I always smile a bit when I see the name Abnormality, as it takes me back to the time I fired up Rock Band 2 way back in the day, scrolled down to the impossible, you-can-only-play-these-if-you’re-13-years-old-and-can-practice-for-12-hours-a-day-songs, and going “WHAATTTT???!!!  They literally put a BRUTAL DEATH metal song in a Rock Band video game!!!”  That song […]

You’d think it was 1988 all over again, what with Opprobrium (then Incubus) releasing albums (also on High Roller Records), Jeff Becerra and Possessed roaming around after 37 years, and now another early death/thrash band, Protector has released a solid album also, though this band’s hiatus wasn’t as long, they went dark for a long […]

Louisiana’s wrathful extreme music scene gets another notch on its termite-gnawed bedpost with this debut album from Pale Misery.  This musically dank, fetid trio rams the spiked gauntlets of black metal down the throat of crust-addled punk all across Black Candles and Gutter Scum’s sickening six tracks.  Goatwhore this is not as precision, tightly-bolted song […]

The untimely and quite sad passing of Deceased’s drummer, Dave “Scarface” Castillo (RIP), last year, even before the Deceased–Ghostly White album was released really shook the band members and underground scene.  I’ve met him briefly a few times, at live Deceased’s shows and he always was in a good mood.  Founding member, King Fowley, has […]

KHNVM ( pronounced as kha-nooom) is a multinational Magdeburg /Bangladeshi duo comprised on ‘Obliterator’ on guitar,bass and vocals and hes aided by drummer Krzysztof Klingbein (Aggressor,  Resurrection and Thunderwar), and while a solid, furious death metal offering, the the first offering from Testimony Records that hasn’t truly blown me away like say Demonbreed, Sentient Horror […]

I first heard about Usurper, via Metal Maniacs magazine, roughly about twenty years ago. The band had released their second LP, Skeletal Season, in 1999 and were due to follow it up with their third full-length, Necronemisis, in 2000. As it always does, extreme metal was once again going through stylistic changes and Chicago’s Usurper […]

I’ve enjoyed Denmark’s Dawn of Demise for 12 years, 4 albums and 1 EP now, despite absolutely nothing changing in the band’s sound since 2006s Hate Takes its Form, to 2016s The Suffering. Simple, chugging, groovy death metal. However, with the band’s fifth album, an increased sense of melody has upped the ante a little, […]

The fourth album from Germany’s Thormesis, Freier Wille – Freier Geist, was my first exposure to this band, but that album was on and off my year end list for 2015, though it ultimately didn’t make the cut. The follow up, 2017s Trümmerfarben, didn’t strike me as positively for some reason and I didn’t even review […]

Skulls? Czech. Wild corpse paint? Czech. Black attire? Czech. Hooded/cloaked member? Czech. Spiked wrist band(s) and/or gauntlets? Czech. Finger claw ring thingy? Czech. Satan as the bands frontman? Czech. Wait…What? That’s right friends, Hnus Umirajici’s frontman/vocalist is apparently the Prince of Darkness himself, or at least according to the band’s press bio. In fact, the […]

A few years ago Vltimas formed and many did not feel this “supergroup” would ever record an album.  The band consists of David Vincent of Morbid Angel fame on vocals, Flo Mounier from Cryptopsy blasting the crap out of the drums and Rune Eriksen, of Mayhem fame on guitars.  Well Something Wicked Marches In is […]

Though Maryland is often most known for its legendary punk/hardcore and doom scenes, there’s just about every kind of kick ass music imaginable coming from its fertile creative soil.  Mutated sludgy crust/grinders Musket Hawk are a prime example of the variance emanating from the state with their 3rd and most vicious full-length yet, Upside of […]

Der Rote Milan is a black metal band from Germany that has couple of members of solid death metal band Ichor in its ranks, so I thought their second effort, Moritat was worth a look, especially seeing as the version I got for review was packaged in a  pretty cool deluxe A5 digibook format with […]

