Death. War. Pestilence. Famine. A dying planet gasping for breath as it is gripped in the throes of Armageddon. Legions of demons sweep across the land, killing all in sight with reckless abandon. As the skies fall and the moon becomes black as sackcloth, it is out of this malignant hatred that Downcross was formed […]
Ohio continues to be one of the main hotbeds for quality American death metal bands. I am new to the 200 Stab Wounds bandwagon and it was 2022/2023 when the band came onto my radar. The label breeding ground for death metal bands getting signed to bigger labels is Maggot Stomp Records. 200 Stab Wounds […]
I originally started this off with a silly intro, but it’s not fitting. This is serious, bone-shaking death metal, and everyone should pay attention. Not that Tzompantli needed to improve, but they sure as shit did. On their second album, Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force, these gentlemen have knocked it out of the park […]
Bordeaux France’s Ad Patres returns with the third full-length Unbreathable. I reviewed their last record A Brief Introduction to Human Experiments back in 2019. Ad Patres brings an excellent combination of technicality, musicianship, and brutality. There is no shortage of any of these items with this record. Things get kicked off with an eighty-second intro […]
WyndRider is a young upcoming stoner doom metal act from Tennessee. In their short existence since 2022 they have released their self-titled debut last year and now Revival. I’ve recently been in communication with Chloe Gould, their singer, and have been mightily impressed with her vocals, after receiving this promo to review. I was so […]
1990; Fuck I’m old. In Death Metal history, however, it’s like I’m still in my twenties and it was DEATH METAL. Bands were releasing albums left and right, Napalm Death, Morbid Angel; the Earache label alone was like a goddamn factory with its roster of bands. Not to be left out were these dudes from […]
From the 2007 tech death debut, Of Fracture and Failure, New Zealand’s Ulcerate has been one of the death metal’s most consistently elite bands with 5 albums since. The band has evolved from the pure tech death of the debut into a murky, dissonant, almost black death band (they are on Debemor Morti – a […]
SOOO I am a huge Thrash Metal fan. In the 80’s while I was trying to find the hardest and heaviest music possible one of the scenes, which for me, has always been on par with the American Thrash Metal scene, was Germany. The main staples of Kreator, Sodom and Destruction were crushing it. However […]
Devourer of All is the second album from Belgian black metal band Nyrak, (I could not find who or what a ‘Nyrak‘ is) a new band to me, but based on this excellent second effort they will be a regular band in my playlist and a band with a bright future. Playing a blend of […]
Many of the bands I review on this site, I randomly encountered. That’s the case for Tennesse’s Summoner’s Circle. In my “why the fuck not,” era just last year, I saw a festival of which I had not heard in my state called Toledo Death Fest. Despite the hot sun, they were a stylistic sore […]
Finland. When I think of Finland I tend to think of the recent film Sisu. It’s about this gold miner who finds the mother load in a vein of gold. Long story short, some Nazis are killed in fantastically thrilling ways. While I was listening to this debut album from Kratti Matka Kohti Kosmista, I […]
Thanks to this YouTube group, I spent much of 2023 discovering newer symphonic black metal, or at least releases in the genre that aren’t from the golden age, or releases that somehow I completely missed from 2010 on. I found superb bands like Spain’s Ensom, Canada’s Obscuris Romancia, Russia’s Skylord, Cuba’s Mephisto, Finland’s Shade Empire, […]
I am new to the Vale of Pnath fan club. I’ve seen the logo over a number of years, however, I never heard them up until now. This Colorado technical death metal act has been around since 2006 with 2 prior ep’s and 2 prior full lengths to boot. After hearing Between the Worlds of […]
18 years, 12 albums, 9 labels, 8 vocalists. You have to hand it to the lone remaining founding member/ drummer Dave Astor; he is certainly persistent and keeps shuffling lineups and releasing albums on multiple labels, even with all the above he’s seemingly settled on a somewhat stable lineup for a few albums now (Obie […]
I don’t know about the rest of ya’ll, but summer sure took its sweet ass time showing up ’round these parts. Yeah, it’s June now, and a lot of this country has been caught in the grips of an absolutely hellacious heat wave (sorry), but back when I had originally started listening to this release […]
“Fuck every fucking cop that’s ever fucking lived.” I want to start with those words, which are repeated many times in “No Reform (New Age Slave Patrol)” the fourth track from Terminal Nation‘s second album, Echoes of the Devil’s Den, to simply let you know the message, and to turn back now if offended. For […]
The last Christian metal record I covered was Voluntary Mortification‘s Suffer to Rise back in 2020, which also happened to be Rottweiler Records, which is fast becoming the premier label for extreme Christian Music with bands like A Hill to Die Upon, Death Requisite, xDOULOSx, Krig, Desolate Tomb, Symphony of Heaven and such, much like […]
25 years is a long time. Hell, over 25 years is a long time, and I’ve realized that a lot of the bands I love are coming up on that side of their longevity, which isn’t much next to the Rolling fucking Stones and we all know they’ve been doing it since the Triassic period […]
When founding Nocturnus member, drummer/vocalist Mike Browning, resurrected the Nocturnus spirit, by adding the AD at the end I was very intrigued. I was a huge fan of Nocturnus, their first 2 albums and saw them on the Grindcrusher tour, in support with of their debut The Key, with Napalm Death, Godflesh, and Confessor on […]
I have seen Exodus live so many times, it’s ridiculous, both on the east and West Coast, mind you. I know they’re not in the big 4, but for me, if there was a big 5, Exodus, that is right, not Testament would be there. Still, to this day, whether on studio albums or live, […]
Mining-obsessed German duo Dauþuz (‘Death’) has been on my radar for a while now. I initially heard them on their third album, Monvmentvm in 2019, and then in 2021, they crept onto my year-end list with Vom schwarzen Schmied. I wondered how they would, like other specifically themed bands (i.e. Alestorm) how they would continue […]
What do you think of when you hear the word fluids? Soda? Water? Urine, semen, blood? With the band Fluids you know what you’re about to get… the absolute shit beaten out of your eardrums. Songs about the slimey and worm ridden carcass of this decaying planet and the human shit that inhabit it. Reduced […]
The Headless Ghost is a new Italian band and is also now signed to an Italian label, the excellent Punishment 18 Records. The Headless Ghost originally started out a few short years ago more as a tribute act to Mercyful Fate/King Diamond. And as you can see from this kick ass album art, the King […]
“You shake your ass but you’re already dead.” If you don’t know my reference, that’s okay and maybe this review isn’t for you. The truth is Daath hasn’t missed. They have a stellar discography and I’ve never been disappointed. So, their new one The Deceivers, their first in 14 years, was heavily anticipated. What matters […]
I have thoroughly enjoyed New Jersey’s Cognitive rise through the underground ranks since their first EP in 2012 – The Horrid Swarm. I became friends with guitarist Rob Wharton, reviewed several of their early releases, finally met him on one of his tours years ago and he saw me touring with Internal Bleeding, as well […]