Here’s the thing. You don’t just throw Ruins’ Cauldron in the player and casually listen while baking cookies in the kitchen, nor do you use it as background music for one of your mind-numbing knitting circles. It’s just not that kind of CD. Cauldrons must surround you, it must envelope you; you must ultimately allow […]
This is one of the more satisfying projects from the blackened end of the spectrum that I’ve heard in a while. Of course, “blackened” implies that there is more on offer than your prototypical black metal release. That is in fact the case with Conspiracy’s Concordat, just as it it is with its predecessor Reincarnated. […]
A solid split of goregrind and deathdoom, The Cracks of Doom features two proponents of the extreme underground: Philadelphia’s XXX Maniak and Japan’s Coffins. The half-hour album is split evenly between the two bands; XXX Maniak boast twenty brief cuts between fifteen and sixty seconds, totaling the first fifteen minutes, while Coffins handle two epic […]
Band reunions are getting pretty goddamn tiresome, and I think that’s important to say though it’s been said already probably a handful of times on other publications. The timing has been great for quite a few of these bands, what with profitable tours, major (and not-so-major) label releases, and a stable of gnashing old school […]
With 2007s debut, Nailed. Dead. Risen, California’s Impending Doom rustled some feathers and raised some eyebrows with their attempt at pure, brutal death metal from a Christian viewpoint. On some levels it succeeded, but it also felt a bit forced and gimmicky. So here is the follow up, and I’m glad to say, that for […]
Like this record, I’ll get xstraightx to it: 9 songs, 22 minutes of very impressive, incredibly hefty, heaving Straight edge hardcore/metal that’s some of the most impressive of this style I’ve heard since Black My Heart and Redline. Also, because some of the huge, open note breakdowns, this will appeal to the likes of The […]
I invite you to check out SelfMadeGod Records and the bands webpage after this review because the description they have of Mothra’s music is not only hilarious, it’s pretty dead on. Honestly, I am having a difficult time placing Mothra into a specific genre, but I am completely impressed by this Polish act. Dyes is […]
Practically every progressive rock band wants to record their own version of Tales from Topographic Oceans, the 1974 double album that was praised—or vilified, depending on the listener’s caprice—as Yes’ finest hour (and twenty minutes) of prog-indulgence. The fact that Yes weathered the loss of keyboardist nonpareil Rick Wakeman after its release and still came […]
These guys have been hovering just below my radar for the last year and a half and in that time I have had ample opportunity to check out these Liverpool natives. Out of either apathy or laziness I just hadn’t. It is safe to say that I’m not quite as enthusiastic about this modern thrash […]
Personally, I have never really cared for My Dying bride. As much as I love dismal doom metal, this veteran act has never struck the right chord with me. Is that blasphemy? No, it’s just this reviewer’s disposition. However, no one can deny how important this band has been to doom and gloom, and For […]
It is no secret there are bands that are mediocre on CD but manage to destroy live. Goatwhore is one such band, an act whose studio efforts have never wowed me the way their presence on stage ALWAYS has. Skinless is another, and though I’ve liked their earlier material, From Sacrifice to Survival onward hasn’t […]
Through no fault of my own I am behind the curve on this one. Back in 2004 I received the Terrifyer promo disc and, like all promotional copies, it was bare fucking bones. Nothing cool like bonus DVD’s are ever included. Originally “Natasha” was an additional bonus dvd to the Terrifyer release, a dvd with […]
Holy hell. 2008 saw tech death metal explode with the likes of Origin, Decrepit Birth, Brain Drill, Trigger the Bloodshed, Severed Savior, Psycroptic and such; a year hard to top right? Well, 2009 already has seen brilliant releases from Obscura and Ulcerate as well as solid releases from Inevitable End, Gory Blister, Trigger the Bloodshed […]
I have enjoyed beating myself senseless over the years with the more extreme elements of metal music, but every now and then I do enjoy the more melodic avenues of the genre. Jyvaskyla, Finland’s SaraLee are new to me, but I am enjoying this band’s sophomore release, Damnation to Salvation. SaraLee play a very familiar […]
Here’s yet another excellently put together, self – released effort, this time from Phoenix, Arizona’s Loren Battle, however, the music isn’t quite as promising as the cover art and self described mix of “beauty and brutality”. What we have here is a very predictable style of metalcore that’s on the heavier end of the spectrum […]
As a deathcore fan, 2009 has been off to a pretty solid start with the likes of Rose Funeral, Impending Doom, Glasgow Grin, Within the Ruins, Earth From Above, etc. However two recent releases in particular have savaged my genitals with the tenacity of an African Honey Badger and I was wearing beehive underpants; the […]
First off, I’m generally not a writer who spends half the review on an albums packaging or artwork, but Defeater’s Travel’s and its multi panel, digipack gatefold packaging emblazoned with no frills, grainy and real, black and white photos is simply superb and a welcome change to the usual over the top colors of the urban […]
I’ve discovered that there is a big difference between listening to Psyopus’ Odd Senses with a clear mind (yesterday) and in a hung over state (this morning). The latter is not recommended for those trying get their proverbial shit together after a night spent drowning in Crown Royal, vodka, and beer.In any case, I must […]
Pennsylvania’s Sathanas have been causing a ruckus in the underground since 1988’s Ripping Evil demo, but it is these last several years during which they’ve been on one hell of a roll. In 2005 they released the Entering the Diabolic Trinity album and followed it up with the scorching Crowned Infernal (both on Pulverised Records). […]
The fact the third full length album from one of Funeral dooms best bands and one of my favorite personal bands came out late last year and I’m just now getting to it should give you a red flag as to what is about to follow. After two absolutely stunning funeral doom albums in O […]
My CD collection is full of albums I ‘like’. Not albums I’m going to revisit and listen to over and over again, but certainly not an album I’m going to trade in, sell or use for Skeet shooting once I’m done reviewing it The second album, Dawn of Reprisal from the UK’s Malefice is one such […]
Maybe it’s the five year wait, maybe it’s the fact I’ve listened to soooo much similar styled noisy, lurching, techy mathcore in the last 4 years, maybe I’ve just turned into a miserable, jaded old fuck. I’m not sure what it is, but after being blown away by 2005s The Design, the follow up, The Campaign, […]
Now this – this is what I’m talking about. Metal Blade got it right with Lazarus A.D. More than just another retro thrash band, these gents from Wisconsin aren’t afraid to modernize their ripping thrash sound with a heaping dose of groove, seething vocals and a top notch production. Taking more than a couple cues […]
Even though I consider myself a huge fan of Progressive Metal, it so fell out that French quintet Adagio, one of the strongest contemporaries in the genre, had been lost on my radar for unreasonably long five years before chance threw us together again. No sooner had I heard the first thrashy riffs of “Vamphyri”, […]
Harpoon is a drum machine based ‘grindcore’ duo featuring vocalist Toney Vast-Binder of 7000 Dying Rats fame and guitarist/drum programmer Dean Costello (the band has also added Lair of The Minotaur bassist DJ Barraca). The term grindcore is relative here-this isn’t pure Napalm Death, nor is it the modern pseudo grindcore (Pig Destroyer, etc) that […]