Unlike my urologist when I was just a little guy, I really dropped the ball here. Don’t think about that one too hard, please. When it comes to The Convalescence, I heard of them but hadn’t listened. On a random Tuesday or Wednesday, I noticed they were playing at my friend’s venue outside of Pittsburgh […]

I’m new to Spanish veterans Æolian, but after hearing Echoes of the Future, they, like the recent KING I covered, are one of those bands where I instantly pre-order the album and then go back and purchase the entire back catalog. Fuck this is good. I mean from start to finish, every note and exquisitely […]

The last time I did a review of a Christmas album, it was Majestica’s take on Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. A largely successful, fun, power metal album with plenty of Xmas cheer and classic Xmas hymns and elements. The Black Nativity is the complete opposite. And not in a good way. Illinois Christian black metallers […]

Anytime I think of Warcrab, I can’t help but be reminded of the meme/photo of the crab holding a knife. I sometimes identify with that crab. Crabs in general. Something about a hard shell and tasty insides. Legs spread and eaten. Hold on now before we all get hot and bothered. This isn’t that kind […]

Have you ever come upon a band that sounded so hateful and intense that you began asking yourself why has this band slipped past your radar?  Several years ago my good friend Graham sent me a Bandcamp link to End’s Splinters From An Ever​-​Changing Face album.  Honestly, I cannot remember for the life of me […]

What’s in a name? Well, I have to admit I’m shallow enough I passed up this promo when it first showed up in my inbox as the name Deathcode Society did little to draw my interest. Then, while listening to a symphonic black metal playlist on Spotify, the track “Scolopendra”, played, and my attention was […]

If you’ve read this site for any amount of time you know I’m a sucker for 90s-styled symphonic black metal. And here is the debut from German newcomers Aphelium Aeternum and their excellent debut Dark Interstellar Mysteries, which delivers a perfect rendering of the genre, imbuing the classic acts like Dimmu Borgir, Obtained Enslavement, Old […]

One of the surprises being a metal reviewer (not journalist, mind you), is receiving the new promo for a band of whom I have been a fan for a while now. It’s even better when it’s out of nowhere. In this case I am of course referring to Sorcerer and their new, streamlined album Reign […]

Necrosanct was a short-lived death metal band from England, who had a little smattering of success.  In their brief 5 year period they were writing maniacs and released three full-length albums which I will touch on in this review.  In 2019 the compilation Legacy was released which included some demos/rehearsals.  We get UK’s Back on […]

Stortregn’s (‘downpour’) development from a melodic black metal band into a more technical, shredding death metal band with a few black metal elements has been a splendid development, and fittingly with the style shift, the band found themselves on the perfect label, The Artisan Era, literally the preemptive label for shreddy/melodic, sometimes symphonic tech death/black […]

What is the most boring thing you’ve ever heard? Like, go back through those memories and there’s probably something that was as boring as say, watching paint dry or flies fuck, a documentary about the secret lives of boll weevils would be more interesting than that, right? Which brings me to Mortuary Drape and their […]

Unique Leader Records? Check. Caelen Stokkermans cover art? Check. Blackened Technical deathcore? Check. Cool band moniker? Check. Christian Donaldson (Cryptopsy) mix/master? Check Album title I can identify with? Check. Yeah, I’m definitely reviewing and digging this. Portugal’s The Voynich Code is named after the Voynich Manuscript, a mysterious 15th-century codex full of images and writings […]

When it comes to Theocracy, I have a history. The idea is a deeper one. The band is a bit of one as well. Several years ago I was in what was one of my favorite establishments, a little record store called Magnolia Thunderpussy in Columbus, OH. They happened to be playing some epic power […]

Let’s get something out of the way first: Fuck cassettes. I recall a conversation I had with a few metalheads slightly older than myself at a festival when one of the bands “only” had CDs and vinyl available as physical formats. Two young whippersnappers asked them if they had any cassettes, to which they replied; […]

I realize Deathcore is a polarizing form of extreme metal and quite honestly I could give 2 shits.  Many people and fans, as well as current and former members of my alma mater, Internal Bleeding have even said our earlier work had a direct influence on Deathcore.  The main points discussed were our second album, […]

Man, as much as I love reliable old-school school, consistent bands that I’m familiar with and know what I’m getting with every album, I love discovering ‘new’ bands.  Whether the band is brand new on the scene or in the case of Australia’s King, a veteran band with some household names and two prior albums […]

I’ve been trying to figure out how I want this introduction to go. There are times when I get an album to review and it’s like a blind date. That’s not always the case especially if I’ve at least heard or read something about them. But with Xoth I’m going in blind as a bat. […]

This fall/early winter, a group of excellent Swedish-styled/HM-2 death metal releases will be vying for your attention and hard-earned cash. Belgium’s Carnation,  Prosthetic Records’ 2023 foray into the genre, Xorsist, Australia’s The Plague, reliable German vets Endseeker, and the best of the bunch, the long overdue second album from Sweden’s Gravestone. The 2018 debut, Sickening, […]

Welcome to the Annual Cynicism Roundtable, where we bring the world’s prominent cynics together to share why we think the world is total bullshit. As always, I’m hosting several well-known guests, such as my first, Neill Jameson of Krieg. I’d ask how you are, but I think we all know the answer. On that note, […]

Guitarist/Vocalist Tim Rowland’s Alchemy of Flesh album returns with By Will Alone.   A big change in terms of sound on this record is that he strictly uses six-string guitars tuned to D Standard.   The last album was a bit of a tribute to Morbid Angel, and it was noted that Rowland was trying to use […]

I kinda dug, These Nameless Worlds, the debut EP from this atmospheric/melodic black metal duo from Sweden. Despite the light-less moniker, it was a cosmic-themed, uplifting, bright take on the genre with some very pleasant melodies in the vein of Ghostbath, Vinland, Numeron, and Vallendusk. Well here is the full-length debut on the very fitting […]

Mouth For War hail from Colorado and outside of this release are new to these ears.  Having released An Ear Kept To The Ground ep in 2019, and Life Cast In Glass full-length in 2021.   Bleed Yourself is their second full-length album. Mouth For War play a beatdown version of metalcore with nods to bands […]

It’s been a difficult few years for Fuming Mouth since they released their debut, The Grand Descent. You can likely get that entire backstory from any other review of this album, so I won’t dive into it here. However, suffice it to say this band came out swinging with their follow-up, Last Day of Sun. […]

No longer a band with international members, USA’s brutal tech death metal/deathcore band Wormhole returns with their third album, Almost Human, and debut on Season of Mist Records. Wormhole has been around for 8 years and their 2016 debut, Genesis, caught my attention with the monstrous tech brutality and brutal beatdown slams.  Outside of the […]

Germany’s Alkaloid have returned with a massive double disc release in Numen.  For those of you not familiar with Alkaloid it is a side project of guitarist Christan Muenzer (Obscura) along with bassist Linus Klausenitzer (Check out his solo record also released this year) and drummer Hannes Grossmann (Hate Eternal, Obscura). The opening track of […]