Arguably the most anticipated metalcore album of the year and sophomore album from one of the genre’s most revered acts, The Oncoming Storm is the album that floppy black-haired, hip hugging jeans wearing kids have been salivating for, for over 3 years now. So is it worth the wait? Well yes and no. Yes, because […]

Backstabbers, Inc was one of those bands I had previously ‘smiled and nodded’ at, as their previous effort, the collection entitled Bare as Bones, fell into the A.C. trap of having better titles than songs. With Kamikaze Missions, B.S.I. has taken a giant step forward and this release should serve to make them contenders with […]

The master of suicidal black metal returns with another twisted tale of madness, despair, isolation and pain. As usual, what stands out most is Wrest’s unmistakable voice. From album to album, Wrest is consistent in style and many songs would not feel out of place on any of his releases. If this kind of lack […]

Sear Bliss, the pre-eminent Hungarian pagan black metal band, returns with their sixth cd release in their ten year history and fifth full length recording. Once again the album was produced by former guitarist Viktor Scheer. Many aspects of this album remain the same, though some things have changed. This is the first cover not […]

Here is some pretty nice early 90’s styled symphonic but primal black metal that hails from Brazil but sounds like it came from the mountains of Norway.With a sound and tone similar to very early Emperor, but less complex or very early Dimmu Borgir, Zargof weave and epic astral tapestry of raw but still grandiose […]

Up until this point, Agathodaimon has been a group which has achieved much with their first three albums, yet been credited and recognized little. Agathodaimon has been in the realm of gothic black metal since inception, but has always carried a remarkable diversity in songwriting.  This has apparently not been realized by many however, despite […]

So imagine for a second that the last two In Flames and Soilwork albums had been really good. Same slight experimentation and clean vocal usage, but with the intensity of yore and deliberate thrash edge within the harsher Gothenburg sound. Intrigued? Then check out Denmark’s Withering Surface. With their fourth album, but truthfully the first […]

This album would be more appropriately named Telapathetic with the Deceased, though I’m being overly harsh. On first listen I admit to being disappointed. The vocals are buried, the mix is horrible and the music is watered down suicide/doom black metal; run of the mill uninspired, unoriginal, monotonous.This one man band has been around nearly […]

Melodic metalcore has grown exponentially over the last few years, but it has also been plagiarized exponentially also, with countless Poison The Well clones poring from Orange County and the East coast. One such band was the short lived 7 Angels 7 Plagues, who had a solid offering with Jhazmyne’s Lullabye. I tell you this […]

I’ll be the first to admit the debut album To Serve Man from this San Diego based vegan death/grind outfit bored me to tears. They seemed more intent on plugging the plight of PETA and mistreated animals all over the world than writing a decent album. So here is their second full length effort with […]

I have to admit that I didn’t soil myself by the band’s highly acclaimed Goremageddon CD, but I must say that this new EP really took me by the balls and delivered a sucker punch worth noting. The package consists of six songs out of which three are new, one is a decent Entombed cover […]

Simply being on Transmission Records should clue you in as to this album’s style. Sharing the label with Epica and After Forever should get your female fronted, Goth Rock Spidey sense tingling away, as Asrai deliver basically the exact same sound; lush, epic and heavy on the dramatics and emotion. Still, while not quite Nightwish, […]

Someone forgot to tell Scarlet Records that melodic death metal was dead, what with Withering Surface’s Force the Pace and this high octane little number, they seem in denial to admit the relative complacency of the genre. What makes Italy’s Disarmonia Mundi so interesting is the presence of Soilwork’s Bjorn Strid on vocals, and realistically […]

The spate of high profile U.S. metal acts continues as Beyond The Embrace vie for the attention of Shadows Fall, All That Remains, Killswitch Engage and Lamb of God fans, with their second offering. Their debut Against The Elements held some promise amid its In Flames/Iron Maiden worship, but their three-guitar attack was understated and […]

I like Skyfire, so I was more than a little surprised that upon shopping for the import version of prior album Mind Revolution, I found out this, their third album, had been released on Spanish label Arise Records. I was also a little surprised that this disappoints somewhat. Skyfire, along with Norther, have headed the […]

Without a doubt, Mokoma became Finland’s best kept secret with last year’s thrash assault album, Kurimus. The album made sure that the band would be remembered as one of Finland’s most original and inspirational groups ever. The quality of the song writing, the excellence in the lyrical field and the pure professionalism and excitement that […]

Someone please give Killswitch Engage and All That Remains a hug-they’re having major heart issues. Anyhoo, I don’t know about you guys, but Alive? Or Just Breathing, was kind of my first heavy exposure to metalcore on a grand scale, despite other bands forging the way many years before and my quick souring on the […]

I’ll admit, this surprised the shit out of me. Hailing from Kentucky and with a pretty solid discography behind them, I was expecting the usual US goregrind but instead got some fairly solid melodic black/death war metal with a distinct European lean and even some black thrash tendencies. Although not super tight or crisp and […]

1349 is back with their second full album, and third release overall, and it is the most proficient material to date, such sweet disharmony, almost sacred in its blasphemy.I like the formula, I like the sound quality (the details do not get buried). Great energy and technical precision. More complex than Liberation, it took me […]

Scotland. Home of the Haggis, and……. erm, I dunno, Scottish people? Who would have thought that one of the best death metal albums of 2004 would have risen from the craggy depths of Dumbarton? And while Mithras could certainly lay claim to being the UK’s saviors of extreme metal, Man Must Die have a far […]

Artimus Pyle is a name I have seen often in play-lists among other bands of their crusty ilk whom I am quite fond of – Tragedy, Kylesa, Remains of the Day, among others- so I was very psyched to find their new full-length in my review pile as I have been meaning to check them […]

While I’m sure it’s the most tired tactic of them all, I can’t but mention the fact that Infinited Hate is another band where Rachel Heyzer-Kloosterwaard (of Occult and Sinister-fame) speaks sexily through her throat with Death Metal playing in the background. From what I gather, the band was formed late 2003 to fill the […]

I can’t really say Italy has a solid stranglehold on the doom genre, but after this, their third album, Rome’s Void of Silence at least seem ready to make others take notice. After the horrifically bad Carinou album, I was reluctant to give this a listen but it turns out, VOS are a pretty creative, […]

It’s always hard reviewing a genre you don’t particularly get, but when graced with power metal, grim black metal or grindcore, I try my best to be objective and at least recognize ability and talent no matter the genre. However, in the case of grindcore, a few releases have found their way into my album […]

Edge of Sanity. Yup, that’s the first band that popped into my head when the opening chords of the tile track rumbled from the speakers. Not the ambient experimental metalcore outfit who blew me away with V.I.T.R.I.O.L, and while a drastic style change such as this might usually disappoint me, Fear My Thoughts actually pull […]