Stortregn’s (‘downpour’) development from a melodic black metal band into a more technical, shredding death metal band with a few black metal elements has been a splendid development, and fittingly with the style shift, the band found themselves on the perfect label, The Artisan Era, literally the preemptive label for shreddy/melodic, sometimes symphonic tech death/black […]
What is the most boring thing you’ve ever heard? Like, go back through those memories and there’s probably something that was as boring as say, watching paint dry or flies fuck, a documentary about the secret lives of boll weevils would be more interesting than that, right? Which brings me to Mortuary Drape and their […]
Unique Leader Records? Check. Caelen Stokkermans cover art? Check. Blackened Technical deathcore? Check. Cool band moniker? Check. Christian Donaldson (Cryptopsy) mix/master? Check Album title I can identify with? Check. Yeah, I’m definitely reviewing and digging this. Portugal’s The Voynich Code is named after the Voynich Manuscript, a mysterious 15th-century codex full of images and writings […]
When it comes to Theocracy, I have a history. The idea is a deeper one. The band is a bit of one as well. Several years ago I was in what was one of my favorite establishments, a little record store called Magnolia Thunderpussy in Columbus, OH. They happened to be playing some epic power […]
Let’s get something out of the way first: Fuck cassettes. I recall a conversation I had with a few metalheads slightly older than myself at a festival when one of the bands “only” had CDs and vinyl available as physical formats. Two young whippersnappers asked them if they had any cassettes, to which they replied; […]
I realize Deathcore is a polarizing form of extreme metal and quite honestly I could give 2 shits. Many people and fans, as well as current and former members of my alma mater, Internal Bleeding have even said our earlier work had a direct influence on Deathcore. The main points discussed were our second album, […]
Man, as much as I love reliable old-school school, consistent bands that I’m familiar with and know what I’m getting with every album, I love discovering ‘new’ bands. Whether the band is brand new on the scene or in the case of Australia’s King, a veteran band with some household names and two prior albums […]
I’ve been trying to figure out how I want this introduction to go. There are times when I get an album to review and it’s like a blind date. That’s not always the case especially if I’ve at least heard or read something about them. But with Xoth I’m going in blind as a bat. […]
This fall/early winter, a group of excellent Swedish-styled/HM-2 death metal releases will be vying for your attention and hard-earned cash. Belgium’s Carnation, Prosthetic Records’ 2023 foray into the genre, Xorsist, Australia’s The Plague, reliable German vets Endseeker, and the best of the bunch, the long overdue second album from Sweden’s Gravestone. The 2018 debut, Sickening, […]
Welcome to the Annual Cynicism Roundtable, where we bring the world’s prominent cynics together to share why we think the world is total bullshit. As always, I’m hosting several well-known guests, such as my first, Neill Jameson of Krieg. I’d ask how you are, but I think we all know the answer. On that note, […]
Guitarist/Vocalist Tim Rowland’s Alchemy of Flesh album returns with By Will Alone. A big change in terms of sound on this record is that he strictly uses six-string guitars tuned to D Standard. The last album was a bit of a tribute to Morbid Angel, and it was noted that Rowland was trying to use […]
I kinda dug, These Nameless Worlds, the debut EP from this atmospheric/melodic black metal duo from Sweden. Despite the light-less moniker, it was a cosmic-themed, uplifting, bright take on the genre with some very pleasant melodies in the vein of Ghostbath, Vinland, Numeron, and Vallendusk. Well here is the full-length debut on the very fitting […]
Mouth For War hail from Colorado and outside of this release are new to these ears. Having released An Ear Kept To The Ground ep in 2019, and Life Cast In Glass full-length in 2021. Bleed Yourself is their second full-length album. Mouth For War play a beatdown version of metalcore with nods to bands […]
It’s been a difficult few years for Fuming Mouth since they released their debut, The Grand Descent. You can likely get that entire backstory from any other review of this album, so I won’t dive into it here. However, suffice it to say this band came out swinging with their follow-up, Last Day of Sun. […]
No longer a band with international members, USA’s brutal tech death metal/deathcore band Wormhole returns with their third album, Almost Human, and debut on Season of Mist Records. Wormhole has been around for 8 years and their 2016 debut, Genesis, caught my attention with the monstrous tech brutality and brutal beatdown slams. Outside of the […]
Germany’s Alkaloid have returned with a massive double disc release in Numen. For those of you not familiar with Alkaloid it is a side project of guitarist Christan Muenzer (Obscura) along with bassist Linus Klausenitzer (Check out his solo record also released this year) and drummer Hannes Grossmann (Hate Eternal, Obscura). The opening track of […]
Once upon a time in Ireland, four lads got together in 2002 to create some funny as fuck and heavy as fuck Thrash Metal and throughout the course of eight full-length releases; including Bats they have achieved that goal whole-handedly, because goddamn Bats is fucking incredible. Does it stand up against Survival of the Fastest […]
So this fall sees a couple of Matt Schott (Valdur, Sxuperion) projects drop new albums. There’s a disgusting new Cabinet EP and this project he has with his former cohort in Weverin, named Oreamnos. I covered the prior Oreamnos release, Into the Night, and it was as I was expected considering Schott’s (who does drums […]
I listen to a lot of Black Metal, and through doing these reviews I hear a lot of different styles, so it’s not a surprise that I love the absolute hell out of this album. I could leave it there, however my editor would yell at me though and I don’t want that. But I […]
I’m surprised this project didn’t get more attention earlier this autumn. It is a project formed from the ashes of Cruish-Nir, which was Romanian lyricist/conceptualist Valentin Untaru and multi-instrumentalist Robert Cotoros. However, after the passing of Cotoros in 2020, Untaru resurrected the project but gathered some well-known musicians to bring his lyrics and concepts to […]
Is this the Death/Doom album of the year? That’s for you to decide, bitch. However, Death/Doom is absolutely my wheelhouse and I have been underwhelmed by a lot of the output so far this year. At this time last year, I felt the same, and then Mother of Graves punched me in the gut. So, […]
Even though it has been 7 long years since Poland’s experimental black metal act Furia released Księżyc milczy luty back in 2016, the sexy ass song “Zwykłe czary wieją” still gets a lot of airtime and kept the band on my radar over the years. So I was delighted when Huta Luna showed up out […]
All the underground maniacs, me included rejoiced in moribund when Autopsy put the pieces back together and reformed in 2008/2009. The band always a cult favorite was happy to see how their name, over the years, had grown to more than just cult status. What was originally supposed to be a short-lived reunion became full-blown […]
I have a soft spot for Gothic Metal. It goes pretty deep, this Gothic love. So when this album popped up in the promo bin I picked it out because I saw that Kostas Salomidis was attached to it. In case you haven’t heard of him, then you should be checking out his band Distorted […]
For my real, actual paying job, I do a fair bit of travel and on said travel, I meet some interesting folks. Some good, some bad, some eccentric. What has always been consistent is metal heads, when they identify each other in the wild, generally get along and have a good time. It’s just kind […]