Once I heard that Amorphis’ ninth album once again delved into Finnish folk literature a la the legendary Elegy as well as Eclipse (Skyforger, like Eclipse is based on the Kalevala poems, this time focusing on Ilmarinen, one of the central characters), I had my hopes pretty high. Even more so when you consider that […]

Evangelical Christians are a productive lot – perhaps it’s something about building God’s kingdom on earth. Hack writer and huckster Tim LaHaye cranks out a kitschy Left Behind novel each year and ascends the bestseller list. It’s a different story for team Satan – perhaps it’s the time necessary to properly apply corpsepaint or elude […]

To tell you the truth, I’ve been just about “progged” out in recent years. I’ve reviewed stacks and stacks of predictable prog, but just when I get to the point where I groan when I pull a new one out, I find a record that renews my hope in the search. The latest from Spheric […]

I literally knew nothing about this Nevada band before seeing this suddenly appear in Metal Blade’s digital promo site, apparently their second full length album – no press hype from Metal Blade, no other inklings about the style or substance of the band before I pressed play. And when I did press play I was […]

After more than a decade of aggression, the time for divine intervention has arisen. After the blood sacrifice was deemed properly performed, selecting just the best pieces of babies, “In darkness thou shalt worship me,” so states the sacred text of Synagoga Satanae, Tom G. Warrior answered the call to the old gods and appeared […]

I’ve been trying to get on AFM Records’ mailing list for a while because they do carry several bands that I like. So I finally get three AFM releases in my hands, and after these reviews, I’m afraid my chances may be shot. First there was Elvenking’s latest, then Magica, now Exilia, and unfortunately, it’s […]

The Germans have a similar problem as the Americans. The term metalcore gets thrown around like a whore in a bukkake circle and deprives some bands of the obvious melodic death metal moniker they deserve. Despite comparisons to heavy weights Heaven Shall Burn and Caliban, bands like Neaera along with Fragments of Unbecoming lean considerably […]

With thier 3rd release for Austria’s Napalm label, French Symphonic Metallers Fairyland have delivered an absolutely fantastic album. Score To A New Beginning is loaded down with soaring, melodic vocals, epic keyboard/string layers, huge choirs, speedy drumming and ripping, virtuouso guitars. Led by keyboardist and sole composer Phillippe Giordana, Fairyland hold high the flame of […]

One of Germanic heathenry’s newer voices is also one of it’s most skilled. Just because a band releases a disc on their own does not mean it is a demo.  Some bands release a demo and call it a self released full length, implying quality, other band release a full length and call it a […]

Viking metal should make you want to load up a Norse ship with muscle-bound heathens and sail to a foreign land to usurp and plunder. Sweden’s Thryfing is one of the exceptions. Whereas their country mates Amon Amarth aim a broadsword at the throat, Thryfing offer cerebral Viking metal. The seven tracks on the new […]

Not content with Dawn of Demise and their super chunky, hefty style of death metal Deepsend has delved into the Danish death metal barrel once again, and pulled out another killer, similarly styled act in The Cleansing. Formed from the ashes of Usipian featuring cross band members of Panzerchrist and Corpus Mortale (notably Martin Rosendahl […]

Credit where credit is due, Hungary’s Ektomorf have been playing their version of Soulfly’s 1998 self titled album for nearly a decade now with little sign of letting up of changing style five albums in, even with a label change from Nuclear Blast to AFM Records. At least you know exactly what you are getting […]

Despite often being labeled as the Finnish Cult of Luna, I still feel that 2006s Noir is one of the better examples of the post rock/NeurIsis genre of the last few years, mainly because the cello just added something different to the typical build ebbs and thunderous peaks. However, with providence there has been somewhat […]

You’ve got to respect a band like Eluveitie. To make such a bold move like this after a highly impressive album like Slania is rather bizarre, especially when your fan base is just starting to grow. Evocation I – The Arcane Dominion, departs far from the melodic death approach and firmly embraces the bands desire […]

Quite frankly, I’ve grown away from TN12LLY since their killer debut EP, Put on Your Rosy Red Glasses, as the band through Sad. Nuclear. Sad and 2007s Mongrel have become progressively (literally) more quirky and experimental, dropping almost all of their feral brutality and grinding mathcore/deathcore fury in favor of melody, spazzy experimentation and far […]

Who knew such a calamitous, primal and experimental noise resided in the very depths of Southwestern Missouri, and that such a sickly, harsh example of cracking, fuzzed out, lo fi misanthropy is the brain child of a polite, unassuming twenty something college student named Adam Kalmbach? This is one of those releases that’s sure to […]

Now this is some excellent death metal right here. Spanning many sounds and variations of death metal, Germany’s Lay Down Rotten bring a well balanced and never tiring extreme metal pallet. Head-banging, groove based riffing and superb, emotive melodic leads punctuate this disc in an immediately memorable fashion. A lot of this stuff brings a […]

You better be in the right frame of mind for this one. And by “right,” I mean not right at all. Kembatinan Premaster is the second full-length from Havohej (or “Jehovah” spelled backwards), the work solely that of one man, Paul Ledney (Profantica, Incantation, Toten, Abomination, etc) and it is 34 minutes – not sure […]

From the metallically fertile landscapes of Sweden comes the three piece Hero. Thier newest album Immortal showcases a melodic, yet melancholy sound with lots of mid-tempo, double-kick headbanging passages and sweeping, ambient ballads. The sound is somewhat unique in the way it combines it’s influences. It’s got the tight guitar sound and epic keyboard layers […]

I hadn’t thought about this North Carolina band in years, but I do recall being impressed with 2004’s self-released debut album Lesser Traveled Waters, although I’ve had no luck locating my review of that disc. As such, let’s just say the band’s shape shifting ways on that album left me impressed and the arrival of […]

Rape Pillage & Burn get things started off on the right foot with Songs of Death…Songs of Hell — the click of a trigger, a shotgun blast to the face, and damn, you’re on your way. Considering the utter lack of frills or niceties in this EP’s five hell-fueled tracks, the album’s introduction is a […]

Ugh. I hate when I’m let down by an album I’ve been anticipating. Coming into Attitude, I was curious to see where Susperia would take their catchy and melodic death/thrash – back towards the phenomenal Unlimited from 2004, or continue down the path set by their last, 2007’s Cut From Stone, which felt rather lackluster […]

Before hearing What Horrors Await, I was only vaguely familiar with Jungle Rot. I knew they had been around for awhile and had heard bits and pieces of their stuff, enough to know they had a very groove based, old school death metal sound, so I pretty much knew what to expect and that’s exactly […]

Necrophobic’s last album, Hrimthursum, threw me for a loop initially, mainly because of the stylistic expansion from the album before, Bloodhymns, which was one of my favorites from 2002. It wasn’t as though the Swedes did any kind of about-face on that album, one that I rated quite highly in the end; I just found […]

I can’t honestly recall having heard Elvenking before, and as I understand it, this isn’t a record I should judge the band by as it’s an attempt to do something different from their normal sound. This record, however, sounds like a band in need of an identity. Is it folk? Is it power metal? Is it 1980s pop rock? […]