My bud Alex, the owner of Dolorem Records, has sent me yet another promo for one of his bands, and this time it’s Supreme Void, a Polish death metal band playing a dissonant style of extreme music.  Fans of Ulcerate, Immolation, and Gorguts take heed of this bad boy. “Remnants of Hope” opens this six-song […]

I knew absolutely nothing about Toronto trio A Flock Named Murder or their label, Hypaethral Records, other than they play post/atmospheric black metal, which has kind of been my jam lately, so I randomly grabbed the promo. Then, because I’m a goddamn professional (sometimes) I actually did some research on the band, only to find […]

Sweden’s Wombbath experienced quite a resurgence when they came back into the fold in 2014 and a year later released Downfall Rising, their long overdue sophomore release to their classic 1993 debut Internal Caustic Torments. I reviewed Downfall Rising on this very site of ours, too.  Since then, they have released four other albums and […]

Personally, I feel like we are in a new golden era of metalcore/deathcore/death metal female vocalists. Sure, the path was forged by the likes of Dawn Crosby (Fear of God), Karen Crisis (Crisis), Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy), Krista Curry (Landmine Marathon), Laura Nichol and Grace Perry (Light This City), Maria Kolokouri (Astarte), Courtney LaPlante (Iwrestledabearonce […]

Who said that Switzerland was only known for Celtic Frost, Coroner, and Swiss Cheese?  Enter in Pusboil, who in 2022 crafted a real heavy demo and their debut album in 2023, Ancient Stories of Suffering and Disease, expanded on that full scope. The band has brutal influences ranging from Sanguisugabogg, Undergang, and Cephalotripsy.  Indictment is […]

I’m sure everyone reading this remembers the scene from the first Faces of Death where the ‘blood cult’ eats the dead body, right? Okay, so keep that image in your head and then go listen to Profanatica’s new album Wreathed in Dead Angels. Maybe playing the two together will result in some sort of evil […]

Back in 2022, these French maniacs, formerly known as Herpes, dropped their excellent debut, Blood Red Tentacle. A fine Swedeath album with a foul reek of Autopsy that reminded me of the short-lived super group Murder Squad. And with their second effort, not much has changed. If anything, the stench of Autopsy is even thicker […]

Black metal is about the atmosphere it creates. There’s even a sub-genre dubbed atmospheric black metal. It’s very difficult to do well, and for some reason, it’s immediately apparent when a band isn’t serious about it or isn’t “kvlt.” You just can’t replicate what was going on in Norway in the early 90s, and it’s […]

I was drawn to the debut album from Belgium’s Coffin Feeder by the album cover featuring some awesomely iconic 80s movie and TV characters from the likes of  Cobra, Commando, Predator, They Live, Gremlins, The Running Man, Total Recall, Big Trouble in Little China, He -Man, GI Joe and others all who seem to be […]

My fall down the Tech-Death rabbit hole continues. It’s been a wild ride, and it seems to have no end because another killer band has come across my radar. They are called Changeling, and this is a new project from Tom “Fountainhead” Geldschläger. Most recently he wrote  “Weltseelee”, the 15-minute epic that he composed for […]

I’m not the only one for whom melodic death metal hits that sweet spot. I reviewed Buried Realm’s Embodiment of the Divine, and it did an exemplary job. That album hinted at some of the influences, specifically two of my favorite melodic death metal bands, Scar Symmetry and Soilwork, but The Dormant Darkness features Bjorn […]

You’d be forgiven (by me anyway) for thinking that Imperial Triumphant were a Nile ubër concept band based on their masks. You’d be wrong as the day is long, because they certainly are not doing anything remotely Egyptian, especially on Goldstar. During my time with it I got these images from the movie Metropolis, and […]

In my review of Wythersake’s 2021 debut, Antiquity, I said (paraphrasing here) the band had delivered some solid symphonic melodic black/death metal, and with some tweaks, (namely some of the vocals and better synths) could develop into a really promising band. Well, they listened to some of my suggestions. Just kidding. I know my opinion […]

UK’s underrated Cancer return with their seventh full-length album, Inverted World.  I saw Cancer on their US tour in 1991 in support of their second album, Death Shall Rise, which is still their best album, and with James Murphy on guitar nonetheless. After their third album, The Sins of Mankind, in 1993, the band, as […]

Cartilage is a real cool death/grind band out of San Francisco, California. They’ve had a few albums and EPs prior and this new EP Tales from the Entrails: A Necrology, appears to be a stop-gap release before their third album hits.  Their second album, The Deader the Better, from 2022, was pretty damn good.  The […]

I quite enjoyed the self-released debut from Aversed, Impermanent, back in 2021. It was an unabashed homage to Arch Enemy‘s styled melodic death, from members of Alleageon and Begat the Nephillim complete with Haydee Irizarry doing her best Alyssa White-Gluz impression. Well, there are a couple of changes in the Aversed camp. First, the jump up a […]

Spiritworld is back and leaning hard into some cowboy shit. They experimented with it on Deathwestern, but multiple conversations afterward with friends concluded that Wayfarer released the album Deathwestern should have been. In hindsight, I’m not so sure that’s the case, but Helldorado could be. What stands out over their previous album is the commitment. […]

It took 6 years, but we finally have a new ADE album, their 5th, titled Supplicium (‘Punishment’) on a new label, Time To Kill records, and with yet another new lineup. Entering the fray is Hideous Divinity Drummer Edoardo Di Santo (as ‘Atticvs’ here), and Eyeconoclast bassist Gabriele Vellucci. What hasn’t changed is that ADE […]

It’s been since 2020, with Blodiga Skald‘s The Undrunken Curse, that I got truly excited about a folk metal album. *sigh* there was a time when any album with horns, strings, or an accordion would have got me all sorts of worked up. Sure Ensiferum, sort of does it for me, but when I say […]

Wrath of Logarius was first named Martyr Logarius.  It’s some video game character from a game called Bloodborne.  The band started in 2021, released the Necrotic Assimilation ep in 2023, and then changed the name to Wrath of Logarius.  The band logo is still the same style, however. This California based band plays a pretty […]

It took a long time before I really sat down and listened to Jazz. I started with Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Glenn Miller (yeah he’s more Swing, but “Take Five” is a powerhouse) and Ramsey Lewis. But then a funny thing happened in the 90s with the purchase of At Death’s Door 2 and I […]

That logo? Dave Ingram on vocals? Nuclear Blast Records? It just feels right, doesn’t it? 5 years after their return from a 12-year hiatus with 2020’s solid Scriptures, UK death metal veterans Benediction is back with album number 9. And while the band’s middle and later catalog isn’t quite the stuff of legend, there is […]

You’ll read no disrespect from me to Riley McShane because his albums with Allegaeon are incredible. That’s especially true for their most recent, which was my album of the year in 2022, Damnum. However, Ezra Haynes has always been the true voice of Allegaeon. When Riley left after the last album, I was bummed, but […]

A good friend of mine, from the local scene where I live, Kevin from Unholy Anarchy Records, sent me the promo for this Baltimore-based melodic death metal band, Chiaroscuro.  He’s trying to help this up-and-coming act and figured, let me see if Frank would like it.  Quite honestly he got me in the Iron Sheik’s […]

After two fine albums on FDA Records (including 2022’s fucking outstanding Feldwärts), Germany’s war mongering death metal act Scalpture have made the jump to a different German label, Testimony Records for their 4th album, though it comes with mixed results. Saying Landkreig is a step back from Feldwärts is probably a bit over an overstatement, […]