Viking black metal giants that seem to be too often overlooked, Helheim are back with their sixth full length and second on Dark Essence. I have followed Helheim to Muspell and back, or from “Muspilli Strid” to “Svart Seid.” Hellheim lineage shines through. This is a return to Solistitium form. Many old elements are in […]

You know that noise a screaming baby makes just after you slit her throat? Torog captured it perfectly on Rituale Satanum but has since bled out and now sings with the voice of the demon that possesses him. The most obvious change is more growl less shriek and the vocals are less powerfully rendered in […]

Sporting ex-Darkane vocalist Lawrence Mackrory (from the excellent Rusted Angel album) on bass and backing vocals, I had high expectations from Enemy Is Us and their second full length Venomized, despite the not so great band name. What I got was a heaping dose of unmemorable mediocrity. Venomized is a lesson in Swedish repetitiveness. Don’t […]

When a band changes their name, it’s usually for the worse-usually a shift in style to be more acceptable, commercial or just downright not metal (see Covenant, Cemetery, … And Oceans, etc). However, the UK’s Gorerotted, after 3 fairly mediocre, stylistically undecided albums, decided to start anew and change their name to The Rotted. The […]

It’s ironic that I recently rewatched both Terminator movies this weekend (which hold up very well many years later) as I geared up to review this Arnold Schwarzenegger side project from As I Lay Dying’s Tim Lambesis. With Destroy The Runner’s Chad Ackerman providing the surprisingly good Arnie impersonations between songs and Tim Lambesis (along […]

Strap on your sandals and fur codpiece-its folk metal time. And what folk metal this is! Culling from the likes of Finntroll, Amon Amarth, Turisas, Bal-Sagoth and Ensiferum, Germany’s Equilibrium, after an already fantastic debut in Turis Fratyr, have released arguably the most complete, enjoyable, epic and down right brilliant folk metal album since Jaktens […]

For the past few years, Alice Cooper has been trying, with limited success, to recapture the sound and feel of his 1970s heyday. Those records, The Eyes of Alice Cooper and Dirty Diamonds,  had a little problem, though. While some of the tunes hit the right note, both albums had several songs that sounded like […]

I’ve never really been too into instrumental music, with a passing, fleeting interest in the likes of Tides, Pelican, Red Sparowes and such. The last instrumental album I really got into was The Autumn Project’s The Burning Light, on Deepsend Records. Ironically, this album was supposed to be released on Deepsend Records, but instead got […]

Here’s a noisy, caustic spurt of modern grindcore/hardcore hybrid from Switzerland’s oddly named Yog, and while many bands are plying this sort of sonic chaos (Architect, Gaza,  Khann, Romans, Nights Like These, Robinson, Harlots, early The Red Chord, Pig Destroyer, Fuck The Facts, all the Converge wannabe’s, etc) Yog do it very well, and actually […]

What we have here is a stinking, festering, mossy slab of sludge.  From Baton Rouge, Louisiana, no less.  With Peasant, Thou  prestents six tracks of fuzzy, yet heavy doom.  It’s really nothing we’ve never heard before, but they do some things pretty well (though not often enough).  Like a lot of new doom acts, Thou […]

It’s been a turbulent year for straightedge moshers Liferuiner. After releasing No Saints,  arguably the heaviest hardcore album of 2007, the singer was kicked out for allegedly having sex with a minor, then a label change and then fill in singer Danny Surjanac and drummer Shane Tyrer were recently arrested for 28 counts of graffiti. […]

I actually reviewed this album at another website a couple of years ago after it came out on Hope Prevails Productions, but now with a re-mastered sound, new artwork and a cover of Cynic’s “How Could I?”, I’m recalling how good this actually was and how well it stands up 3 years later. If the […]

I’ve always admired Deepsend Records, for their DIY ethic and ability to release records from fairly obscure bands that manage to compete with the larger named, larger label releases, and releases by the likes of Porkfarm, Dawn of Demise, Lecherous Nocturne, Exitium and such show the band has an eye for talent, and the debut […]

So, lets say you are one of the picky bastards that thought Opeth’s Watershed was too soft or too progressive, and wish bands like Dark Suns, Orakel, The Morningside, Farmakon, Adytum and such were even more like Opeth, just go ahead and grab the superb debut from Sweden’s, very, very talented newcomers In Mourning. While […]

Sometimes you see an album cover and just hope that the music inside matches the imagery. In this case, the graphic of five masked phantoms, convened like some interdimensional alien tribunal, could have just been another slapped-on gimmick – but thankfully, it’s the perfect visual for one of the more harrowing and hypnotic tech-death albums […]

Arcturus, Solefald, Manes, Morgul, Frantic Bleep – all part of an avant-garde, oddly theatrical sub-genre of black metal, and all of them from Norway. Now you can add Vulture Industries to that list, and if you’re an Arcturus fan, you’ve got good reason to rejoice, because debut LP The Dystopian Journals sounds like it could […]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with The Diseased and the Poisoned, sophomore effort from Carnifex (derived from the olde English word for ‘Executioner’). In fact, its arguably one of the better deathcore releases of the year-up there with Whitechapel’s This Is Exile-and therein lies the problem. The Diseased and the Poisoned and This Is Exile […]

This review is going to start off with a weird comparison, but here it goes. I cannot help but feel that there is a kindred spirit between Terror and Cryptopsy on their latest full lengths. Even if they occupy totally different musical spectrums, there are a series of factors aligning them on their new releases. […]

Wow – here we have an unsigned act from Hamburg, Germany called Storm of Sorrows that labels need to snap to attention and watch, because these guys are loaded to the brim with talent. Their second LP, Slave to the Slaves really caught me off guard with the massive amount of skill contained within. Melodic […]

This was probably my most anticipated album of 2008. After all, not many albums have managed to move me as much as 2003’s Choirs of The Eye. Though a challenging listen, the melodies and structures soon became identifiable and revealed a complexity of emotion rarely explored. 2006’s Dowsing Anenome With Copper Tongue seemed to be […]

For most bands, releasing a double disc studio album comprised of solely new material, and clocking in at an hour and a half, would be an amazing feat. But for England’s extreme doom gods, Esoteric, this is just another day in the park. In fact, it’s not the first time they’ve released a two disc […]

I stumbled upon Wold after Screech Owl was released last year. Out of curiosity, I opted to give them a listen. Judging by Profound Lore’s other artists, I expected something avant-garde and, well, profound. After all, this label houses some high quality acts, including Nadja, Alcest, Portal and Asunder. What came out of my speakers […]

Dwelling on the past will never, ever change anything. Sulk all you like but when a band that was so important and so vital in the formation of modern day death metal comes along with a record so alien to their former glories it can be a bitter, bitter pill to swallow. Even if the […]

I’d heard of this band years ago, when they started gaining recognition during the tail-end of the ill-fated nu-metal movement. Never bothered to check them out, but seeing as If, their fourth album, is being released by The End Records (that bastion of iconoclasts and experimental goodness), and that it also debuted at #27 on […]

Keep of Kalessin meets Gamma Ray. Or is it vintage Iron Maiden on the opening track with acoustic guitar thrown in. The production is even more polished and clearer than last time making for a monumental sound that will make Bathory purists cringe. Once again high energy forward driving but not overtly melodic music with […]