Ouch! Originally released in 2002, Eternal Endless Infinity has been re-mastered and re-released on Napalm Records with new cover art and additional demo versions of three tracks. Perplexing indeed, considering it wasn’t an interesting or viable release the first time. Actually, as far as I’m concerned, Visions of Atlantis should have enjoyed making a demo […]
Wow, this is good. Formerly known as Natt, a gothic metal band with female vocals, this Norwegian band is now a far more impressive beast with a darkly progressive and avant-garde black metal lean that imbues visions of Arcturus, Solefald and Lunaris.The first thing you notice when “Joyless Trance of Winter” fires up is the […]
It’s rare I make any personal connections to any bands in this business as I deal mainly with PR and label folks. I may do an interview with a band, but that’s the last time I generally talk to them ever again. With a few exceptions (Tomer Pink from Subterranean Masquerade. Lord K from The […]
“Napalm Death is pissed off, Long live Napalm Death!”. I must admit, I’ve never really been a huge Napalm Death fan other than Harmony Corruption. I only own their early catalogue to earn scene points and frankly after Fear, Emptiness, Despair, Diatribes and Inside the Torn Apart efforts, I gave up on them all together. […]
I’m always uncomfortable reviewing re-released ‘lost classics’, especially when I never heard it first time around. I had to dig up this Quebec thrash band’s biography to find out who they were, but apparently this lot was hot shit in the Canadian Metal scene but due to bad label distribution, this 1986 album never truly […]
Germany’s Fear My Thoughts complete they shift from rumbling metalcore to melodic death metal that was hinted at on last years ambitious The Great Collapse, and while Hell Sweet Hell is a solid album, it just doesn’t leap out at me and I still prefer the band’s more extroverted stylings of V.I.T.R.I.O.L. That being said, […]
We all know that death metal isn’t exactly a forte of the Finns, but here is Finnish black/death metal supergroup of sorts, named after a desert in South America and featuring current and ex members of Funeris Nocturnum, Swallow the Sun, Machine Men and Sotajumala. And its pretty fucking good. With this group of band […]
I’ve enjoyed listening to Aborted’s transformation from cold Floridian death metal clone to a menacing, groove filled, Belgian Carcass homage, and with the The Archaic Abattoir, Aborted have released the album that Impaled’s Death After Life should have been. Backed by Tue Madsen’s (Mnemic, In-Quest, Ektomorf, Heaven Shall Burn) massive sound replacing Goremageddon’s slightly mechanical […]
Let’s put aside the pretentious subtitle of this record because it’s almost to easy to take shots at it. (And considering the quality of most tribute albums, how hard is it really to be the world’s greatest?) In fact, it may live up to its billing. It’s certainly the best of the several Ozzy tributes […]
So this is the debut of Jada Pinkett Smith’s metal band.OK, for the two of you still reading this review, the biggest problem with this record, as you might guess, is the fact that it’s not believable on any level. The band’s OK. They play a fairly solid version of nu-metal, but Smith sounds like, […]
Winter’s Bane hasn’t been one of the luckiest bands in the world. After releasing their very solid melodic power metal debut Heart of a Killer in 1993, they soon lost their lead singer – a guy by the name of Tim Owens, better known as “Ripper.” Guitarist Lou St. Paul took over the vocal duties on […]
More fine non-doom form Firebox, and upon immediate listens, Finland’s aptly titled Total Devastation reminded me of The Amenta and Scarve with their intensely ballistic take on cybernetic metal, although not quite as blackened. Of course Reclusion boasts a massive production (courtesy of Finnvox) and has the usual injections of cyber samples and programming, but […]
I really wanted to like this, even more so after the blistering opening track ‘Reaction’. Commercially gleaned metalcore with a healthy dose of modern punk and old school hardcore (Bane?), but in the end the album loses steam and ends up being lumped in with the vast hordes of faceless middle tier, cliched metalcore.If the […]
A quick look and the band members best albums of 2004 gives you a quick insight as to the style of this Italian mob of noisy young men.; Converge You Fail Me, The End Within Dividia, Isis Panopticon, oh and Converge You Fail Me. Did I mention Converge? Yep, Italian Converge lovers unite as The […]
I can’t pretend to have heard this bands prior apparently grindcore based offerings, so I cant tell you how The Healing Process compares, but what I can you that this is the best album Dying Fetus never did. With members of two of my favorite Canadian bands, the mighty Neuraxis and In Dying Days, Despised […]
2005 is shaping up to be a monstrous year for doom, as Shape of Despair, Esoteric, Novembers Doom, Pantheist, Draconian, and now Ireland’s finest musical export have fans lining up for Zoloft prescriptions all over the world. After the superb The Sullen Sulcus, Mourning Beloveth jump to tiny German label, Grau (a sub label of […]
2004 meant the return of legendary thrash bands, most notably, bands like Exodus and Death Angel, whose albums and returns were given a great amount of media exposure. This of course took some space away from the ‘smaller acts’. Reformed back in the beginning of the new millennium, Hirax have returned to grace the music […]
In 2003, O Solitude was one of my favorite albums and I actually thought the band broke up after than superb effort. Well, apparently they relocated the UK (from Belgium) and had a lineup shuffle. Thank god, ‘cos now possibly the finest funeral doom band around can follow up their excellent debut with a suitably […]
Kaamos -Lucifer Rising Feature Image(Candlelight ) In 2002, amid all the Swedish retro hoopla of Bloodbath’s Resurrection Through Carnage and even original recordings from Swedish veterans Centinex, Vomitory and Fleshcrawl, one band lithely slipped under the radar that year with their self titled debut. Now, personally I didn’t care for it that much especially compared […]
The grimmest of the grimmity grim and the Kvltest of the Kvlt black metal, and it’s on Southern Lord? Talk about the law of opposites attract. With an ex-Kvist member and current members of Vulture Lord and Asmegin in its ranks, Urgehal as if you could not judge from the cover are a pure and […]
More religious themed metalcore following the likes of Symphony In Peril, Zao, The Showdown and Norma Jean, but unfortunately despite a valiant and impressively powerful effort, Alove For Enemies just don’t quite measure up to their peers. The main reason for their slightly lacking result is that despite a super punchy production and a plethora […]
I could (and most likely will) spend this whole review going down the laundry list of elements that Genghis Tron pile on a dangerously teetering table for your amusement and distraction (Grindcore, 80’s Hip-hop, Shred, Porn soundtrack funk, post-hardcore, gabber….) on this 5 song introduction to their fucked-up little world; but suffice it to say […]
I thought Trivium’s debut Ashes to Inferno held a lot of promise and so did Roadrunner apparently, snapping them up to try and reinvigorate their flagging metal roster, and they picked a good band to do it as Trivium seem while possibly herded under the vast metalcore banner, would actually seem to fit in with […]
C’mon people. DO you REALLY need me to review this? What are you expecting? Trip hop? Cyber metal? Classical music? This is a Nile album fer chrissakes, and that alone will essentially dictate whether you buy this or not based on your opinion of the last three albums. My only dilemma is dressing up this […]
When Magna Carta’s first Rush tribute, Working Man, came out in 1996, fans frothed at the premise of the day’s best progressive musicians taking cracks at the venerable Canadian pioneers. Excepting Devin Townsend’s unforgivable vocal trashing of the sacred “Natural Science,” every track was a radiant impression of the individual player: Cynic’s Sean Malone, Mr. […]