all: Ancient Egyptian death metal (Nile) and Christian progressive black metal (Extol). Metal from both the Middle East (Melechesh) and Middle Earth (Summoning). An entire seagoing army of epic Viking folk bands (Thyrfing, Aes Dana, Moonsorrow, […]

You’ve heard the phrase “never judge a book by its cover.” In metal, this aphorism generally doesn’t apply. An album’s artwork usually gives at least some insight into the type of music you’re going to hear. The cover art for Assaulter’s Salvation Like Destruction is misleading, though-a birdlike monolith stretches its wings against an ominous-looking […]

Futility are an unsigned act from Australia that play an aggressive version of death/doom. For a self-released debut, this isn’t too bad but it seems amateurish in comparison to some of the other premier doom acts coming from Aussie territory.Slowly, “Failed” starts of with harmonized misery, reminiscent of early Anathema and Katatonia. With the somber […]

I’ll admit, even I have been a bit burnt out on Christian metal of late, and when I initially started listening to the debut from Fargo’s Hands I was pretty unmoved, as the rumbling opener “Hurricanes” didn’t do much for me and I simply classified it as yet another group of uppity noisy Christians spreading […]

There’s a dude on the back cover of Rex Mundi X-Ile wearing a gas mask and PVC latex. It’s never a good sign when your band photo apes something Marilyn Manson did back in ’96 (on the inside jacket for Antichrist Superstar). And it’s not because I’m anti-Manson or anything (I’m not, though I wish […]

You are mistaken if you are thinking this is the Finnish doom band of the same name so click away now if you were expecting a mournful recollection of misery. Instead is the complete other side of the spectrum, fierce, robust, thrashing metal from a place more likely to be more miserable then Finland, that […]

I’ve kind of dreaded writing this review ever since I gave Evangelion a few spins. Seeing as Behemoth has reached Dismember, Bolt Thrower, Suffocation and Grave levels of consistency and quality, they have arguably surpassed Vader as Poland’s premier metal export and almost certainly should be considered death metal royalty at this point in their […]

Man oh man; Australia produces some great extreme metal acts, especially those of the black, death, and war variety. The fertile down-under breeding ground has given us another righteous death metal act in Defamer and its first full-length release, Chasm. This one is all about evil atmosphere and old school spirit, but damn, it takes […]

Born of Osiris is one of those young popular bands everyone loves to hate (moreso ‘cos of their fans I think) and they along with The Faceless initially got lumped in with the deathcore crowd. However, The Faceless further distances themselves from deathcore and aligned more with technical death metal with last year’s impressive Planetary […]