Originally released in 2006 on JCM records (RIP), Metal Blade apparently saw enough in this Minnesota band’s second effort to send the band back to studio to re-mix and re-master (and add two tracks and new cover art) to the follow-up to 2003’s promising but flawed effort, V.II R.VI. With considerable line-up changes, Epicurean appear […]

So, three years after the caustic Converge-meets-Isis worship of Luce, Italy’s The Secret return with yet another well-done, brittle and calamitous slab of noise — with a thin post-rock visage. And while the genre has certainly seen its fair share of Converge wannabes over the last few years, The Secret are by far one of […]

How many years has it been since Mr. Coverdale & Co. graced us with a new album? Well over 10, I’m sure. They’ve been back on the touring circuit now for a few years and have given us a live album & DVD, but this is the first album of all new material since 1997’s […]

Knowing that Power Quest was formed by keyboard player Steve Williams and bassist Steve Scott after leaving Dragon Heart (now known as Dragonforce, of course) in 2001, you might expect some resemblance between the two bands. The good news, however, is that Power Quest spends less time showing off their technical wankery and puts more emphasis […]

Chilean Gothic Doom Metal. This is the simplest, most concise description of Mar De Grises’ (Sea Of Gray) music. All the requisite elements are present to warrant this description as well. Within the 64 minute release, we find plenty of slow tempos, sad, depressing melodies, Death Metal vocals & an overall darkly romantic vibe. Now, […]

Hailing from Sweden, Dead Man also sounds like it hails from about 3 decades ago. Taking its cues from Psychedelic bands like Jefferson Airplane and, to a certain extent, Pink Floyd while also flirting with a darker ambience (think Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan”), Dead Man have crafted an album that is as much of a […]

With most recent deathcore simply obsessed with showing me how heavy and broodle they are (Annotations of An Autopsy, Emmure, Embrace The End, I Declare War, etc) a few bands such as Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya, Fate and Atlanta’s A Thousand Times Repent are trying to engage in a little more than a […]

With Siege of Amida losing its crown jewel (Whitechapel) to that all encompassing mega metropolis (Metalblade for those not in the know), it made sense to ensure that their next deathcore monolith was firmly propelled into the consciousness of the metal spheres, and disregard what reception was received, which so far has been positive in […]

So here is a limited edition (500 copies) 7″ vinyl spilt with new songs from Grayceon (“The West”) and Giant Squid (“Sutter’s Fort”). Both bands are arguably two of the better avant-garde, post-rock bands around, with both acts featuring the vocals of Jackie Perez Gratz (Amber Asylum) and her cello amid the dramatic, fluid, evocative […]

This album has had all the anticipatory promo one would expect from a classic band. Yes, Dokken is a classic band. The band’s first 4 albums are legend amongst fans of ‘80s Metal. Call them a “Hair Band” all you want, but Dokken had something few of its peers at the time did…musicality. To lump […]

Über fucking metal album title. Über fucking metal album cover art. Über fucking metal song titles and lyrics. Über fucking metal inlay art. Über fucking metal video. Lair of the Minotaur are just Über fucking metal. Period. Now on their third full length album, Chicago’s Lair of the Minotaur have been steadily improving and honing […]

So Colosseum is from Finland, reside on Firebox/Firedoom, and play funeral doom metal — do you really need to know more? Painfully slow, lethargic melancholy delivered with crushing guitars, deep bellows, layered despondent harmonies and flocked with synths, Colosseum are the archetype of Finnish doom as played by likes of country/label mates Depressed Mode, My […]

Brant Bjork has always exhibited a trademark laidback attitude about rock music, having first cut his teeth in the mega-influential stoner-rock icons Kyuss, then departing that success to join the looser but no less phenomenal Fu Manchu. With a slew of formidable solo records, Bjork now gathers Kyuss alum Alfredo Hernández on drums, Cortez on […]

Miami’s Consular must hail from the swampiest sections of the Everglades, for their molasses-slinging hurricane of sludge begins with the typical scavenging of spare chords from Grief, Eyehategod, Iron Monkey, and the like. But this four-piece stops there, adding instead more melody without detracting from the sheer density of their sound. Their debut Don’t Cross […]

Rarely does a band stack up to their ambitious bio, but UK’s End of Level Boss do in excess. Flirting with Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Metallica, and Godflesh on their 2005 debut Prologue couldn’t even hint at what was in store for this London quartet on Inside the Difference Engine—and now, thankfully, every semblance of […]

I have a great affinity for bands who possess exceptional technical skill, and also for bands with great hook writing ability without being to cheesy or poppy. Bands that can combine both of those elements though are a real rarity, especially when you figure in the nature of extreme metal.  Arsis is one such band, […]

This slipcased cd comes carefully crafted in an artful package courtesy of Paragon Records and France’s own melancholic misanthrope, Noktu, of Celestia. Celestia released their first official release a decade ago, and have flooded their corner of the market with demos and splits and compilations ever since. This is in fact only their/his second full-length […]

With Corpus Christii I am along for the ride because of the commitment of Horrendus and cohorts, and that their townsfolk probably shun them is an added bonus. Five full-length recordings and four eps precede this disc in a decade of steady output. This Portuguese band is really Nocturnus Horrendus and a stream of session […]

Black thrash with a sneer that quickly morphs into a grin. When I want to listen to metal purely for escapist fun, enjoyment that puts a smile on your face kind of metal, I’ll put on Gamma Ray, for a few songs anyway, and then I’ll need something a bit more intense yet still happy. […]

With Savatage seemingly on indefinite hiatus between the monster that Trans-Siberian Orchestra has become and the various solo projects of its members, fans are getting a lot of music in a similar style, but not what they really want. Until now. The first two efforts of Jon Oliva’s Pain have been quite enjoyable, if a bit uneven. […]

Albums such as this where a band takes some of their classic songs and re-records them with updated production are kinda tricky business, because your always gonna have fans that say “what was wrong with the way it sounded before? I liked it that way” and turn away from it. In the case of Testament […]

When people think of US black metal the bands that get brought up first are usually the one-man misanthropic bands, but to me US black metal is the full lineup bands like Abazagorath, Grand Belial’s Key, Kult ov Azazel, and the Texas triumvirate of Absu, Thornspawn and Averse Sefira. Anyone that thinks American black metal […]

With their sixth album, Children of Bodom have brought back some of the speed and classical influences that were missing from their last, Are You Dead Yet? The lack of those traits made it the most boring and uninspired sounding album thus far into their career, so to see them back to some degree is […]

Perhaps best known thus far as being Toma Araya’s little brother Johnny’s band, Thine Eyes Bleed are billed as being technical thrash, and for the most part it’s an accurate descriptor. Not overly technical nor as Slayer influenced as one might expect, they do what they do well enough I suppose, but all in all, […]

And so the thrash “revival” continues. Hailing from SoCal, War Without End is Warbringers debut full-length, after an independently released EP last year titled One by One the Wicked Fall, which initially sparked my interest in the young band. That EP showed a great deal of promise in terms of pure, foot to the throat, […]