Here’s another album I was anticipating, but ultimately found boring. I remember buying their debut, Inside the Machine and thinking they had some potential, but after four or five spins, I shelved it and eventually sold it. So now, two years later we have Dead Harvest, and nothing more than another serving of potential unrealized. […]
After the clinical tech death assault that was Of Fracture and Failure, New Zealand’s Ulcerate has made a few changes to their sound and thankfully replaced vocalist Ben Reed (bassist Paul Keland now performs vocals) and the end result is yet another simply killer Willowtip release and one of the most striking death metal albums […]
Launched as a Dream Theater cover project back in 2001, Italian Progressive Metal five-piece Astra eventually grew into a self-reliant act and started writing and recording original material. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard their 2006 debut About Me – Through Life And Beyond, but I’m keen to do so after getting acquainted with their newest disc […]
A 20-part, hour-plus epic concept album mixing virtuoso progressive metal, blistering melodic death and symphonic grandeur? Sold. This French band comes off like the glorious blend of Scar Symmetry, Symphony X and Nightwish, with plenty of other influences – Cynic being a big one – popping up throughout. As you’d expect from those references, the […]
Seventh Rule Recordings chief Scott Flaster has been churning out a slew of noisy, dissonant, and/or angular shots across the musical bow for some time now. Indian, Akimbo, and Lord Mantis all fall into that category in one form or another. As such, it would seem logical that his own band, Millions, would combine all […]
Based in Sweden now for over 20 years, Blessed marks my introduction to Epic Doom Metal band Faith. Their music is something of a blend of early Tad Morose, Candlemass, Progressive Rock and Swedish Folk Music (complete with fiddles & old world melodies). The songs are long, the guitars are quite heavy and the vibe […]
It was recently discussed over at the teethofthedivine forums what “Evil Death Metal” is and examples to recommend. Seven Chalices, the debut full length album from Spain’s Teitanblood was one of the recommendations. And rightly fucking so, as Seven Chalices literally reeks of pure, ritulaistic evil and debased, chaotic misanthropy. For those of you sick of […]
Sweden’s Isole play a stellar brand of Epic Doom Metal akin to the likes of Candlemass, Revelation & early Solitude Aeturnus. Yeah, once again I find it best to get right to the point. This new release finds the band at, I believe, it’s pinnacle of monolithic mastery. One will find loads of booming, Doom-filled […]
The marriage of traditional folk music (from many countries) with metal has become more than just an exotic sub-genre. The two united seems almost perfect at times and there is a rabid following of fans. However, when the band goes complete folk and abandons all metal ideals (Eluveitie’s Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion), it’s a […]
As much as I like The Funeral Pyre and respect Creator Destructor Records, this stop gap EP reeks of contractual obligation or a favor to the band’s former label. Heck, even the artwork seems rushed and obligatory. Continuing the sound on 2008s Wounds, the now synthless California black metal act blaze lazily through 5 rather […]
Here’s a promising, nicely packaged, self released, 5 song EP than will not only appeal to you retro thrash fans out there, but maybe fans of modern thrash like Trivium and Cerberus (US). Hailing from Tempe, Arizona, Hemoptysis (coughing up of blood or of blood-stained sputum from the bronchi, larynx, trachea, or lungs), have all […]
I could be lazy and simply tell you if you like Equilibrium, then you will like Finsterforst (Dark Forest) and be done with it. After all, they also hail from Germany, play lavishly produced, epic, bombastic synth laden folk metal that culls heavily from Finntroll, Turisas and Ensiferum and they are fuckin’ awesome. However, I’ll […]
Warning do not operate heavy machinery while listening to this disc until you are sure about how it will affect you. When I first heard of this band I knew it would be good, with the Destroyer 666 connection how could it not be? Highly talented veterans banding together to challenge each other to put […]
When Ondskapt members announced a side project a few years back, I jumped at it, who would not? I must say I was underwhelmed with IXXI, the self titled debut, though I still picked up Assorted Armament. I will freely admit that I was not planning on buying Elect Darkness but then it arrived in […]
Long songs, ambient heaviness with percussive power and speed, relentless punishment with crushing guitar lines that would please vintage Metallica fans, and wandering passages at full intensity reminiscent of Lunar Aurora greet the listener of Germany’s Mortuus Infradaemoni, who return with another hour of material for their second full length. Get Nathaniel, and Profanatitas together, […]
I really wanted to like this, and at first I did, or at least thought I did. It’s not that The Cancer Empire is a bad album, but just kinda plain and rather safe. These types of reviews are always the hardest to write – not bad but not particularly good, these middle of the […]
Tabula Rasa, translated as “blank slate” from Latin, is the fitting title for the new album from Sweden’s Power Metal six-piece Bloodbound. If you happened to hear the band’s previous two discs, don’t necessarily expect to be exposed to another act of replication, as often occurs with many metal groups in the present-day scene. In […]
Holy sh– No that wont work. Jesus Chri– That wont work either. God damn– Crap. Well roger me with a Yorkshire terrier and call me Sally- man this is good. Those Christians sure are bringing the pain this year. Not only is the debut from California six piece Earth From Above arguably the heaviest Christian […]
There is no dearth of bands aping the Stockholm death metal sound, is there? In fact, there almost seems to have been an upsurge the last couple of years, part of which is surely attributable to Daniel Ekeroth’s Swedish Death Metal book and the renewed notoriety it has brought to the sub-genre. That brings us to […]
Burning Human is the classic death metal band that was originally formed in way back in 1995, but they never officially released anything. Of note though is that Burning Human (then and now) features current Shadows Fall and former Crisis drummer, Jason Bittner. The band recently re-united and with the help of producer James Murphy (who […]
There’s been an almost Bring Me the Horizon/Bullet For My Valentine like buzz in the British media about this Brighton metalcore act and their third release- on Century Media records no less. However, after absorbing Hollow Crown for a while, it’s really nothing too special in the realms of noisy, occasionally melodic metalcore/hardcore and nothing […]
With the shrieking banshee desperately reaching for your delicious flesh on the album cover, The Horror is aptly titled and steamrolls you over with blood-curdling vocals and Dismember style buzz saw distortion. I don’t think I have heard such a Swedish ruckus since Evocation’s Tales from the Tomb. What we have here is a razor […]
Folks, THIS is how clean vocals on a metal record are done right. Plying a familiar form of modern metal that will appeal to fans of Killswitch Engage, All That Remains and such, Canada’s Odium add a couple of things to spruce up their sound: some heavy handed but well placed, dramatic orchestral synths that […]
I decided to review this self released Italian metalcore effort and the debut, At The Bottom from Canada’s Odium on the same day so you readers could get two slightly different examples of how clean vocals affect the totality of the album. In the case of Inside Process, their heavier, meatier take on metalcore (a la […]
Ah, Black Sabbath, how we’ve missed you. I know, it’s not officially “Black Sabbath”, but we all know it really is. God love Ozzy, but Dio has always been the man for this band vocally. And now Messer’s Dio, Iommi, Butler & Appice have come to show all schools, old and new, how Metal is […]