Late last year, NYDM brutal death metal veterans Pyrexia returned with their sixth full-length album, Gravitas Maximus.  They had recently announced the new album and honestly, it came out of nowhere-I was not expecting them to release a Covid album.  I guess since their last album Unholy Requiem, was released in 2018, they wanted to […]

Here’s an interesting one from FDA records. Released a bit before the latest Ophis album, Spew Forth Odium, earlier last autumn, The Tragedy is the third album from this Finnish doom act whom I have never heard and frankly had very little expectations for. The logo, the band/album name, the fact there are hardly any […]

‘And in the category for 2021s most unreadable logo the nominees are……. Vomit Spell..’ So what do we have in the sea of red and sinewy and blood contained in the NecroFrsot artwork here? The debut from a new German grindcore quartet, that’s what. And while Germany isn’t a renowned hotbed of Grindcore (Japanische Kampfhörspiele […]

In the rather full realm of Bolt Thrower worship, plenty of bands and staked a claim on the mantle left by the departed British warmongers; Hail of Bullets, Humiliation, Frozen Soul, Decaying, Creeping Flesh, Chainsword just to name a few, but you could argue the top two current Bolt Thrower homage bands are of course, […]

On top of Frank’s favorite new metal bands in 2020 was Lady Beast when I reviewed their fourth album, The Vulture’s Amulet.  A complete banger of an album incorporating traditional Heavy Metal in the form of early Maiden/Priest/Manilla Road/Dio.  So the early Power Metal influences were there as the band galloped along with quicker speeds […]

One could say, when it comes to black metal, I have a mature palate. By that, I mean I’ve tasted a lot of it. Literally and figuratively. I’ve listened to a lot, but also took a bite out of a Darkthrone cd. It did not cure my Transilvanian Hunger. I’m a fan of bands within […]

Up until 2017s The aptly named The Dismal Circle, I was unfamiliar with Germany’s death-doom veterans Ophis (‘snake’), but that album was a solid effort with some suitably crumbling, hefty death/doom that had strains of classic Morgion engrained in the moping lumbers. And that has continued for album number 5, and is possibly even a […]

Canada’s one-man project Haiduk (a term for Balkan freedom fighters) came out of the gate like barnstormers back 2021 with Spellbook, a pretty blistering black/death/thrash combo that had a lot of energy and influences from Dew-Scented Hypocrisy and even Dissection. However, the follow-up, 2015s Demonicon, with an increasing mechanical/programmed tone (especially the drums), came across […]

“What does music mean to you? I don’t know. But it’s full of emotion It’s not happy. No. It’s not happy”- from “Eternal Unrest”. Crikey. so I thought Christian Consentino was the only solo artist from Australia making epic, classically inspired, symphonic progressive black metal. Well, apparently there is another one who has been around a […]

“Good Things Come to Those Who Wait” – Lady Mary Montgomerie Currie. I’m not sure there is a more apt proverb than the above one when it comes to Dessiderium, (loosely meaning ‘an ardent desire or longing for something lost’), the solo project from Alex Haddad, also the guitarist/vocalist for tech-death metallers Arkaik. Both for […]

I’ve enjoyed Tacoma Washington’s Alda for a few albums now, particularly 2011s :Tahoma: and 2015s Passage, their last effort, on a match made in heaven label, Bindrune Recordings. But after 6 years of silence, and a split from Bindrune, I wasn’t sure where the band was at, considering some of their peers (Panopticon, Falls of […]

After several demos, splits, and one full length album, the incredible Desolate Landscape from 2017, Phrenelith has finally returned to what seems like no fanfare. If we didn’t dig our way through the figurative promo bin, this may have been missed altogether. However, if there’s one task at which I am very accomplished, it’s scraping […]

Reveal! Comes from Uppsala, Sweden and Doppelherz is their fourth album.  The cover, a painted face from the perspective of looking up at it from 45 degrees, is reminiscent of a more abstract nod to King Crimson’s In The Court Of The Crimson King. The music of Reveal! Is not ‘progressive’ in the technical, dual […]

Here s a pleasant little surprise in what’s been a pretty dry run of folk/Viking /pagan metal over the last couple of years, as only Blodiga Skald’s 2020 effort, The Undrunken Curse got me remotely excited for that genre recently. Arise is the second album from newish Swiss act, Nidhoeggr (the dragon that’s eternally chewing […]

Houston’s Malignant Altar‘s Retribution of Jealous Gods demo from 2019 perked my ears up quite a bit. I knew the band was going to be a force to be reckoned with. The 3 songs were heavy, dark n cavernous and really filthy and grimy death metal. Realms of Exquisite Morbidity is their debut album and […]

It warms my heart to see a band I have covered for two self-released albums now (2016s Memento Mori and 2019s Prokopton– which made my 2019 year-end list) have all the hard work pay off and get signed to a ‘big ‘ label, in this case, Napalm Records, and now deservedly rubbing shoulders with the […]

I have to hand it to Pathology, after fifteen years of existence the band comes sneaking in here at the end of 2021 with what may just be their best album yet, their eleventh full-length album(???), The Everlasting Plague. Througout the band’s career their consistency can hardly be rivaled. Every album has arguably been a […]

Listen, there’s no denying the place of Peter Tägtgren and Hypocrisy in the pantheons of metal over the last almost 30 years. I personally hold Penetralia, Osculum Obscenum, and The Fourth Dimension in super high regard with the latter arguably being the peak of their career as they shifted into more melodic death metal realms […]

Holy fuck! Talk about a blast from my past!  Back in my early days at DigitalMetal.com, I loved me some Eastern European death/doom.  Back then, I covered a Slovakian band’s 2000 release, Four Elements Mysterium (still one of my favorites from the era/genre), and excellent, but less gothic doom 2002 follow-up, Tunes of Despondency. They […]

Czechia’s Cutterred Flesh are a new band on my radar, thanks to Transcending Obscurity. This is their fifth full length and the first time I’ve heard them. They’re classified as brutal death metal, and that fits. If you’re on board with Aborted or Benighted, this is certainly going to be right up your alley. There […]

Killing Addiction is a Florida death metal band which started in the late 80’s if you can believe that!  After a bunch of demos/ep’s and their excellent 1993 debut album, Omega Factor, they stuck around a few more years until disbanding and then putting the pieces back together in 2006 and since then have released […]

Back in 2020, I reviewed the debut EP from this D & D, Forgotten Realms named, then-unknown act, Galdrum. I loved it and it ended up on my year-end list, and I ended my review stating I was really looking forward to what the band was going to release next. And apparently, the metal world […]

With my recent obsession and onslaught of technical death metal, symphonic deathcore, and black metal in 2021, I thought it was time to return to an old favorite and see what’s going on in the shambling world of moldy, mid-paced death doom metal. The likes of Worm, Hooded Menace, Malignant ALtar, and Outre Tombe, certainly […]

Huronian is an Italian band playing melodic blackened death metal. They released an ep in 2020 and those three songs make their way onto this debut album As Cold as a Stranger Sunset. 9 songs in 41 minutes.  After a brief intro “Portals to the Unspeakable” blasts through the speakers with a great riff and […]

I have reviewed 2 of the 3 last Obscura albums, including the magnificent 2016 magnum opus, Akroasis. But for some reason, we/I never covered 2018s Diluvium album, despite it being yet another standout in the band’s consistently brilliant releases, thought it saw them take a more melodic turn. So I thought I would return to […]