Greece’s Hail Spirit Noir are one of the most original and weirdest bands out there.  Really out of the box, non-linear type of music.  I have enjoyed their different types of albums, and while they started out as some avant-garde black metal band and their musical influences continued to expand and morph into some Twilight […]

If I had a 2020 “do over” for my top albums of the year, I can confidently say Witnesses’ Doom II would be on it. Not only on it, but easily in the top five. Not number 1, as I picked Unleash The Archers’ Abyss and will stand firmly by it as it’s a god […]

For two albums now, Dani Filth has delivered a reinvigorated Cradle of Filth since gutting the lineup after 2012s forgetful The Manticore and Other Horrors. Both 2015s Hammer of the Witches and 2017s Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness of Decay, with the same re-vamped line-up, delivered classic Cradle of Filth writing and energy that signaled Dani […]

I’ve been covering Inferi since 2009s End of an Era, and since then they have become The Artisan Era’s flagship band and one of the mainstays of the melodic/shredding technical death metal genre in the US scene. They have not been super prolific, with 2 more albums, an EP and a redo of End of […]

“Breathe in through your nose and out through your vagina.” This is the breathing process. At least that’s what I told a former friend who was getting a particular painful wrist tattoo. There’s also a band with the name The Breathing Process, and they may beg to differ. MAY. Anyway, I’ve never heard these blackened […]

I had no idea what to expect when checking out New Jersey’s Replicant, I just had not heard a Transcending Obscurity release in quite a while and while grabbing the killer new Abscession, I checked out Veilburner’s excellent Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull (due to the review here), and Replicant’s second album, Malignant Reality on […]

What can he said about the greatest industrial metal band of all time?  I mean they started out as an alternative band until 1988 when the legendary The Land of Rape and Honey combined metal with industrial to create the benchmark for this style of music. Main man Al Jourgensen is a musical genius. Especially […]

Chicago’s Black Sites make a welcome return with third LP Untrue, the follow-up to 2019’s impressive sophomore album, Exile. Since their inception in 2016, Black Sites have been on a steady upward trajectory, bringing their old school trad metal sound into the here and now, adding modern crunch and progressive elements into the mix. Now […]

There was a time in the late 90s early 00s that I was all fucking in on Viking metal, Enslaved were still sort of Viking based, Moonsorrow were releasing downright epic albums like Voimasta ja kunniasta and Kivenkantaja, Amon Amarth were blowing up and releasing albums every month. And at the forefront of my Viking […]

‘M’ or ‘Mories’ or his real name, Maurice De Jong, as he is known here, is the Netherlands’ black metal version of Rogga Johansson. He’s in double-digit bands, though I’ve onlyheard  Gnaw Their Tongues,  and arguably his most known creation and De Magia Veterum, as I reviewed releases by both on this very site.   And […]

I know, I know. Jinjer. Despite their hype and relative fame based on the seemingly hundreds of YouTube “reaction” videos, they’re still worth a listen. Or several. They’re more deserving of mainstream metal acclaim than a lot the bands who receive it. They write great, memorable songs, and have one of the most talented and […]

Like it or not, deathcore is having a pretty solid comeback over the last couple or years, and it appears to be peaking in 2021 with Unique Leader Records leading the charge with releases from the likes of Distant, Osiah, To The Grave, Humanity’s Last Breath, Mental Cruelty, Worm Shepherd, Bound In Fear, (a few […]

Infidel Reich is back with their third release, their second full length New World Outrage.  Another bombardment of Motörhead meets Sodom battalion of brutal death/thrash metal with smatterings of punk and even Carnivore.  After kind of a meaningless intro  “Sic Semper Tyrannis” comes bursting through with a killer riff which repeats throughout the album.  I […]

A freshly minted project comprising members of Rimfrost, Sweden’s Son of Sam features dynamic duo Throllv (vocals, drums, guitars, keyboards) and Khratos (bass, guitars, backing vocals), joining forces to create a vastly different and uniquely separate entity from their main project. Although the album seems to have flown under the radar since its mid-year release, […]

I honestly don’t know how they keep doing it. Seriously, Belgium’s Aborted has been on a consistent roll for damn near a solid decade now. The band, having just released their eleventh full-length album entitled Maniacult, are once again steamrolling over the scene and their peers with a fantastic display of seething viciousness that nary […]

My top 3 most anticipated albums of 2021 were Gojira, Wolf King, and Rivers of Nihil. I may also be forgetting some. However, Gojira was massively disappointing, Wolf King exceeded my expectations, and Rivers of Nihil probably have no chance of a reaching the heights I believe this band can achieve. So, it’s already clear […]

Let me start out by saying I’ve rewritten this intro and parts of the subsequent review 3 times now. That’s what happens when I have way too much time with an album and question the articulation of my thoughts. I’m always trying to write a funny, witty, creative, suitably childish intro, and sometimes when I […]

A love of Video Games, Lovecraft, and Morbid Angel.   An Interesting mix.  Tim Rowland’s solo Alchemy of Flesh project is one of the biggest surprises of the year in my opinion.   The attention to detail in gear selection and sound is quite impressive here.  Something else that catches my attention is the killer artwork by […]

Nephren-Ka are a brutal death metal band from France, just like Creeping Fear, who I reviewed a while ago, also on Dolorem Records.  This is Nephren-Ka’s third album and the first I have heard from them.  This review is for the 9 song album, however there is a bonus edition with 2 cover songs, one […]

Very late last year, I was introduced to Boston’s Seven Spires, with their second album, Emerald Seas, and immediately fell in love with them, largely due to vocalist Adrienne Cowan (who surprisingly used to be the keyboard player for deathcore act, Winds of Plague). Her range and power on songs like “Bury You” , “Succumb” […]

Let’s start off by saying “female-fronted metal” is not a thing. Well, let me walk that back. It’s definitely a THING, it’s just not a genre. If you’re one of those who thinks it is, I pose to you; Do Jinjer, Arch Enemy, Brutus, Nightwish, Capra, Lady Beast, and Cripper all sound the same? I […]

I know what you’re thinking, “Why the hell is Flotsam and Jetsam‘s latest full-length, Blood in the Water, being reviewed now, months after the album’s release in June”? Well, I can give you two reasons for this. First, and this is the most important reason, Blood in the Water is 100% THE SHIT. This album […]

Hot on the heels of solid, recent, and upcoming majestic, melodic, second wave black metal homages like Warmoon Lord, Arna, Sinira, fellow one man project, Winter Eternal, Kjeld, Wooden Throne and such, comes prolific lone Aussie ‘Nightwolf’ (also in Blood Stronghold and Eternum) and his 5th releases in as many years. And while it’s my […]

This was a heavy duty order for me to review, Senjutsu, the 17th album from my favorite metal band of all time, Iron Maiden.  Maiden’s earlier output from the debut up until Fear of the Dark are all my favorite Maiden albums.  The first time I heard them was when I was 10 years old […]

Pessimist started in Maryland in the early 90’s and had a bunch of hype surrounding them and I became friends with guitarist Kelly Mclauchlin through mutual friends.  To see him see me back with Internal Bleeding 3 years ago in the mid-west -wearing the Voracious Contempt purple tour longsleeve from the tour was a huge […]