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 […]

Wow – talk about being knocked on your ass! Carving Out the Eyes of God (from here on will be Carving), the fourth long player from New Orleans’ Goatwhore is a monster of an album, and it was totally unexpected for me. My first exposure to them was about five years ago when I saw […]

Attention all extreme metal record labels, Milwaukee’s Burial Ritual deserves a spot on your roster. Check out the precision death metal execution and memorable songwriting of Tower of Silence and I defy you to disagree. That’s not to say that self-released albums aren’t typically worthy of your time, but it is still a pleasant surprise […]

Listen. I had something special planned for this review, a humorous (at least in my mind) montage of images telling a story of how bad this album is. However, first of, this band does not deserve that kind of time commitment (it would have been a bitch to do in wordpress), and second I haven’t […]

Rank, damp, musty, raw Doom. From the intstrumental intro “The Holy Grail” to the end of “F.T.S.S.”, Heavy Lord is going to drown you in smoke, scum, feedback and sweat. Drawing from Stoner Doom as well as Sludge and Traditional Doom, Heavy Lord delivers the goods with force and intent. The way the guitars blend […]

Remember the 90’s when Swedish melodic death metal was kicking our ass? Personally, I was a huge fan of the genre and that is actually where I started my extreme metal listening. Unanimated, who have been around since the late 80’s, graced us with a killer display in 1995 called Ancient God of Evil, and […]

Les Tenebres’ (Norway) is a band that is not easily categorized. The most convenient thing to do is to file them under Doom Metal and be done with it. But as I listen to …And The Waves Came Crushing Down, I hear elements of Doom but I cannot concur with the tag as the overall […]

According to their website, UK-based Xerath has but one purpose: “to remain on the cutting edge of symphonic metal.” Combining bombastic, sweeping film score elements with chunky guitar chug and groove is certainly one way to do it. In fact, the band has referred to this hybrid sound as “chugscore” (although that could also just […]

Apparently, Facedown Records didn’t have the budget to sign another Christian metalcore/deathcore act and Sumerian Records didn’t want another keyboard laced deathcore act on their roster, so Metal Blade swooped in and gave them a record deal, killing two birds with one very mediocre, clichéd stone. Guardiansis the poster child for modern American deathcore/metalcore; except […]

The 2007 debut, Dread Champions of the Last Daysfrom this So-Cal hardcore band was an impressive mix of fervent, righteously rumbling hardcore and more hymnal, sermon-ish, prose that resulted in an aggressive but at times graceful album in the Christian metal genre, and at the time was one of the heaviest Christian metal albums I […]

Anyone who wrote off Nightrage after their last album, A New Disease is Born, would do good to give them another shot. Wearing a Martyr’s Crown sees them once again in top form on par with Descent Into Chaos or even Sweet Vengeance. For starters, the Tomas Lindberg replacement vocalist Jimmie Strimmel is gone, and […]

Years back, most who where lucky enough to hunt this band down regarded their first record, Tears of Mortal Solitude, as an obscure gem. Best described as Opeth-like, this band mixed dreary doom with a blackened atmosphere that really held something esoteric. I was ecstatic, to say the least, when I heard they were releasing […]

What’s not surprising about this release is that considering 3/5 of the band were in Through the Eyes of The Dead, Salarian Gate sounds like a Through the Eyes of the Dead album. What is surprising is that Relapse would release record that sounds like a Through the Eyes of the Dead album, considering the […]

An EP, apparently, at 39 minutes for this fairly prolific British doom trio, both of whose proper albums have exceed the hour mark and who have been fairly well-regarded among doom aficionados. My only prior experience with the group comes from their 2004 split with the excellent and sadly defunct Torture Wheel, who I thought […]

Not being quite certain whether the title refers to the end of the lawsuits related to Mike Scheidt’s interim band, Middian, or whether this is his way of saying that the reformation of the band he is best known for is a one-off kiss this ass goodbye proposition – hope not – I am quite […]

France has churned out some serious experimental shit in recent years and Eryn Non Dae is no exception. Hydra Lernaia is an impressive debut album that shows promise for a young band. Armed with quality production and tight musical craft, Eryn Non Dae sounds as if they are completely comfortable with their skills. Interbreeding off […]

Now more known for having Bjorn “speed’ Strid (Soilwork, Terror 2000) in their ranks, Italy’s Disharmonia Mundi were actually a pretty progressive melodic death metal band before Strid joined the fold, as this re-issue of their 2002 debut shows. While I was impressed with the (vastly under-rated) Strid era albums (2006s Mind Tricks and 2004s […]

One of the first two releases from Italy’s fledgling Coroner Records, (the other being a re-issue of Disharmonia Mundi’s under-rated 2002 debut, Nebularium), despite the cover art and name, I actually came away impressed with Destrage’s take on groovy, thrashy, rocking take on melodic death metal. With a healthy dose of commercial rock, some death […]

How in the fuck is a band like Be’lakor not signed to a decent label? (In the US anyway) Not only did they deliver a stunning self released debut, The Frail Tide in 2007, which was universally acclaimed, they have followed it up with a tighter, better produced follow up. All a label has to […]

Washington D.C. has always been known more as a punk hub than for metal. True, Wino got his start in nearby Wheaton, Md., Clutch hails from Montgomery County and Pig Destroyer resides in Northern Virginia. But when most fans of underground or extreme music think of D.C. they think of Minor Threat, Henry Rollins, The […]

To be honest, I don’t know why I’m bothering with this review. There are two crowds when it comes to this band and deathcore in general- love it of hate it, and most have decided before even checking the sophomore album from Suicide Silence out. The thing is, the deathcore haters and the fans that […]

Well, this is it, folks; the last of the Voivod material. As you’ve probably read in every single review of Infini, these were the riffs recorded by the late/great Piggy and turned into the 13 songs comprising this final album. It is the capstone to a quarter century of greatness. Keep in mind that the […]

Here’s another one of Einheit Produktionen’s belated 2008 releases and while not as impressive as Andras’s Iron Way, Norway’s SorgSvart does offer a very unique and playful take on Viking/Pagan black metal. Comprised of one man, Sorg (not Vintersorg’s Sorg), Vikingtid Og Anarki is actually his second album, but my first introduction to him, and […]

Up until now, I was only familiar with Hacride by name, but had heard much praise. After spinning Lazarus, the French bands third full length, I can see why – these cats have a pretty unique sound that I can only attempt to compare to a few others. There are all kinds of sounds and […]

Tasked with following up the excellent Undoing Ruin and Deliver Us, Washington DC’s Darkest Hour- arguably one of the culprits of the state of the modern American metal scene, at least know how to be consistent. Starting their more refined take of hack and slash At the Gates worship on Hidden Hands of a Sadist […]