The reason I decided to review the debut from this North Carolina act and Italy’s The Modern Age Slavery so close together was so readers could get two examples of how to beat a dead horse – on one hand The Modern Age Slavery making deathcore sound even more redundant and tired, and on the […]

I’m usually all for labels signed bands and releasing stuff outside of their usual fare, but Italian deathcore on Napalm Records? Fail. It’s not even very good deathcore at that, making Damned to Blindness an even bigger failure. Sounding like every teenage middle tier American myspace death metal band that’s listened to The Black Dahlia […]

There’s no real way to lead into it, so I’ll just jump right in. In Grief sounds like a blend of Daylight Dies and Evergrey. It combines some of the darker Prog Metal of Evergrey (the soundscape/sci-fi keys, the fluid-like guitar shredding) with some of the slower, more dramatic dirges of Daylight Dies (complete with […]

I remember seeing a couple of full page ads for this release in Metal Maniacs, and thinking there’s no way this can be any good- Viking metal from Ohio? But boy was I wrong. Sharing a lot of elements with Oakhelm, Hammer Horde are not only a Viking metal band from the least Viking place […]

This is what I call a bullshit-free release, an attribute that always scores points in my big book ‘o reviewing. One might even call it an unmitigated mofo. The “it” to which I refer is Evil Army’s self-titled album, an offering that is pedal-to-the-floor vintage thrash metal without an ounce of pretension, studio gloss, or […]

Under the Gun is not you average hardcore album, at least by today’s standards. You will find no pictures of anorexic males with hair combed to the side, girly pants, or eyeliner, nor anything resembling a straightedge ideology. Hell, it’s not even traditional hardcore, although lunatic punk or hirsute hardcore might be fitting descriptions of […]

I don’t know what there is upon which to capitalize in the drone/ambient genre, but Lustmord does pretty well for himself, this being a recent cap on his 25 plus year history in new album [Other]. I’ve personally never been much for the genre, but after taking the bait on one of the genre’s most […]

2007s Eater of Birds was a watershed release for this Colorado duo, firmly putting them in the very forefront of USBM along the likes of Nachtmystium, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Krallice and the long awaited follow up, Gin will further cement the duo as one of the very best forward thinking, envelope shredding […]

I’m still kind of on the fence with this release. On one hand, it’s nice to see some thrash done by dudes who don’t look 16 years old, with short dyed black hair and eye liner. But on the other hand, the kids almost do it better. That statement certainly won’t make me any friends. […]

Post rock is off to a busy start in 2009 with the likes of Nanda Devi, Tombs, Buried Inside, and the new Isis (which is killer BTW) – already before the start of spring. However the album I was most anticipating in the genre this year, the sophomore effort from North Dakota’s Battlefields as I […]

Let’s get this out of the way first, and put it out there. Inchoate is the instrumental metal brainchild of one man – Brandon Duncan. Brandon Duncan recently designed the new teeth of the divine.com logo and is doing the shirt designs that will be available shortly. First, Mr. Duncan sent me the CD some […]

Queensryche has taken something of a beating over the last several years amongst Metal fans. The band once revered for unquestionable Metal classics like The Warning and Operation: Mindcrime has been branded something of a washout on the backs of albums like Tribe and Q2K. Some fans blame the band’s perceived decline on the departure […]

Are you stressed out? Is your job getting to you? Has your wife been on your case about getting your share of the chores done around the house? Are you tired of shampooing the carpet where your renegade cat has been urinating? Are you coping with a debilitating and financially devastating methamphetamine habit? If you’ve […]

Mastodon are one of the most lauded bands in modern metal, but at the same time, one of the most hated by “elitists” with an agenda against “mallcore” (such a stupid descriptor I might add). I still have no idea how music of such a progressive nature can be considered “mallcore”, or meant for mass […]

Wow. I did not see this coming. Whereas the debut from Canada’s female fronted metalcore outfit Once Only Imagined, was a complete knock off of In this Moments Beautiful Tragedy, the sophomore effort utterly destroys In This Moment’s second, tamer effort, The Dream with a fierce and impressive evolution in the band’s sound. Though still […]

Virginia (mainly Richmond) has shown to be a hotbed for modern American metal and has rendered some superior bands over the years. Gwar, Lamb of God, and Municipal Waste are just a few who have erupted out of this area and made quite a name for themselves. Newcomers Adversary, the latest spewed from Manassas Virginia, […]

The last time I heard from Crimes Against Humanity Records was actually the last Desolatevoid album, Self Medicated Psycho Therapy and little has changed on the Desolatevoid camp; bassist Nick Carroll still runs Crimes Against Humanity Records, vocalist Aaron Howard still sounds batshit insane and the band still plys a form of gritty, crusty, in […]

This is the debut from these Dutch folk/Viking metallers, and it’s a lively collection of good-natured anthems. The cover notes recommends it for fans of Heidevolk, Manegarm and Eluvetie. I’m not really big into this particular sub-genre, as my Viking/folk knowledge goes about as far as Moonsorrow, but this is tightly played and seems authentic […]

Fen – the British word for swamp – suggests a band with a sludgy, crawling sound, but that’s not the case with this UK-based act. Instead, this combines dry, murky black metal with buoyant melodies and expansive moodscapes to create a dynamic and often mesmerizing experience. Essentially, Fen comes off like the British version of […]

I had exceptionally high hopes for the second full length album from Christian metalcore act, A Plea For Purging, as I really enjoyed 2007s A Critique of Mind and Thought as it delivered some Woe of Tyrants and The Showdown – like levels of shred and melodic death metal mixed with intelligent Christian themes. However, […]

There’s a handful of ‘popular’ and highly acclaimed bands that I simply don’t get or don’t enjoy. At the top of that list is Mastodon and pretty close to the top is Baroness and fellow Georgia act, Kylesa, its and no surprise considering they have (had) a somewhat similar approach to metal. While Mastodon have continued to […]

So not only is Earache experiencing a bit of a comeback, the UK Death metal scene appears to be getting very healthy in a hurry: Man Must Die, Detrimentium, Sarpanitum, Trigger the Bloodshed and now Bath’s own oddly named Ignominious Incarceration and their rather impressive debut. I’ll get this right out of the way now. […]

Fully titled Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum : Chaining the Katechon , this Single/EP is one track 22 minutes of typically deviant and caustic yet artfully malignant black metal from one of black metal’s very elite acts. It’s hard to review one 22 minute song, but luckily Chaining the Katechon has various segments and sections […]

On 2007’s The Final Dawn, Ontario’s Arise and Ruin delivered a solid if forgetful slab of thrash based metalcore and now with the follow up, even though the thrash element has been upped and the metalcore sound is virtually gone, Arise and Ruin prove a cool cover and album title does not a great metal […]

Finally getting a US/Worldwide release after coming out 2 years ago on Japan’s Toy Factory Records, the third album from super group Dimension Zero holds up not only after two years but as an album that would have sounded fresh and energetic whatever years it was released in. For me, the 2002 debut, Silent Night […]