I don’t think there is any doubt that the first three albums from Entrails,  2010s Tales From the Morgue, 20011s The Tomb Awaits, and possibly the band’s 2013 Metal Blade debut, Raging Death are the pinnacle of the Swedish death metal revival. However, subsequent albums Obliteration, World Inferno and Rise of the Reaper didn’t quite […]

Finally; my longtime friend in stoolism and brutality Tim King returns to death metal. Tim played bass and sang with the Chicago 90s brutal/tech death band Oppressor and we became fast friends in the 90’s playing shows together. I remember one Internal Bleeding show with them and Symphony of Grief was like at a bowling alley or some shit. We […]

Portugal’s Analepsy return with their second full length album Quiescence. Having been five years since their last release it is quite immediate that the production values and song writing have both stepped and slammed up. Opening things up with “Locus of Dawning” the guitars fade in with some cool layering and harmony. I can hear […]

“Everyone’s Doing Shitty” says my home state’s own Mutilatred in the opening track to their new album Determined to Rot. I concur. Everyone except for the band, it seems as the hype with their new release is somewhat strong. This is another one of those bands like Sanguisugabogg and Undeath, who gets a lot of […]

Detroit’s death/doom mongers Temple of Void has parlayed 3 solid albums (notably the last 2 efforts,  2017s Lords of Death and 2020s The World That Was on Shadow Kingdom Records) into a deal with heavyweight label Relapse Records. And as you’d expect on a jump to the ‘majors’, the band has upped the ante, but […]

Very little is known about French Black Metal collective Deathspell Omega. Its members are unknown, there was a singer change due to a change in Satanic views; add to that absolutely no live performances… ever. France has had a solid output of Black Metal over the years with Anorexia Nervosa, Blut Aus Nord, Mutiilation, and […]

Color me impressed. Finnish death metal troupe Enragement and their third full-length album, Atrocities, came totally out of left field and left me battered, bruised, bleeding, and ultimately begging for more. Seriously friends, this is some wonderful death metal that really does capture the majority of how the band themselves describe their sound and approach, […]

I was once a metalhead elitist and gatekeeper, too. This strange thing happened where I grew the fuck up and resigned to just let people listen to what they want and enjoy their lives. Unless you listen to Five Finger Death Punch. In that case, please don’t reproduce… but since you probably already have, good […]

Sharing 3/5 of its members with new, very popular deathcore act Crown Magnetar, you’d be forgiven for simply assuming Detroit’s And Hell Followed With was a new, flash in the pan band that sounds exactly like Crown Magnetar. And they do play deathcore, so you’d be partially correct. However, let’s not forget that AHFW were […]

I’ve reviewed Long Island, NY’s Day of Doom last several albums and Doomed is their sixth album and they streamlined their approach opting for shorter songs and drummer Rich Hervey is leading the charge again. “Provocation of Iniquity” begins this 10 song 38 minute album with what sounds like people talking, explosions and buildings collapsing as the air horns […]

I’m surprised how low profile a release from a band comprised of death metal legend Chris Reifert (Autopsy, ex Abscess, ex The Ravenous) and his new Autopsy bass player, Greg Wilkinson (Brainoil, Deathgrave, ex Graves at Sea) has been. Even for Peaceville. I wouldn’t have even heard of this project if it wasn’t for a […]

After a particularly long day at work, I enjoy coming home to the only place where I can hang my void for the night. I, Voidhanger Records understand this well. They get me. That’s probably why I like most of what I hear from this label, despite it not getting a lot of coverage here. […]

I think we can all agree that Willowtip has been one of the most consistently reliable US-based extreme metal labels around since they kicked out the Creation is Crucifixion/Fate of Icarus split back in 1998. From legendary bands like Rune, Watchmaker, Defeated Sanity, and Impaled, to recent bands like Hath, Cathexis, Contrarian and Ominous Ruin, […]

New Jersey’s Sentient Horror, previously called Sentience, return with their third album-Rites of Horror. Their 2016 debut, Ungodly Forms, is still their finest and I saw them perform on that tour and they killed it. I love American bands who can emulate the classic Swedish death metal sounds of yore and Sentient Horror do it perfectly. The Crypts Below ep and Morbid Realms album […]

You don’t want to know what I had to do to get a deathcore review from the hands of the boss man, but I’m going to tell you anyway. I won the first annual Teeth of the Divine Knife Fight Championships. Whether he was a willing or knowing participant is irrelevant. I still won and […]

I was just recently randomly listening to  Unsane, Insane, and Mentally Deranged, the debut album from Sweden’s Murder Squad, an early 00s supergroup featuring members of Grave, Entombed and Merciless with a guest appearance from Autopsy’s very own Chris Reifert. And I thought to myself, ‘Man. I have not heard a homage to Autopsy delivered […]

I love Morbid Angel, so do the guys in Azaab (pronounced “aa-zaab” which roughly translates to “cataclysm”). This isn’t a bad thing at all, and they show this love in the form of their debut album Summoning the Cataclysm. Yes, I read their bio, and Morbid Angel, Vader and Decapitated are among the bands mentioned. […]

If you consider yourself an Emperor fan, there are 2 releases this spring/summer of 2022, that you need to be aware of. If you are a fan of the more technical,  latter, Prometheus, IX Equilibrium era stuff, then the upcoming release from Sweden’s, Katharos, Of Lineages Long Forgotten, will be right up your alley. However, […]

Following up on 2020s excellent second album, Eisenzeit, Germany’s war-mongering death metal cohorts Scalpture (I’m still not sure what a Scalpture is…) return with album number 3, and boy is it a scorcher. Continuing the band’s war-obsessed themes and sound that’s part Hail of Bullets, part Asphyx (especially in the vocal department), and part Bolt […]

France’s Hurakan (the Mayan god of wind, storm, and fire?) has apparently undergone a bit of rebirth from their first two more brutal death metal/slamming death/tech death albums, which feature songs titles like “Brutal Slamming Shit”, “Intergalactic Moo Moo Imperator”, “Xenometh” and “Transdimensional Whorehouse Spaceship”. They have changed logos, and now jumped on the more […]

I reviewed Watains’s Trident Wolf Eclipse in 2018. Being new to their music back then, but knowing about them for years, I went into their music with fresh ears. I really enjoyed that album as well as their prior releases. They play a pretty high-octane style of black metal but mixed in with their melodies and metal influences […]

Spacefaring hype beast, John Goblikon is back with his musical band in tow after an almost 4 year layoff since the aptly named Welcome to Bonkers back in 2018. And not much has changed from this hard to pigeon-hole, but fun as fuck band, as they still play a sort of melodic death metal with […]

Finland’s Desecresy return with their 7th full length album Unveil in the Abyss. Those unfamiliar with the band must know Tommi Grönqvist is a one man band. He plays all the instruments, does all the vocals and this talented bastid also does all the artwork. Their album covers always having a main color theme and […]

I’ve been a big fan of Maine’s Falls of Rauros for a while now with the band’s last 2 efforts, 2017s Vigilance Perennial and 2019s Patterns in Mythology making my year-end lists, with the former being in my top three for 2017. So it kind of pains me to say that that trend might end […]

If you follow this site and my writings (you’re not the only one as I’m kind of a big deal), you might be asking yourself why a folk metal album is getting the review treatment from me. Instead, you should immediately be thinking the subject of this review is entirely worth your attention. It’s been […]