In 1989, I brought Agnostic Front’s live Compilation, Live at CBGB’s, based on some review in a British metal magazine.’Being swamped in Iron Maiden, Sabbat and Metallica, I had no idea what New York hardcore was. I was literally blown away ‘ the energy, the unity and the power had me hooked, resulting in me […]

Damn Metallica to hell. These former thrash kings did more damage to the genre with 1999’s collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony on S & M than any other band in metal history. And depending on whether you thought the mighty Met threw in the integrity towel with ’96s Load (which was just that), ’91s […]

This band plays “brutal and bestial death black metal,” and that is as good a description as I could come up with. This is Carpathian Forest death metal style. Wall of noise type death is on display here, lots of distortion. The vocals are a croaking rumble that is surprisingly understandable. As their album cover […]

It has been five years since Memoria Vetusta, finally we have the next piece from this long standing French act. Three albums in nine years of existence is one way to ensure cult status among the underground faithful, but five years between releases is just as likely to get you forgotten. The Mystical Beast Of […]

Simply put, Worchester, MA, doom trio Warhorse is heavy as fuck. Crushing, intestinal moving doom metal is something that only a few bands do remarkably well – Cathedral’s first demo and album, the last two Sleep albums, Burning Witch, Grief and Electric Wizard’s albums immediately come to mind – and As Heaven Turns To Ash […]

This album, Sweden’s Thy Primordial’s first recorded but third released, seems like demo material that has been released years later. Compared to their current material, the musicianship is weak and the production is weak, which is not unusual for a band’s first release, but this is a solid album in its own right. Thy Primordial […]

Bethlehem is one of those bands that I’ve just ignored over the years for various reasons. I know they played a kind of black doom in the past, but they seem to have taken a giant misstep emotionally during their last stay in the mental hospital. My first impression was what the fuck? I’m glad […]

Blast beats, aggressive growls, and intensity jump right out of the speakers almost instantly upon inserting Advent into the CD player. But then, out of thin air, we hit a wall and there is acoustic and piano ringing in our ears. What we have here in April Ethereal is an aggressive, melodic, romantic death/doom metal […]

Many will find Finland’s Alghazanth hard not to compare to Dimmu Borgir. Alghazanth formed late in 1995 and, after more than their share of line-up changes, finally released their debut in late 1999. This is their third full-length in little more than two years, – quite prolific for a band plagued by line-up changes, which […]

One look at the cover of Southern Apocalypse – a grainy shot of a bathroom, a suicide victim with a gun, a confederate flag – and you know just what you’re in for: brutal, tortured southern sludge. Comparisons to Eyehategod are inevitable, but I’d go so far as to say that Beaten Back to Pure […]

It is 1987 and you are listening to Mayhem, no it’s 2001 and you are listening to Black Dawn. This is “True Black Metal” according to the band, and one must “only listen to during self-mutilation.” Now that all the obvious Mayhem comparisons are out of the way, what’s left? Musically they sound like early […]

Blodsrit (blood rite) is an old heathen ritual performed by sacrificing blood for better crops. Blodsrit is also a Swedish black metal band with it’s origins in early Darkthrone, Marduk and Carpathian Forest. This is corpse painted satanic black metal written with care and conviction and more precision than most. Originally a one man project, […]

This is my first experience with this band, although it is their fourth full-length release. So much for being gentle the first time. I have not been this blasted into this kind of audio submission since Cryptopsy’s Whisper Supremacy. There have been some impressive releases in to heavier end of the Death metal/grindcore spectrum (Soils […]

After returning in Y2K with their stellar comeback record Revelation, California metallers Armored Saint serve one up to their long time fans with A Nod To The Old School; a collection of early indie tracks, live tunes, 4-track demos, covers and a few new numbers in a 2Disc package that is sure to fit comfortably […]

Just as At The Gates approached the zenith of their career, internal strife within the band caused one of metal’s brightest hopefuls to supernova in a spectacular event that shocked the band’s growing legion of fans and proponents. Slaughter of the Soul will forever remain lodged into the minds of metallers everywhere as the record […]

It’s almost criminal to have to review this so soon after reviewing labelmates Dagorlad, as they sound very, very similar. Whereas Dagorlad describe themselves as (and I quote), “Melodic, dark evil, epic fantasy black/death metal”, Axamenta merely consign themselves to the far simpler “Melodic, epic, fantasy, horror, black metal” category – You see, two completely […]

Edguy vocalist Tobias Sammet has created quite the power metal extravaganza here. For Avantasia, he has wrangled in some big name musicians and a slew of guest vocalists to deliver The Metal Opera; a nearly hour long drama set to pummeling power metal. While some attempts at these types of all-star concept pieces fall short, […]

Judging by the names of the musicians on the back of this CD case, someone would have to try really hard to make this a bad album. I mean, how could you go wrong with Russell Allen (Symphony X), Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), Ian Parry (Elegy), and (my god!) Bruce Dickinson (like you don’t know […]

Coming from the same label that is responsible for the excellent Deranged, I had high hopes for this Belgium death metal outfit. Needless to say I was suitably impressed, but not exactly blown away. A glance at the cover and song titles give you a glaring indication as to what these five medical misanthropes are […]

Leave it to Relapse to bring us the finest in international death metal. Dreams Of Death And Dismay is nearly 47 minutes of blast beats, merciless grooves, wicked guitar harmonies and old-school death vocals that is sure to please long-time death fans. The guitars are simply bludgeoning with super thick rhythm tones and cutting lead […]

Before becoming the god-sized metal behemoth that they are now, Earache Records began as a small independent label dedicated to, as all upstanding metal labels are, rooting out the best extreme bands around. Britain’s Unseen Terror were one of the first bands signed to the label, and in 1987 Earache released their lone album, Human […]

Finland’s Trollheim’s Grott formed in 1997. When I first encountered them they had just released what I believe to be their debut full-length, Kalt Trist Sorg Och DoD. They were a promising viking metal band, with emotional vocals rendered in grim and clean vocal styles. The musicianship was good, not great, but the long songs […]

Oh dear. It appears that I am going to very unpopular. Why? You ask. Well it seems that I am not going to follow the bleating herd by showering this famed Erik Rutan project with vast amounts of praise. Instead I am going to give my honest opinion of this album, with the hope that […]

Where to start? All Else Failed have been destroying the Philadelphia, PA hardcore/metal scene with their patented chaos – encased in subtle melodic hymns – for over four years. And now the year 2001 sees the release of the band’s second (and finest) full-length called Archetype on Now Or Never Records. After having what seemed […]

You know what my favorite instrument is? The war drum. I love it and have wanted a band to utilize it more since I heard it on Abigor‘s Verwüstung/Invoke the Dark Age album and varying Bal-Sagoth songs. Enter Austria’s Summoning – a war drum lovers dream come true. For those that don’t know, Summoning has […]