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 […]

Though they started releasing albums in 2010, one could argue that the 2011 releases by Entrails (The Tomb Awaits) and Corpsessed ( The Dagger & The Chalice EP) were the label’s watershed, ‘we have arrived’ releases. Of course, Corpsessed waited another three years to release a debut full-length, Abysmal Thresholds in 2014, but by then […]

It’s been 2 years since Ulcerate released Stare into Death and be Still. So if you are fiending for that twisty-turny style of dissonant , experimental death metal, may I offer up Canada’s husband and wife duo, Crown of Madness? With a shared love of video games and death metal, this couple has delivered a stellar, […]

I’m a longwinded guy, there’s no doubt about it, but when it comes to Celestial Extinction, the debut full-length from Australia’s Cryptivore, there is simply no beating around the bush; this album kicks ass, plain and simple. This one-man band from multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Chris Anning, sounds like anything but, having a full band intensity […]

Canada’s favorite metal weirdos, Voivod, and one of the elite in all of extreme metal, return with their 15th proper studio album, Synchro Anarchy.  Their last 2 return to form albums Target Earth and The Wake have been nothing short of exceptional.  In support of the 2013 Target Earth album I saw them live on […]

Germany’s Scorpions have been around since 1964. That’s 50+ years.  You can say the band was directly influential in starting the metal scene in Germany.  My start to Scorpions music is their 5th album Taken By Force from 1977. My first album was Love At First Sting in 1984 and that’s still my fave from […]

The undisputed heirs to Dismember‘s throne (here’s hoping for a reunion after the 2022 Maryland Deathfest), Demonical is back with album number 7, and as expected, there are absolutely zero surprises or curveballs from a band that features former members of Centinex and Grave.   They can pretty much do this in their sleep. Essentially delivering […]

Rampant mimicry is a large part of metal; Whether in the rip-off or homage category. There are 1000s of Cannibal Corpse clones. Just as many Suffocation clones and don’t get me started on Bolt Thrower and Entombed/Dismember. And those bands have their place, especially as the originals flag or call it quits. Some are really […]

Sometimes production can make me overlook average or bad music. I’ll gladly listen to just OK albums if they have a killer guitar tone. Lord knows Ive got some pretty average CDs in my collection, that I retain merely due to the killer Stockholm HM 2 buzz (I’m looking at you Torture Pulse‘s God Leash), […]

I snagged the debut from Denmark’s Heltekvad due to a trio of things; it features Ole Pedersen Luk of Afsky. Second, Eisenwald is pretty reliable when it comes to black metal with the likes of Fluisteraars and Alda on their roster. And third, the heraldic artwork reminded me of medieval black metal bands like France’s Véhémence […]

Finland’s Desolate Shrine fourth album, Deliverance from the Godless Void from 2017 was and still is a great album,  and five years later here I am reviewing their fifth album Fires of the Dying World 7 songs in 46 minutes. Actually 6, since the opening track is an intro and it’s like a moody classical […]

Here’s a short, tasty review for a short, tasty, 20 minute, 4 song EP from the always reliable FDA Records.  Dead Chasm is an Italian trio with members from a number of mid-tier/obscure Italian acts like Kadaver, Torment, Funest, Stench of Profit, and others. But they have come together to form a very impressive debut […]

Can you believe a brand new recording from Bay Area Thrashers, Vio-Lence, after close to 3 decades?  I would never have guessed it.  Seeing the band lay waste at the Thrash of the Titans benefit show for Chuck Billy and Chuck Schuldiner, back in 2001 was one my live highlight experiences for sure.  Maybe the […]