It’s been a fair while since a ‘real’ ( I use that term due to the crossover between death metal and deathcore in bands like Ingested, Fit For For an Autopsy, Lorna Shore and Organectomy and such) deathcore record tickle my fancy, probably something in 2017 or early 2018 (maybe Lorna Shore‘s Flesh Coffin?). But here is the late […]

Germany’s now defunct Deathrow would have been classified as the second-tier thrash wave when their brand of thrash metal erupted in the mid-80’s.  Their debut album Riders of Doom was first released as Satan’s Gift and eventually as Riders of Doom that same year.  Two different album covers, however most would agree the Riders of […]

Germany’s Demonbreed hit the heavy home run on their 2016 debut album, Where Gods Come to Die.  Bludgeoning Swedish inspired death metal heaviness and a well-written album through and through.  So while the underground waits with bated breath for album #2, Demonbreed provides a little taste with an ep in the form of Hunting Heretics. […]

As we plunge into 2019, the often patchy January release schedule provides ample opportunity to delve into the overlooked gems of 2018, particularly those that dropped during December, generally a month of slim returns. However, Sulphur Aeon and Beaten to Death headed the bands bucking the trend of end of year mediocrity. Another band of […]

I’m hearing tons of sick underground music from India lately which is often brought to my attention from the fellas at Qabar PR (cheers Hassan and Zoheb) as well the madman Kunal from Transcending Obscurity’s main HQ.  All I can say is keep ‘em coming guys because I’m getting turned onto a metric fuckton of […]

Apparently a lot has happened in the 12 or so years since reviewed this Polish band’s debut, Buried in Between, a decent At The Gates ish metalcore/melodeath record. There’s been a lineup shuffle, and more importantly over the band’s 3 albums since the debut, these guys have evolved into solid death/black metal act and now […]

For me, the best Anthrax album is Among the Living from 1987.  However, Anthrax wasted little time with getting their fourth full-length released with the 1988, State of Euphoria record.  Anthrax had already firmly established themselves with their patented NY stylized crunch thrash metal guitar tone and were already touring worldwide.  The airing of the […]

An absolutely devastating split from India’s experimental crust grinders False Flag (a perennial favorite in the Snyder household) and Nepal’s doom-burnt thrash punks Neck Deep in Filth that gives you 5 tracks of pain when all’s said and done, without any filler getting in the way.  Anyone that was around for the heyday of freaked […]

Good lord- talk about an obscure blast from the past. I vaguely remember purchasing this Swdish band’s debut EP Alienor back in 1993 as a blind purchase, and kind digging it. It was a more progressive slightly different take on death metal back then, but 2 albums later in 1994 and 1996 the band disappeared […]

Last year I had this unique thing happen around this time of year where The New Morbid Angel album came out and then right around the time of hearing it I discovered the Polish band Redemptor.  I felt it was rather unique that releases that time of year within the same genre had such similar […]

Ever since I met these, then kids back in 2008 at a Summer Slaughter (or maybe Sounds of the Underground?) show, I’ve enjoyed watching them stick out the genre saturation of proggy deathcore djent whatever ever core that blew up in the mid 00s (“Abstract Art” from the debut The New Reign is still cool as fuck over […]

I’ve heard of Lividity, veterans of the Chicago/Illinois brutal death metal scene since the mid 90s, but have not really heard them or owned any of their albums. Ive seen them lumped in with the likes of Gorgasm to Cannibal Corpse and of course Deaden and Broken Hope, and after hearing the band’s 6th album, Perveseverance, […]

Hot damn! I like surprises (at least good ones) just as much as the next guy or gal, but I have to say that some of my most favorite surprises are when I find out a band I really like has released a new album right under my nose without me knowing anything about it. […]

Pummeling old school hardcore meets punk straight from the genre’s birthzone (Long Island, NY) is what The Great Lie offers up on their debut EP, All Roads Lead to Where You Stand.  Featuring the exclamatory holler of John Wilkes Booth’s main set of pipes Kerry Merkle, a thick rhythm section and a nasty twin guitar […]

To me, the career path of Australia’s Psycroptic has somewhat mirrored Poland’s Decapitated: 7 albums in, early career highlighted by a couple of critically acclaimed technical death metal albums, then both had a divisive vocalist change with Psycroptic moving to the Jason Pepiatt  and Decapitated moving from Sauron to Cowan then a slight style shift into less tech death metal realms. Those familiar […]

Creating anything is hard, even if you’re a master of your craft. I don’t care if you’re Spielberg, Scorsese, Pixar, or Stephen King. You still need to take your raw, half-formed idea, and then use all of your skill, experience, judgment, and persistence to shape it into something that measures up to or surpasses your […]

Earlier this year I regrettably slept on the sophomore LP from Denver outfit Necropanther. Now the impressive young band has recently dropped the first of a planned series of EP’s, each written exclusively by an individual band member, beginning with Oppression, a three song effort penned by bassist Marcus Corich. I also thought it would […]

I’ll go ahead and assume that Germany’s Godskill is named after killing Gods, and not the skill said God possesses. Anyway, what we have here is a late 2018 release that is a pretty solid second album from these burly melodic death metalers. Imbuing the chunky Danish scene akin to Illdisposed, Corpus Mortale, Dawn of Disease and […]

Plowing their way through England’s Midlands since ’05, The Atrocity Exhibit provides a drippy, gooey take on punk-riddled sludge-grind that feels distinctly, well, English.  There’s a scuzzy take on this genre here that could only come from the UK and it’s a sound purveyed by killer fairly recent bands like Among the Missing, Mistress and […]

Upstate New York’s Foaming At The Mouth have been kicking it around for 5 years.  They’re listed as in the Adirondacks, but we all know Kyle lives in Antarctica-no fooling this guy.  The 2 piece is comprised of Internal Bleeding’s, Kyle Eddy on drums/vocals and Jeff Leifer on guitars/vocals.  Writhing is their labor of love […]

Sacramento’s Wurm Flesh is Comatose Music’s latest signing (at the writing of this review), and they are exactly what you would expect from Comatose Music in 2018/19; no frills, brutal death metal that sticks rigidly to the label’s formula and delivers the goods, nothing more, nothing less. Samples? Check. Something awful happening to a naked chick on the […]

The Heretic’s Fork (an expectedly awful medieval torture device) is one of those ‘mysterious’ bands with no bio, information, facebook, or bandcamp page, heck these guys are not even up at Metal Archives. But here is what I’m assuming is their debut album, and its 8 tracks of muddy, chaotic, dissonant brutal death metal. At 27 minutes and […]

With the 7th full-length album, Ghostly White, from long-time running act, Deceased you know what you’re going to get-or do you…? I’ve followed the band for close to 3 decades now and have been a fan since the beginning. The brilliant mixture of death/thrash metal with classic metal and some NWOBHM, for me is insanely […]

Founder and owner of now-defunct Canadian record label Blasthead records, Paul Shaw, always had an ear for good music, even if his own tech death band Hate Division was merely average. But it appears he and his Hate Division pals have a better knack for melodic death metal. With nods to Amon Amarth, Arghoslent, Helcaraxe, […]

This is a split cd which also includes the following bands, in addition to Sacrificial Slaughter:  Coathanger Abortion and Rottenness.  Mike Juliano’s HPGD label has always been one of favorite underground labels where I have discovered new and exciting bands.  If you have never heard either one of these bands, this is a good place […]