Pissed off megaton sludge from Italy is the day’s special served up by Hell Obelisco and their crusty, punk-inflected debut Swamp Wizard Rises.  This record is an unrelenting steamroller of groove, effortless tempo downshifts that lay off the speed throttle long enough to catch some head-nodding blues riffs and wrathful vocals that are on the […]

Some say there is a very fine line between genius and insanity, and the UKs eclectic Doom act Lychgate stand astride the line with a confident swagger and sneer, looking down among their peers. But insanity and genius also comes with pitfalls- just ask Dali, Warhol and Van Gogh. I had seen the first two […]

Eight years isn’t quite an eon. Still, it’s been quite a long wait for Dimmu Borgir to pull their satanic symphony back together and to don their fringed white leather arctic wizard outfits once again. Wait, scratch that, this time they’re going for bedazzled cosmic hooded robes…  no matter – Eonian is finally here. I’ve […]

I’ve long championed Philadelphia’s Starkweather as a horribly underrated force in American metal. But with only 4 album since 1992, the less than prolific noisemongers keep themselves on the outer fringes of metal popularity, and that’s probably a good thing as more album like 2006’s landmark Croatoan or 2010s This Sheltering Night, might be too […]

Out of print for years, Repulsive Echo’s, Kostas has brought us back both releases from Toledo Ohio’s Gutted.  Gutted were a death metal band who had some hype back in the early-mid 90’s.  These reissues are still highly sought after and probably a repressing is in order, because these reissues are difficult to find and […]

When Unique Leader signs a band, I instantly put it on my “must check out” list.  Their track record of signing some truly top-notch death/brutal death metal is second to none.  So as a deathcore fan, and hearing that the debut of Krosis was going to be on UL, it had all the makings of […]

After a demo and a 7”, Kentucky’s psycho-sludge duo Nest return with a pulverizing, drugged-out LP, Metempsychosis, an album that breaks all of the rules and sends dirge lovers on a harrowing trip through the nastiest recesses of the human mind.  As thick as many of the dirtiest 4 to 5 member sludge bands with […]

Album number 9 from Ireland’s favorite sons see the band stick doggedly to the now perfected cragged, epic metal but also sees the band become a more tempered, somber act that results in an album that continues the band’s legacy, but seems to have a strange air of exasperation and despondency to it that I […]

Well call me a sucker for French Black Metal bands garbed in plague masks.  Abduction return with their 2nd full length record. “Sous les Cendres et la Pierre” opens up the album with some lovely clean guitar lines and accompanying tom rolls from the percussion section.  The song continues to build and transitions effortlessly for […]

If you like your death metal cavernous, oppressive, miasmal and distinctly Australian, then the excellent self released debut from Sydney’s Golgothan Remains is right up yer ally. With a clear Incantation backbone with murky, discordant hints of Ulcerate and country mates Portal, the aptly named Perverse Offerings to the Void delivers something that fans of Dark […]

Album number 2 from Norwegian, classic doom trio Purple Hill Witch does everything a sophomore album follow-up should do.  Their LP debut, a monstrously grooved Self-Titled on stalwart label The Church Within was an ode to the first 6 Sabbaths, the glory days of Hellhound Records (and Maryland doom in general) with a touch of […]

When it comes to discordant, atonal, nightmarish, murky, chaotic, atmospheric death metal, Canada has Gorguts , Poland has Redemptor, England has Abyssal, Spain has Altarage, Portugal has The Ominous Circle,  The Netherlands has Dodecahedron, Denmark has Phrenelith, Finland has Corpsessed, New Zealand has Ulcerate, Australia has Portal, Switzerland has Schammasch And now the US has Nightmarer.  With the aptly […]

Capping off a trifecta of killer sludge releases I had on the chopping block for review, this next one is a nascent split vinyl EP from nihil.  Minneapolis lunatics No Funeral occupy side 1 with their crustified slug-stomp sleaze while side 2 offers up one long bomber from their same city mates, Livid.  Both bands […]

Oh man this is good! Rumbling, tumbling sludge with a burly death metal back bone and tangible nods to the likes of Lurk, Warcrab, Yellowtooth, Crowbar, latter Gorefest , early Mastodon, label/country mates Demonic Death Judge, and for a super obscure reference, now defunct Michigan act, If He Dies, He Dies. Apparently starting out as a more […]

Forgive me if you will, for as much as I like to use band comparisons for the ease and convenience of conveyance, I don’t want to be that guy who constantly mentions one band while reviewing another…but I’m gonna be that guy who constantly mentions one band while reviewing another. Though in the case of […]

2017 year was a pretty good year for lesser know folk/viking metal. While Ensiferum continued to stale with Two Paths, and Wintersun, delivered yet another bloated over hyped release, bands liked Wolfchant, Tersivel , Atlas Pain and Nordheim, Incursed released some really good albums that actually deserved more attention. Well, early in 2018, Dalriada ( my new […]

California’s Skeletal Remains have composed and performed one of the year’s best death metal albums with their 3rd studio full length record Devouring Mortality.  The attention to detail exhibited is outstanding.  Starting off with Dan Seagrave’s brilliant cover artwork (Morbid Angel, Entombed, Malevolent Creation), these guys clearly wanted to present the look of an early […]

In the grand tradition of underrated, fellow Chicagoans, Forest of Impaled, Blood of the Wolf erupt from the Midwest with a stellar sophomore release of pummeling, blood pumping blackened, death/war metal  and it’s  a god damn scorcher. I have not heard the band’s debut  I: The Law of Retaliation, but you can bet I’ll be rectifying […]

If you need a bit of an energy jolt for that one writing project you can’t quite finish and you don’t want another can of RedBull, may I suggest listening to the latest from Infected Dead? I will say this upfront, Just by looking at the cover, I was expecting a standard run of the […]

When you’re trying to keep up with all of the heavy stuff, rock n’ roll and dirty music you can handle, you’re going to be bound to miss something.  In my case I miss a lot, but I’ll be goddamned by the Pope himself if I don’t try.  Slovenian sludge crew Leechfeast totally missed my […]

So two major label, modern tech death metal bands are going to be vying for your attention this spring. On Metal Blade we have Rivers of Nihil and their  ambitiously evolved Where Owls Know My Name, on Prosthetic Records,  we have Orlando’s ‘philosophical’ (not all of the band members are Christian),  progressive death metal new comers, […]

  It seems like every year there is a handful of massive funeral doom albums that are so meticulous that they take numerous listens to analyze.  Funeral doom in and of itself can vary depending on artist and approach to instrumentation.  This writer was caught a bit off guard in discovering Mournful Congregation’s fifth full […]

Stockholm’s The Ugly are back with album number three and follow up to 2015s decent Decreation. Not much has changed as the band still has ties to Marduk (whose Fredrik Widigs plays drums and the mastering/mixing was handled by guitarist Devo), and thusly the sound shows it with a frosty, razor sharp, slightly melodic take on blistering black […]

Milwaukee Wisconsin’s Morta Skuld released their fourth album, Surface, in 1997 on the now defunct record label System Shock.  The band had been pounding away at their grooving and punishing style of death metal for several years and guitarist/vocalist, Dave Gregor, Jason O’Connell-guitar, Jason Hellman-bass and Kent Truckenbrod showed no signs of letting up on […]

As LBGQT rights remain in the forefront of today’s political climate, so it creeps furthermore into extreme music. Mina Caputo of Life of Agony and Kat Shevil (Winds of Genocide) have been out front of the movement in metal for a while now, but it appears to be picking up. Just this month I received […]