I’m a big enough man to admit when I’m wrong, but in this case, I’m not. Tim Owens owns Matt Barlow in Iced Earth, and this EP is the absolute proof. Those of you who have read my blog and talked to me on the forums won’t find any surprises in this review. It’s no […]

“The fans have spoken and we delivered it.” – Jon Schaffer, Iced Earth guitarist. Since the December return of Matt Barlow to the Iced Earth fold, fans and critics have speculated the ‘classic Iced Earth’ vocalist’s ability to bring back both the noise and the funk of previous releases, perhaps moreso one than the other. […]

Finnish band Saattue (meaning Procession, in their native tongue) have certainly taken their time coming upon the scene. With two independent EP releases, in 2004 and 2006, their debut album Jäähyvästi (translated as Farewell) comes 7 years after the band first formed in 2001. Thank you, Spikefarm. Playing a tried and true form of Gothic […]

Across Tundras‘ name is a bit misleading – you might expect this to be another band of corpsepainted warriors, howling about the frozen north and the cold, cold, cold. It’s mournful and somber alright, but their inspiration is rooted much further south, in the American Southwest. Hailing from Denver, Colorado, Across Tundras plays a psychedelic […]

So last spring, Metal Blade cock teased me to no end by including a post card with “Coming in 2007-new Shai Hulud album!” on it, and I’ve pretty much had a boner for it ever since, as Shai Hulud is one of my favorite bands ever since their arguable involvement in developing the current modern […]

I’ve spent a lot of time listening to this album. I’ve started this review 2 different times, only to trash it. You see, this album has caused a plethora of different emotions. At first, it sounded creepy…the acoustic guitar/violin combo has a certain ominous air. After a while, it struck me as almost comical…like Black […]

The metal underground is a pretty huge place, and although I’ve been aware of German black/thrash warriors Desaster for some time now, I’ve never gone out of my way to check them out. With so many bands straining against the ragged boundaries of the genre, mutating and splintering and recombining elements to create something fresh […]

This companion EP to last year’s terrific Fear of a Blank Planet has been accused of being a tack-on, due to the fact that it’s priced as a full release, but only features 4 songs. Those naysayers are even more sour than Steven Wilson’s mood – this is a fantastic release, and definitely not just […]

Harsh, fast, repetitive, slow, haunting, grim, raw, distorted, minimalist, rhythmic, this is the definitive remastered director’s cut of prolific Malefic’s 2001 demo A Gate Through Bloodstained Mirrors and 2001 promo A Darkened Winter. Unfortunately the promo copy that I am reviewing only includes disc one of the two-disc set so I still have not acquired […]

It’s a well-worn horror cliché that no matter how far or how fast you run, the hulking, machete-wielding murderer behind you will somehow always manage to catch up with you – even while trudging along at a much slower clip. This pretty much sums up Paganus, an extreme-doom act hailing from Finland who’ve crafted an […]

Trees seems an odd choice of name for this Portland quartet, who ooze a ponderously slow brand of psychedelic black doom. When paired with a different act, the name Trees would conjure up images of graceful boughs, sheaved in green and waving in the wind, or shaggy willows, drooping to brush their tendrils across a […]

Churn out as much quality as Opeth, and each album will be studied for the slightest inclination of a flaw. Truth is, Mikael Akerfeldt and his mammoth baby Opeth have no flaws and are literally, in this reviewers eye’s, perfect. Say what you will, Watershed proves without a doubt that you don’t mess with Opeth. […]

After a three year absence Opeth return to us and somehow they manage to get even more bizarre yet again. I’m not going to compare this to older Opeth as I am a latecomer to the Opeth phenomenon myself. I only started a bit before Blackwater Park, thanks to a friend of mine who could […]

It’s a good thing I got the recent Day Without Dawn album around the same time I got the debut release from this Italian post rock band, because now I have something to compare At The Soundawn to; shimmering, delicate, acoustic heavy, artistic post rock. While more of a long EP (7 songs) than a […]

Although it sounds like an ominous technological term, the word Synastry actually comes from astrology, and refers to the concurrence or connection between two different signs and their influence on two individuals in a relationship. I’m not sure why the band chose this name – maybe it just sounded cool – but perhaps it’s a […]

I’ve found my next Halloween album. You know, the music you put on your stereo, speakers pointing out an open window and blaring into the street for all the trick-or-treaters and their bemused parents? The past few years I’ve used a playlist of Cradle of Filth‘s overwrought instrumentals – way more elegant than the cheapo […]

Much like Animosity when they released Shut it Down in 2003, or Decapitated’s Winds of Creation debut in 2000, California’s Fate is a group of very talented young teens plying thier chosen genre, in this case crumbly, growling death core laced with Between the Buried and Me-like arpeggios. Despite members barely out of high school […]

Repetition is the name of the game for Buffalo, NY’s Wrath of the Weak and their second album of bleak, dystopian and clinical one band basement black metal that’s as interesting as its cover art.  Sole member ‘J’, while certainly having a grasp of the requisite atonality, atmospheres and tenets of the genre, simply does […]

With the first martial drumbeats and solemn horns of the opening title track, it seems as if Italian melodic black metal act Stormlord have taken this, their fourth album, back to the epic battle-hymns of their early work. And indeed they have, as the song crests into a seagoing epic worthy of Moonsorrow. Rousing melodies […]

Coming from Newcastle, UK (the home of my favorite beer I might add) is this painfully boring, tough guy attitude oriented and blatantly unoriginal metallic hardcore quartet by the name of Boltdown, and their debut LP Omnicide. What makes them so “painfully boring” you might ask? Well for starters, they seem to model themselves after […]

Songs to leave you hanging. If you do it right you can listen to the whole album while dangling before you suffocate, but there is not really much point because there is nothing new to discover on later songs, so go ahead and kick the chair out and snap your neck. Another one man Burzum […]

What still with us? Here is another album of songs to leave the land of the living. Got a suicide pact in the works? Call them all over, here is the disc to get it done with, stop procrastinating. Necronoclast is back for their debut release for Moribund and second full length overall. Same formula, […]

Tiamat have returned for the first time since 2003’s Prey, and not a moment to soon for me. The long hiatus has brought some change to the band, this is for sure. While they are nowhere near their Astral Sleep days Amanethes is their most aggressive album in ages. There is plenty of the goth […]

When last I heard Helion, on their 2006 EP Mercury Rising, they were a damned solid, but pretty straightforward power/prog outfit. It was one of the better records that I heard that year in the style. Two years and a lineup change later, I could almost be listening to a different band. The good news […]

Talk about a case of bad timing. In a year without a new release from Opeth, perhaps Farmakon’s Robin would serve as a mildly entertaining diversion for fans longing for that sound. If I’d heard it when it was originally released by Four Seasons last year, it might have gone over better. Re-released by Candlelight […]