Sometimes, if you get the opportunity, there’s nothing sweeter than doing something just because you friggin’ want to. For example (and I understand this is sorta an extreme one) – no one buys a vintage sports car because it’s practical, safe, or smart. No, you do it because you want a friggin’ vintage sports car! […]

Every time I’m ready to signal the death knell for deathcore, along comes a release that kinda gets me excited about the genre again, whether it’s a veteran band like Despised Icon coming back from the dead or a newcomer like Anime Terror. Right now it happens to be the Unique Leader duo of Mental […]

In the promo materials, Mental Cruelty is described as “haunting death metal.” As I’ve yet to be visited by any ghostly apparitions, I call shenanigans! However, when it comes to what style of music these dudes play, it’s more along the lines of symphonic brutal blackened deathcore. Think somewhere along the lines of Lorna Shore, […]

Ascendancy through Hypnagogic Thought Process is simultaneously everything you expect and have heard from internet-ville brutal death metal projects, yet thoughtfully propelling the sound into a heightened realm of mind expanding slam mysticism.  Laparotomy is a studio project birthed by one Darryn Palmer, with drums and vocals provided by Justin McNeil.  Mr. Palmer is a […]

You want more brutal slam death metal, don’t ya??  Bodysnatch out of Switzerland have been kicking it around since mid 00’s.  Insights of a Rotten Theatre was their 2011 debut album and started the ball rolling with getting the band an underground following.  The band went through some changes over the years and since they […]

Hannes Grossman is a busy dude. The talented drummer extraordinaire has had his fingers in many pies over the years, earning great respect and admiration with his work in bands including, Necrophagist, Obscura, Alkaloid, Blotted Science and Gomorrah amongst many others. Along the way Grossman has also established a solid solo career, showcasing his songwriting […]

I have already reviewed 2 high-profile brutal slam death metal releases for 2021 – the new Korpse and Abominable Putridity albums.  When our site owner, Erik “My Beard is Fuller than Yours” Thomas, recommended the new Traumatomy for me to review I was like…oh boy here’s another Russian slam band that sounds like my alma […]

I have to admit I’m a little bored of brutal death metal. Especially the stuff Comatose puts out on the regular basis; gurgle, squeal, rape, cunt, gore, blast etc. I  mean I don’t dislike it, there is a time and a place for it, but the last album they released that remotely stuck with me […]

Feanor is an Argentinian power metal band, with three prior albums.  The band has been kicking the power metal glory around since the 90’s and their last album We Are Heavy Metal – well how much more metal can you get from that?  It’s a damn fine piece of power metal too.  Catchy and well […]

I’ve reviewed both the prior albums from Indiana’s Yellowtooth, fronted by the ever-busy Pete Clemens (Invasion, Corporation SS, Nocturnal Torment), each better than the predecessor, and that trend continues with album number 3 (complete with a redesigned logo), a full-on jump to the next level in quality. Describing Yellowtooth is difficult as they shift around […]

I’m going to do my best to leave the drama out of this review because I’m sure everyone, myself included, has opinions of Dino, Burton C. Bell, and Fear Factory in general. So, I am going to do my best to just talk about this album and the band in general. If I fail, well […]

If you’re at least a casual fan of my reviews or personally know me you’re aware of my wide range of genres of music I listen to.  I’ve been a fan of Long Island, NY’s Bile since their 1994 debut – Suck Pump.  Bile play industrial metal and if you’re a fan of Ministry, early […]

Full confession; I dig Wednesday 13. I wanted to tackle this because I searched and did not find a single review for him on the site. That’s cool. I get it. His material is definitely more horror punk than metal. If this sums it up well for you, a good friend of mine, after we […]

Thank goodness for variant releases. The CD version of this French band’s second effort somehow passed me by last year. But here’s to second chances, as War Anthem Records has picked up the vinyl version of one of the better Swedish, HM2 sounding bands of the last couple of years. If you are a fan […]

I rather enjoyed the 2017 debut, Flesh Hammer Prophecy, from this German Dismember-loving band. However, I somehow completely missed the 2019 follow-up, The Harvest, (which has since been rectified) where the band made the jump from FDA Records to Metal Blade, much like Entrails, and have now unleashed album number 3. From the opening strains of […]

This is not the same Solstice, who are from the UK and play incredible epic and heavy doom, no this is the death/thrashy bastids who originated from Florida in the 90’s.  About a decade ago I reviewed the excellent compilation Pray for the Sentencing which included their first 2 outstanding albums – I reviewed that […]

Thrash is off to a flyer in 2021. The classic metal genre has dished up numerous quality releases in the first chunk of the year, headlined by top notch releases from Enforced, Demoniac, Demiser and Cryptosis. Young guns rising to ensure it is not left to the old dogs and veteran warhorses to keep the […]

Dipygus really hit the scene with their 2019 debut album Deathooze.  A crushing 7 song affair.  One of their songs on that album, “Deloy’s Ape”, was definitely a memorable one.  The intro is the official police call of when the lady got her face and body parts ripped off by that crazy ass chimpanzee, years […]

The Lion’s Daughter is likely a lioness. Unless the lion bred with another big cat, like a tiger, and the offspring was a liger. That’s objectively pretty neat. The Lion’s Daughter are also a progressive/sludge metal band from St. Louis, Missouri. We’re talking about the latter, and this is their new album (4th overall), sexily […]

I’m not gonna lie. I grabbed this debut album promo as it said it was current and former members of Allegaeon,  Unflesh (who recently released one of my favorite albums of the year so far) and Seven Spires, and I was really hoping it was vocalist Adrienne Cowan. However, it was not, but still it […]

I’m really enjoying what French label, Antiq Records is doing of late. I first discovered them with 2019s Par le sang versé from Véhémence, which made my 2019 year-end list. And now, here is 2021, they have a trio of excellent releases that could all end up on my year-end list from Hanteroz, Ascète, and […]

Feculent is an Australian death metal band and The Grotesque Arena ep is their first release.  4 dudes who go by initials trying to make their mark in our over-congested death metal scene.  6 songs in 19 minutes on the ever expanding Caligari Records out of Florida. “The Grotesque Arena: Upon Splintered Bone” opens the […]

Remember the movie rule of 2? (i.e Armageddon vs Deep Impact) that so often applies in music? So I recently discovered two US symphonically laced, shreddy, tech death/deathcore/metalcore/melodic death metal /The Artisan Era core bands and the same time. First is Tempe, Arizona’s Dead World Reclamation, and their second album, Aura of Iniquity, and second, […]

So here is my second American symphonic metal album released this spring, the other being Dead World Reclamation‘s solid The Black Dahlia Murder with keyboards effort, Aura of Iniquity. I have no idea what or who a Wythersake is (google was no help), but on their debut album they offer up some solid if unspectacular […]

In folklore/mythology, a cambion is the unholy offspring of a Succubus or Incubus and a human sexing it up. In this case, for this particular Cambion, the Succubus is The Netherlands’ Centurian (yes, I made Centurian the female sex-demon in this scenario) and that human vessel is Pete Helmkamp of Angelcorpse/Abhomine fame as this Texas […]