Though this is their seventh record, my introduction to Spanish symphonic metallers Dark Moor came through their 2007 outing, Tarot, which had some strong moments, but overall was a mediocre effort with a little too much standard power metal. Not a great deal about their sound has changed on Autumnal, yet it strikes me as […]

If I’m being honest, I’m not sure what to make of Orphan Project. My first impression was that they were a decent commercial rock band with some aspirations to progressive, but on subsequent listens, I realized that assessment was a bit too shallow. There’s certainly commercial rock here, and progressive, metal, even some easy listening […]

I, like many others, have a deep fondness for Pierced From Within. For many, it’s like a capstone to the silver age of death metal, a brutal yet technically complex episode embedded in the minds of the long time fans; the guys that had seen a Tirant Sin show or two in a garage or […]

As the story goes, when Prosthetic Records asked D.C. – based guitar virtuoso Tosin Abasi to record a solo album based on his performances with his former band Reflux, the artist demurred as such a project would be ‘egotistical’. Here then, is his solo project under the band name, Animals as Leaders, on which Abasi […]

It’s not everyday that you see a band held in high regard for immolating a sound so perfectly. General Surgery has been hailed the ultimate Carcass clone for sometime now and that’s really all I see going for them. The fact that people seem content with this bands worship is fine by me, but it […]

Yeah I know – what a silly band name. A name like that makes me want to skip right over an album, but as I’ve learned in the past, a name does not necessarily make the band. A perfect example of this is Rumpelstiltskin Grinder. Anyway, here we have the debut full length, Existenzminimum (an […]

I’ve admitted before that I’m a sing-along sort of guy, and I sometimes have a problem with records that are not in English for that reason. On the other hand, I can’t complain about weak lyrics when I don’t understand any of them. So maybe it all comes out in the wash. So, I’m faced […]

A really solid debut here from ex-members of the short-lived punk band Bars, who also have some more recognizable Massachusetts metal and hardcore pedigree in the form of The Red Chord and American Nightmare members. As you could probably tell from the evil-word/equine moniker (see also Palehorse and Warhorse), we are dealing with a band […]

What more did you expect? There are three words above that are intrinsic to hardcore terminology, “thick,” for thick riffs, beats, vocals and lyrics. Blood, well, you don’t have to be blood to be family and all that rhetoric that’s been rife pretty much since the beginning and embrace? You embrace the music, the scene […]

Kam Lee has been performing death metal since the early 1980s when he was a teenager and a member of the band (Mantas) that later became Death and then left to form Massacre. After a few stops in Hateplow, Skincrawler and Denial Fiend, the veteran growler is back at it with Bone Gnawer, a death metal […]

So the new label of Skinlab, released this, the third full length album from Los Angeles’ Flatline earlier this year, and its been sitting on my Ipod since February , waiting to be reviewed, and to be honest I completely forgot about it, which tells you something about its quality. Now, Pave the Way isn’t […]

Arguably surpassing The Black Dahlia Murder as Metal Blade’s media darlings, JFAC have at least weathered the hype and the hate to change styles from their reee filled deathcore to morph into a more respectable death metal outfit, and retain their fan base as 2007s unit moving Genesis proved. However, in these eyes (or ears) […]

One could easily look at the moniker, cookie cutter logo, generic computerized cover art, and Metal Blade’s recent release history, and make the assumption that As You Drown is merely another drop in the generic deathcore bucket. Wrong. As You Drown (previously named Ethereal) hail from Sweden and play death metal. Really good fucking death […]

As England’s most extreme export since Napalm Death have made their transition from apocalyptic black metal to grindcore, they have managed to retain some of intensity and ferocity of The Codex Necro, though far less caustic, and have been able to introduce some love ‘em or hate ‘em clean croons amid the mechanical, robotic blasting […]

First and foremost, massive improvement from their debut Ekklesia and whilst For Today show growth in their musical capabilities they are some way off the top of the mound in the metalcore circles, even the Christian ones.They continue to build on their solid foundation of choice influences, taking the stutter and lurch of most modern […]

I’ll be the first to admit I’ve never been a drone fan and despite being seven albums into their career the apparent pinnacle of the genre, this is my first exposure to the duo of Greg Anderson and Stephen O’ Malley. However, what intrigued me about this release and prompted me to check Sunn O))) […]

As one of the many who hyped Pelican’s self-titled EP from the rooftops, I held out great hope for the band at their inception, but unlike many who continue to hold them in high opinion, my enthusiasm was short-lived due their frankly anemic debut full-length, Australasia. Even more frankly, the live performances I witnessed were […]

You’ve got to respect what Markus Eck and his German webzine have accomplished with the fifth installment of their Metal Message folk/pagan/Viking compilation CDs. For this lavishly packaged release, legendary artist Ed Repka (Megadeath, Death, Atheist, 3 Inches of Blood) has provided the cover and the DVD packaged material is full of endearing artwork, including […]

Metal Blade is a wonderfully sharp company. What better time to rerelease one of their more popular band’s older material than now (y’know, when they’re finally popular)? And in retrospect, it’s really bizarre that it took an audience this long to take notice of Amon Amarth. Certainly they now can be mentioned in the same […]

Maurizio Iacono and the Canadian hyper blasters Kataklysm have spread their wings in 2009 and ventured away from their usually reliable racket to deliver us a tasty concept album on the fall of Rome, dubbed Romulus. Ex Deo consists of the entire Kataklysm line-up and Jonathan Leduc (Blackguard) on keyboards. The idea was the brainchild […]

Beginning with the 1998 debut EP from Isis, a perpetually expanding number of bands criss-crossing the metal and hardcore scenes have successively attempted to snatch the torch from the hands of slow-core, for lack of a better word, godfathers Neurosis. Isis’s Mosquito Control was tribute bordering on plagiarism, and having suceeded in creating a buzz, […]

Comprised of former members of unsung underground metal stalwarts Kalibas & Anodyne, Defeatist has been relentlessly pursuing the kind of revered status in the American grindcore scene that European and Japanese bands have achieved by virtue of their comprably more prolific and superior output to their stateside counterparts. Hailing back to the glory days of […]

Ok, let me get this out of the way. I was, and am, a huge Van Hagar fanboy. I know, I know…sacrilege. When everyone else was screaming for DLR’s return, I was on the rooftops shouting “5150!!!”. So, you can imagine my school-girl like excitement at the thought of Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony making […]

Since it’s formation in 1992, New Mexico’s Ultimatum has been steadfast in it’s pursuit of the Metal Dream. This is one of those bands that lives, eats and breathes Heavy Metal on stage and off. For it’s fifth full length studio release, the band has chosen to pay homage to some of it’s heroes and […]

The only thing more satisfying than human misery is a new Impiety disk. You know those days when you are mightily pissed off at the world, bright sun, not a cloud in the sky, smiling faces everywhere you look. Tourist season is upon us and in anticipation I have been out blasting Impiety in public […]