Last month marked the 20th anniversary of Metallica’s S&M show with the San Francisco symphony. I was at that show, and it was a grand and sonic spectacle, as the band jammed out on stage with a phalanx of tuxedoed musicians and film composer Michael Kamen wielding the conductor’s baton. For most of the metal […]

Sometimes as a reviewer social networking helps.  A YouTube link from a record label might pop across your timeline and give you the choice to listen to or not.   Thus was the case with Atlanta’s Paladin and their video for their tune, “Shoot for the Sun”.  First off, the riffing is so over the top […]

Though I enjoyed every release from Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse, going back to 2009s Oracles, I’ve enjoyed some, like 2011s Agony (My album of the year) and 2016s  King, more than others (2013s Labyrinth), but King, really saw the band create the perfect balance between the tech death chaos and the sweeping orchestral majesty that is […]

Anders Biazzi (ex Amon Amarth,  ex Blood Mortized, Just Before Dawn) and his arguably more busy  Just Before Dawn cohort Jonny Pettersson (Wombbath Ashcloud, Nattravnen, Henry Kane, Heads for the Dead,) and drummer Brynjar Helgetun (Crypticus. Megascavenger, Just Before Dawn, Putrevore) are back with the second album under the Gods Forsaken moniker. However, some new […]

Part II of my Destruction reissue review series focuses on Mad Butcher, Release from Agony and Cracked Brain.  Part I contained Sentence of Death, Infernal Overkill and Eternal Devastation.  In 1987, 1 year removed from their amazing second album, Eternal Devastation, Destruction graced us with the Mad Butcher ep.  Years ago it was usually common for bands to release eps between full length albums and this ep marked an improvement in the production […]

Bear with me me here…….. back in 1992, whilst in college, I read in Pitch Weekly ( a free, alternative Kansas City paper) , that Entombed were playing at a local VFW. Of course, I was going, so that night, I loaded up up beers and other substances and headed out with a friend. Well, […]

Richmond Virginia’s Appalling return with their second full length album Inverted Realm out on Redefining darkness records.  I must admit I was not familiar with this group until reading the band’s bio in which Angel Corpse was mentioned as an influence.  Appalling play quite a catchy form of blackened death thrash that reminds me of […]

When stacked against the barren wasteland of the 2018 thrash metal scene, comparatively, 2019 is off to a much stronger start. The likes of Critical Defiance, Inculter and Exumer have dropped solid albums thus far. And now, up and coming Detroit band Euphoria Ω return with the follow-up to their impressive 2016 debut, Operation: Genesis. […]

I’m a little overdue on this one and frankly I didn’t really feel like chiming in with a review on Pig Destroyer’s latest platter of pain until some of the usual hype that comes with their releases died down.  They’re pretty much a love it or hate it proposition for most people at this point […]

Over the course of the Amon Amarth‘s 10 album, 20+ year career, they have been one of the most consistent bands in metal. If you were to plot a line with their albums on it, they are almost all certainly in a straight line when it comes to quality with a couple that go over […]

Germany’s Corrosive stomped onto my radar last year with their second album, Lucifer Gave US the Faith, a big, beefy mix of Grave, Entrails,  Illdisposed and Hypocrisy, that delivered a damn solid assault of groovy Swedish death metal and the follow up is improved enough to put these guys on the cusp of the genre’s […]

I’m not much of a traditional metal sort of guy. Of course plenty of exceptions have popped up over the years, but generally my tastes are aligned in different directions. However, Chicago’s Black Sites impressed with their deft mix of old school values and modern sensibilities with classic heavy metal and prog influences on their […]

Baltimore Maryland’s death/grind band Noisem return after a 4 year album hiatus to bring us Cease to Exist, their third and most devastating album to date. Several things have happened since their monstrous Blossoming Decay album from 2014. Sometimes fame too fast can have effects on a band. When Noisem’s debut Agony Defined came out […]