It wasn’t until I discovered the literal translation of the album’s title that the full depth of this album really hit me. After numerous listens, the darker, heavier approach had me a little stunned, and to be honest, a little disappointed. But after discovering Vansinnesvisor , means “Songs of Madness” (or “Lunacy”), it all came […]
You’ve got to give Metal Blade credit. Rather than searching overseas for the latest In Flames clone, they have simply stayed in the homeland and discovered an In Flames clone, and very good they are too.BYE resides in the mini Sweden we called Massachusetts, which is suddenly home to a plethora of death metal bands. […]
The Hellhammer machine grinds on. When Celtic Frost dissolved into a glam band their sound split into two components: Darkthrone and what would, a few years later, become Warhammer. Where Darkthrone was the evil atmospheres and grim attitude of ‘Frost, Warhammer, starting in 1994 resurrected the heavy rhythmic grinding doom. Since such an entity was […]
God Was Created is the second album from Arizona’s Vehemence, and upon looking upon the typical death metal cover and spiky logo, I was bracing for another assault of U.S.-styled Immolation copycat blasting or Suffocation worship. Man, was I fucking wrong! Instead I was graced with quite possibly one of the best U.S. death metal […]
Coming off the Cosmic Genesis release, I could not wait to expand my brain particles with Vintersorg’s latest, Visions from the Spiral Generator. From his work with Borknagar and Havayoth, to the folk project of Otyg, his cosmic lyrics, and his self-named project, is there a more humble metaller pushing the status quo to take […]
Top 3 reasons why this album is fucking amazing. 1) It’s produced at Sunlight Studios by Tomas Skogsberg. 2) It has a sample of a steel clashing battle. 3) It has the most killer, blood-boiling riffs this side of The Crown. Ok that’s pretty much it, but I guess your wanting a little more detail.This […]
Farthest From the Sun is a 4 track 51 minute affair done by Sauron, of Spain. This is the debut album from Apotheosis, and the booklet offers several hundred words on how great his computer generated demos are and a dozen words about this debut, which contains two promo songs reworked. Bragging about creating two […]
“Anyone who isn’t dead or from another plane of existence, would do well to cover their ears, right about now.” This superbly appropriate sample from the move “Dogma,” opens the song “Inhuman,” on Origin’s second album, Informis, Infinitas, Inhumanitas. Never has a sample been so fitting. I’ll be the first to tell you, I wasn’t […]
Bands like Agoraphobic Nosebleed make or break with me on their willingness and ability to inject a little flava into the whir. Listening to thirty-plus minutes of hypergurgle is no more innately interesting than listening to an electric fan. (I’m weirdly fascinated by the fact that we finally have bands whose music imitates the sounds […]
I was first introduced to Charon a few years back by their second album, Tearstained. While it didn’t offer nothing new nor did it held any big surprises, the catchy songs were able to stick in one’s head even after decapitation. Despite the horrors of trying to get the melodies out of your system, Tearstained […]
All hail albums covers that have heads on spikes! Vomitory are a well-known but cult veteran death metal band from Sweden and have released this year’s equivalent to Fleshcrawl‘s Soulskinner. Pure old school unabashed death metal; no frills, no intro, no atmospherics and you know what? It kicks ass. Blood Rapture is Vomitory‘s fourth album […]
The epithet, “True Norwegian Black Metal,” may not apply to Immortal in its current incarnation, but the fact remains that the classification never truly fit the Bergen-based outfit anyway. Even at the height of their ‘cult’ career, Immortal never wholeheartedly prescribed to the conventions of their peers – Satan, church burning and murder were replaced […]
A lot more mono(metallic)chromatic than most of the MeteorCity hopheads, and a little confusing at first. The hypenotes compare Mushroom River Band to Entombed, Motorhead, and Fu Manchu, neglecting to mention that latter-day Entombed sounds a lot like Motorhead and Fu Manchu. So this basically sounds like … Entombed. Now, Entombed recorded one of the […]
Ok, fellow ‘Enemies, before you spontaneously combust at the sight of this review, please know everything (three songs, one video) is included in Century Media’s deluxe edition of Wages of Sin. However, collector geeks and those that simply must have everything by the mighty Arch Enemy will find Burning Angel rewarding. As usual, the Japanese spare […]
During the Swedish death metal explosion of the early ’90s, after the initial assault of Entombed and Carnage and Dismember, a second wave of acts erupted. Grave, Seance and Unleashed found the coattails, and promptly were taken for a ride. Each act attained some kind of recognition and status, with perhaps Unleashed being the most […]
This relatively new Australian band has been around since 1998. The Graven Sign is their second release and first full-length. The most direct way to describe their sound would be black metal Motorhead style, not really in the sense of early Bathory, but old style black, pre-Norwegian revival. Spikes and bullets are the props of […]
Damned if DeathVomit isn’t becoming quite the nifty little grind-pimp; first, Circle Of Dead Children and now Vulgar Pigeons. As an unreformed little punk rocker, I have to confess a major hard-on for this type of stuff. Eventually, some band’s going to come along and prove me wrong, but for now, death metal without some […]
For the most part, it’s difficult to swallow a traditional death metal record after spilling ink on the genre and its minions for nearly 10 years. You get to the point where little impresses and you’d rather revert to spinning Left Hand Path than plunk another derivative of a derivative into the stereo. Really, besides […]
The U.S. has seen the melodic metal/hardcore mix blossom into a small musical renaissance, so it comes as no surprise than as with most musical phenomena, Europe follows suite, which is actually a reverse in trends, as the U.S. is normally the one a few years behind. So, here come Germany’s FearMyThoughts, with their second […]
Albums like The Sham Mirrors completely justify why I still listen to metal. While my tastes have shifted and widened considerably these past few years, I still find myself defending this often-tired genre. Bands like Arcturus re-energize my lifelong passion for extreme music and demonstrate that vibrancy, experimentation and unyielding talent do still exist in […]
Wrath Of War is the third offering on cd by this well known Texas based organizer of the Sacrifice of the Nazarene Child festival. A band known more for relentless hatred and fury than for anything else, Thornspawn sticks to the formula once again. This, of course, is a compliment. I’ve heard them called cold, […]
For some reason, much like with their debut, even though it is unoriginal, derivative and simplistic, I enjoy Severed Eyes… immensely. Killjoy and Frediablo have successfully brought gore and splatter death metal to the black metal scene. There are, of course, many bands incorporating the sounds of American death metal but Killjoy delights in the […]
Yes, Grief Of Emerald’s first three (four of you count the as of yet unreleased debut) albums did sound like Dimmu Borgir. Yes, they appear to be riding to coattails of other more commercially viable bands, and, yes, they do use keyboards. However with Christian Termination, the Swedes appear to have possibility shaken loose from […]
I was as excited as anyone else when rock bands started sounding like rock bands again, but at this point, “stoner rock” is about as thrilling as pulling your pud. And I am not on very good terms with my pud right now, so that should tell you something. Very few of these bands transcend […]
WWIII does it again with yet another excellent choice for re-release. Throes Of Dawn broke up a while back so I wondered if this re-release heralded a reformation of the band. Apparently it does, though with four new members; and their fourth album will be out later this year on Wounded Love, the same label […]