From 2004 to 2017 Wintersun, the bloated,much-maligned, crowd-funded (begged) project of Jari Mäenpää has produced 3 albums and has released nothing since 2017s The Forest Seasons, other than a few compilations and single. (despite seemingly asking for money eery few months) Since 2017, Canada’s Atavistia has released 3 quality albums including 2020s excellent The Winter […]
I do not purport to be an expert on all things Immortal, the long-standing Norwegian Black Metal band, but I do have some interesting things to share, probably more opinions than anything else, before delving into the band’s 10th album, War Against All. Until now I only followed the band from 1992-1996, so that is […]
Do you ever listen to music from another country and after a bit, you try to sing along? Like, it’s obvious that you don’t know let’s say Finnish; but you hear this song from a Finnish band, and you love the shit out of it and suddenly you think you know Finnish and are fluent […]
I haven’t been super excited about death/doom metal and its subgenres, for a while now, heck I completely missed the Shape of Despair album from last year, and they were one of my absolute faves in the genre back in the day. Heck, the new Insomnium, barely registered with me. But in 2020, Colorado’s Fires […]
Certain things will always bring me back to my adolescence, like every time I see a 90s Dodge Caravan (my first car), eating a chicken cutlet wedge (that was just a thing where I grew up, I dunno), seeing someone wear a studded belt, or gods help me, if I ever have a chance to […]
Cattle Decapitation needs no introduction. Their trajectory has been astronomical since The Harvest Floor and they’ve yet to disappoint. Death Atlas let me down, but only because it was simply pretty good, and not the greatest album in the history of mankind. I saw them live back in November of 2022, the new one was […]
This new wave of Black Metal is a nasty fucker. In some ways it seems like they want to outdo what their predecessors did years ago, to push the envelope as far as they can before the paper rips. I’m here today to talk about Daysidied and their pretty fucking rad EP The Day the […]
I am endlessly picked on in the Teeth of the Divine break room for admitting in a vulnerable moment that thrash is perhaps my least favorite metal sub-genre. So, one might ask why the hell I am reviewing the new Enforced album. Firstly, mind your business. Secondly, I was able to procure it in the […]
In my limited experience with the Carolinas, one of the many things I’ve learned is to be real careful when and where to expose your more heretical impulses (though I suppose this is becoming increasingly true just about everywhere in America). We’re generally talking a bunch of folks whose love for Jesus is only surpassed […]
The Devil’s lettuce. Let me be your lying, backwoods guidance counselor who tells you it’s a gateway drug. It never led to harder drugs for me, only giggles while playing video games. Not that I’ve ever done it, FBI agent who monitors me. It’s all hypothetical. I don’t think it is hypothetical for Bonginator. Their […]
Switzerland is known for many things.. Celtic Frost, Coroner, Swiss Cheese, Algebra, beautiful Alps and add Aara to the list as they are one of the best atmospheric black metal bands around today. Triade III: Nyx is their fifth album and in their short existence since 2018 they have also released 2 ep’s along with […]
The other day I was driving my mom around and the car decided it wanted to keep playing this album. She was commenting that it isn’t music and even did a growl (which was kind of fucking adorable, I’m not going to lie), however, Death Metal is extreme music for extreme people (and my mom’s […]
Italy’s Graveworm has been around since the mid/late 90s, plying their form of gothic/ melodic black/death metal, and by all accounts have been a pretty respectable act over their career. They found themselves on Nuclear Blast Records with 200s Engraved in Black when the label was saturated with the likes of Agathodaimon, Godgory, Sculpture, Crematory […]
Belgium’s When Plagues Collide released a damn solid debut album of symphonic/blackened deathcore back in 2019, Tutor of the Dying, before the genre really took off. And honestly, it probably should have got more attention but then Lorna Shore happened, Mental Cruelty happened, Worm Shepherd happened, and Shadow of Intent happened. And then 1,234 other […]
I used to watch Happy Days religiously. Every week my parents and I would be glued to the TV to see what antics those crazy fucks would get into. I mean, they had a fucking band, the Fonz jumped the shark, and every show was wholesome and taught life lessons along the way. Happy Days […]
Look, I am, by my own admission, a long-winded individual. Especially so when talking about heavy metal, but with The Garden, the eighth full-length album from Finnish “Beauty &/vs the Beast” deathly doomsters, Hanging Garden, I simply don’t need to be. The straight up truth is that when it comes to The Garden, I’m just […]
When tech metallers The Eating Cave named their second album The Miscalculation, it makes me think they are talking about something specific. Of course they must be talking about the botched rhythm method that led to my unfortunate spawning. Just ask my parents. Anyway, this band has so much potential. As a big fan of […]
Ya know, I had completely forgotten about this North Carolina duo. This is surprising considering I rather enjoyed the debut from a few years ago, and the fact my enthusiasm, some would even say fanboyish obsession with any sort of metal with symphonic/orchestral elements. Throw in another couple of my weaknesses- history/mythological tales and modern, […]
I think it’s safe to say the Tri-State Area East Coast thrashers Overkill regained their mojo with 2010’s Ironbound album. They were also armed with a new label Nuclear Blast Records, where they have remained since. The four albums which followed were also pretty damn ass-kicking and that trend continues with Scorched, the band’s…wait for […]
Dystertol is a veteran Austrian melodic death band with 2 albums under their belt since 2014, but as is often the case in this vast realm of metal, they are a new act to me. Classifying them is difficult, as while they are certainly a melodic death metal band in the vein of say newer […]
If you were familiar with Lamp of Murmuur’s previous output, it fell squarely into that lo-fi black metal category we’ve all come to know and love. I’ve listened to a lot of it over the years. Some bands do it to mask that they can’t write good songs. Other bands have the aesthetic and do […]
German Christian death metal band Sacrificium has been around since the 90s, released their debut album in 2002, and have released 2 albums since then, with 2013s Prey for Your Gods being their last offering. And I say this because up until Oblivion, I had no idea these guys even existed- even in the Christian […]
Well, well, well, what do we have here? The 12th album by the biggest metal band in the world. I consider it their 11th, because Garage Inc., while a great covers album, is an album of.. whelp, covers. I reviewed the last Metallica album Hardwired… to Self-Destruct in 2016 and I really enjoyed it and […]
Russia’s Experimental/Technical Brutal Death Metal band 7 H.Target return after a 9 year hiatus, since their killer third album in 2014 0.00 Apocalypse. Yantra Creating was supposed to come out at multiple different times prior to now, but due to a multitude of issues is just surfacing now. Since the last album, they have filled […]
It’s a sunny day in the Rio Grande Valley. Spring is in the air (for now anyway), all that could change in a matter of days; but for now, it’s a pleasant day. Birds are chirping and I’m reviewing a Melodic Black Metal album. What a time to be alive! I think it’s in the […]