Remember in the mid/late 1990s when metal took a hard lean to Gothic overtures and bands like Sentenced, Anathema, Tiamat, Katatonia, Samael, Cemetery, Paradise Lost, Rotting Christ softened up and bands like Godgory, Sculpture, Crematory, Agathodaimon were a dime a dozen on Nuclear Blast Records? Well, Finland’s Asphodelus are here to remind you of that […]

Canada’s Gomorrah impressed greatly with their industrial-tinged death metal debut, 2016’s The Haruspex. The album packed Anaal Nathrakh-styled intensity with killer grooves and dynamic song-writing. Three years later the duo returns with a self-titled platter that looks set to raise the stakes for top notch death metal in 2019. Gomorrah expands and improves on nearly […]

I’ve said in prior reviews from this new-ish Ohio based label, I really like the direction the label is headed with a real focus of real death and black metal and some very cool forays into HM 2 boss styled death metal such as Inoculated Life, In Shadows and Dust, upcoming Nocturnal Hollow album and […]

Well I’ll be damned, color me impressed. Brescia, Italy’s, The Scars in Pneuma, and their debut album, The Path of Seven Sorrows, really caught me by surprise with its mature sound and songwriting. While the band cites influences from the likes of Rotting Christ, Mgla, Dissection, Be’lakor and others, in the end it’s just a […]

I rather enjoyed Fallujah’s semi meteoric rise from fairly typical Unique Leader modern tech death through 2014s The Flesh Prevails, (which made my 2014 year end list) and 2016s ambitious Dreamless, as the band expanded into far more atmospheric and progressive pastures. However, some lineup churn (notably original vocalist/guitarist Alex Hoffman and longtime guitarist Brian […]

I had no idea Germany’s Destruction have been around since 1982-Christ Almighty.  I’ve been a fan since their 1984 Sentence of Death ep.  Guess I’ve lost track of time and I have not followed the band since the 1990 Cracked Brain album.  So this is Part I of my Destruction reissue review series.  Germany’s High […]

I’m sure its a coincidence more than anything, but Battle Beast releasing their 5th album shortly after former member Anton Kabanen released the 2nd album from from the band he formed after acrimoniously leaving Battle Beast , Beast In Black, but it sure feel like a more personal, competitive move. However I digress.. So while […]

Minnesota’s Cold Colours return with their fifth full length release Northernmost.  Cold Colours play a style of death doom akin to old Peaceville bands like Paradise Lost or Anathema mixed in with elements of Dark Metal akin to older Samael with maybe just a tinge of Sentenced in there as well. Having been releasing albums […]

Sweden’s Soen well and truly emerged from the shadows of Tool on their exceptional past two albums, 2014’s Tellurian, and 2017’s Lykaia. In the process the band has established their position at the forefront of the modern progressive metal scene, deftly mixing heartfelt emotion and wintry melancholy, with complex, riff and groove heavy arrangements. Soen […]

Guitarist Jim Tasikas is back with Contrarian’s third album and  again, joining is George Kollias (Nile) on drums and vocals ( though Cody McConnell has joined as a live session vocalist), Sulaco’s Brians Mason (guitars) and Ed Paulsen on bass, and the skilled outfit continues their spot on latter era Death homage to precise levels […]

Misery Index return with their 6th full-length album, Rituals of Power and for me this is the best album, thus far for 2019.  Holy Crap, Misery Index is on fire.  As much as I liked their last album, The Killing Gods, Rituals of Power is more aggressive, upping their death/grind approach to the nth degree!  […]

Malaysia’s Humiliation return with their 9th long player and singer, Bear Bee recently informed me they will be recording their 10th full-length album quite soon.  By now you know what’s in store for you with Humiliation’s writing and musical direction.  War-themed death metal lyrics with music heavily influenced by: Bolt Thrower/Hail of Bullets/Asphyx, Six Feet […]

A few years ago bands like Nails, All Pigs Must Die, Trap Them  and almost every other release on Southern Lord was all the rage;  A feral, snarling mix of grind core, crust, death metal and hardcore rendered with a dirtied up Swedish HM2 buzzsaw tone.  Well, the 2018 debut from France’s Nuisible is here […]

Unique Leader never ceases to amaze me when it comes to being on top of Californian technical death metal bands. Santa Cruz California death metallers Continuum’s second album Designed Obsolescence is an absolute treat.  Featuring current and former members of Animosity, Deeds of Flesh, Decrepit Birth, Allegaeon, the bar has definitely been set quite high […]

Sweden’s Wretched Fate is a new band formed by members of melodic death metal band Non Divine Sun, and their debut album, Fleshletting is the album that Bloodbath should have released last year. Yep- I said it, heresy I know, but Fleshletting is a brutal, catchy and dynamic slab of Swedish styled death metal that you’d think a […]

Believe it or not, 2019 has delivered the best In Flames record since 2006’s Come Clarity with I, the Mask.  12+ years later, In Flames seems to be rediscovering themselves as a guitar and drums driven band. As a lifelong fan and someone who appreciates their entire catalog, albeit some albums much more than others; […]

One of the purveyors of the Canadian early death metal scene has always been Rimouski’s, Necrotic Mutation.  I still have the Sepulchre of the Suffering on cassette, from 1993, when I was tape trading back in the day.  Necrotic Mutation had more of an underground cult following and never really got their shit together to […]

When I checked out 2016s King Of Everything promo from this Ukranian act, and the lead single (or at least the video/single that came with the promo) “Words of Wisdom“, I wasn’t overly impressed with the sort of djenty modern groove, nu metal.  But a couple of years later, I started seeing ‘reaction’ videos to a […]

Do you like your death metal old school but brutal? Do you like your death metal sloppy and meaty? Do you like your death metal to be a mix of the first Cannibal Corpse album’s zombified, fetid blasts , Incantation’s oozing miasma and Devourment’s punishing grooves? Please let me introduce you to the third album from Arizona’s Meathook. With […]

I’m always going to consider Malevolent Creation to be in the top-tier of death metal bands. This is probably due to the fact that I am an old-school fan from their first few early 90’s offerings, and those feelings I have for their earlier material, coupled with the fact that the band has consistently released […]

I was rather impressed with the debut album Memento Mori, back in 2016 from these French melodic death metallers, and they have finally released a follow up in Prokopton, and no surprise, it’s just as impressive and consistent as the debut. Again with a sound heavily rooted in the string/synth-heavy, brighter, bouncy tones of early Children […]

So I was half joking to myself the other day when I said to myself: “Self… I need to start a new group for death metal addicts: DMAA (which stands for Death Metal Addicts Anonymous)”.  The reason being is I find myself listening to a TON of death metal, especially slam-death, and it’s hard to […]

For those of you who have heard the new Fallujah track, and, like me, wasn’t that impressed, here is an alternative for you in the sophomore album from Bay Area act Aenimus. With 11 tracks based on iconic horror stories (The Shining, IT, The Deadzone, Hannibal, etc) and a host of guests including Eddie Hermida (All Shall […]

France has to be one of my favorite European countries for Technical Death Metal.  I feel like every year there is at least a half dozen bands from there releasing unbelievably catchy records. 2019 is no exception with Ad Patres Sophomore release A Brief Introduction to Human Experiments.  These French sickos play a bit of […]

Massachusetts has spawned some muscular, heavy rock machines over the years including Only Living Witness, Ichabod, Milligram, Scissorfight, Birch Hill Dam, Roadsaw, Sam Black Church, Tree and Honkeyball just to name a few.  The unique thing that many of these bands did was that they incorporated intricate punk/hardcore influences into their sounds, even if only […]