For a label that already has Unearth, the signing of this band and release of their debut album seems odd considering that this band are virtually identical in every way to Unearth. With the exception of a sterner vocalist and a more gravelly production, Winter Solstice have the very same dual Swedish melodic death metal […]

At the end of my review for this band’s debut EP, Means by Which the End is Justified, on Love Lost Records, I stated that a full length album from this Florida based, Dillinger Escape Plan inspired tech core band would be pretty impressive. I didn’t know it would be on Metal Blade, but I […]

To me, God Dethroned have never quite recaptured the glorious mix of brutality and melody displayed on 1997’s The Grand Grimoire, with a string of mediocre releases following that great album up. Last years Into the Lungs of Hell came the closest of all the subsequent releases, but still didn’t touch the sophomore album in […]

This is Horna, no compromise black metal from Finland, no trends past or present, the Motorhead of black metal. Ignore all trends and be true to your origins is Shatraug’s motto and, like Motorhead, their songs are not as simple as people think. They can masterfully craft simple song structures that are more complex than […]

Think Blasphemy and Conqueror if you are not familiar with Black Witchery, if you are familiar with them think Conqueror. This time out the sound is more streamlined and more monotonous. Think 26 minutes of absolutely mindless savagery done with drums and guitar. Forget songwriting or any pretense at musicianship. This is bash till you […]

Canada’s favorite hardcore sons return with imaginatively titled II to follow up the buzz causing debut One. Playing a form of stark, barren post hardcore, that I call ‘minimalist core’, Cursed’s noisy Converge meets newer Entombed meets Motorhead form of brooding metal isn’t for the casual hardcore/punk fans as it’s dirty, grimy and vitriolic. With […]

Adding to 2005’s already promising death metal crop, come Austria’s Belphegor with their 5th blasphemous offering. While this is my first exposure to this rather revered European act, it won’t be my last as Goatreich-Fleshcult is a prime of example of death metal done Fuckin’ A right. With a hint of black metal (a few […]

Ireland hasn’t exactly been up front of the stage with some of the other European countries, when it comes down to the heavy metal department. Sure, everyone’s heard of Thin Lizzy, but besides them the only two bands I can mention for sure are Cruachan and Primordial. Both of which caress and treasure their region […]

What’s not to like about an album emblazoned with the logo of my beloved New Orleans Saints? After almost 4 years of silence, the follow up to 2001’s ‘return to form’ album Sonic Excess in its Purest Form is here and ready to sit on your chest and slap you repeatedly. With their 8th album […]

The measuring stick for mediocrity has just gotten a little shorter. Charnel Valley has released their opening salvo in what promises to be a short career. Once you get past the lame amateurish cover art you get to hear “epic, raw and imaginative black metal.” I kid you not. Five days from conception to completion […]

There are few things in the reviewing world as satisfying as a really well done, no frills death metal album. Oh sure, discovering new bands and experiencing originality and genre expanding acts is nice, but the visceral, pulse quickening feeling of perfectly rendered death metal is still a rewarding experience. And Chaostream is such an […]

I deliberately reviewed this album next to Merlin’s lackluster effort to show that Great White North has some decent bands on their roster besides Merlin, Divina Enema, and Aggression AD. OK, so they have Fuck The Facts which saves them immeasurably, but they also have this nifty little Canadian outfit called Paroxysm. With artwork done […]

Holy shit. Two major league things going on here. First, a great release on Crash Music. Second, a filthy, piss ridden exercise in death/thrash from Finland of all places. One part gritty Entombed, one part At The Gates and one part grimy leather and spikes retro black thrash a la Bestial Mockery, Pyuria deliver a […]

Residing on a label formed by members of He Who Corrupts, you should have little doubt as to how noisy this 11 song, 10 minute “album” is. Strictly for those that become erect listening to the likes of Daughters, As the Sun Sets and The Number 12 Looks Like You, Illinois’ Tower of Rome is […]

Good things come to those who wait. Originally released on Empire Records in 2003, this superb slab of Polish brutality was licensed by Adipocere for a wider release in late 2004. Great move as it will expose more of the world to one of Poland’s undiscovered death metal gems. While Vader and Behemoth arguably stake […]

If there’s any band that can rebound from the ill timing of a album called Dead Yuppies, (it came out right after 9/11) it’s NYHC veterans, no, NYHC pioneers Agnostic Front. After almost a two decades of angry, genre defining political rants and brotherhood, the Front return on a major label with a new facelift […]

If the private investigator skills I picked up by watching Mr. Matula crack cases and score with the whores in one of the longest running German cop TV-shows, Ein Fall für Zwei, on TV can be trusted – Canadian Horfixion has more years (12) behind them than I can count (I’ve only got ten fingers; […]

Now that the Northern melodic death metal bands seem to be leaning towards more accessible tones, the battleground has opened up for the acts in the American continent. Quite surprisingly one of such newcomer bands, Soulscar, hails from Canada and even more surprisingly – there is little to be heard of the metalcore influence that’s […]

Rewarded for the widespread acclaim of Zos Kia Cultus, Poland’s Behemoth were promoted from Olympic Records to the big daddy, Century Media and also arguably surpassed Vader as Poland’s most important extreme export. So how do you follow that kind of success up? You don’t. You merely deliver what’s expected and continue with the sound […]

Littered with metalcore clichés in the form of calligraphy album title and forlorn song titles, my expectations weren’t to high for this album ,especially considering the rather average effort that preceded it, the death metal tinged metalcore musings of Black Sands of the Hourglass. However, with a change in label (from Tribunal to Eulogy) and […]

What the fuck is wrong with the drinking water in Poland? Newbreed’s CD shows a group of young kids with long hair in the midst of falling snow, looking as innocent as Hanson when they still sang about popping the cherry while roller blading on the videos. Yet, these young fellows show unsurprisingly good musicianship […]

While most of Finland is obsessed with trolls and tooth harps, only a handful of Finnish acts have veered into more brutal territory, Scent of Flesh being the only recent band that immediately springs to mind above and beyond older acts like Disgrace and early manifestations of Amorphis and Sentenced. Until now. Enter Sotajumala (Finnish […]

Denmark’s Mercenary took a sucker punch at me a couple of years ago, with their Everblack album. The mix of two completely different genres, (dare I say, melodic) death metal and power metal, showed that it isn’t impossible to marry the two together if it’s done with the needed boldness and disregard for naysayer opinions: […]

I just came. Italy is well known for mixing perverted ideas together and expressing the results musically. Usually such releases are worthy of filling the garbage bin, but exceptions are known to happen. Thee Maldoror Kollective is one of such occasions with their latest album where things could have gone horribly wrong, but luckily didn’t. […]

Finland’s purveyors of depravity and sickness return one more time. Ten songs thirty seven minutes. My favorite song is the final seven minutes, the title track, even though the words suicide and anno aspera are repeated far too often. Great slow rumbling song, ominous. Vocals are recited trance like in the background and the guitars […]