When Erik asked if anyone wanted to review the new Emmure album no one was chomping at the bit to do the review, except for me.  Being a long standing fan of the band, I really wanted to review this. I know how polarizing the band is to many in the metal community, due […]

Yep. That Nightrage is back. I had to do a double take as well. After bursting onto the scene as an international  super group featuring guitar maestro Gus G (Firewind, Dream Evil) and the legendary Tomas Lindberg with 2003s debut Sweet Vengeance and 2005s Descent into Hell, Nightrage were the supposed saviors of a waning melodic death metal […]

After splitting in 2011/12, founder and lone remaining original member Henri Satler as well as long time drummer Michiel van der Plicht decided to reform the band. They are joined by veterans  Jeroen Pomper (Absorbed) and Mike Ferguson (Detonation), but even after 5 years and the new line up, the results are the same, reliable, consistent and […]

England’s brutal blackened death/thrash metal band, Craven Idol, return with their scorching follow-up to 2013’s outstanding Towards Eschaton album.  Hopefully you did not snooze too long and missed their 2010 ep, Ethereal Altars, which was also phenomenal.  The Shackles of Mammon boasts longer songs this time around, with the average song length, in this 8 […]

Holy gargantuan balls of steel, Batman! This is some straight up good shit right here. I  really was not sure what to expect from Holycide and their debut full-length, Annihilate… Then Ask!. Truth be told, I was basically looking for something other than death metal for reviewing purposes  and didn’t anticipate such a blistering and […]

Chris Grigg (then known as Xos) burst on the the USBM scene with Woe on 2009s stunning debut, A Spell for the Death of Man, a nigh perfect black metal album. Then a year later released Quietly, Undramatically on Candlelight Records and the now full band was starting to get mentioned in the same breath as […]

I love bands that have the energy and passion in their sound but also still tie into the familiar sounds we all know and love. Take Italy’s Ekpyrosis who excel at both. At the onset,after the customary eerie intro, listen to opening song “Profound Death” and you will judge for yourself as well. The intense […]

Back in 2011, I questioned the need for another Lock Up album in Necropolis Transparent, and resultantly, got my ass handed to me by one of the year’s best grindcore albums. Well, the band is if anything consistent in both their lack of productivity (3 albums in 15 years) and kick ass-ness when they do […]

Marquee Records owner, Armando Pereira truly knows his metal music.  No disrespect to Finnish thrash metal band, Angel of Sodom, but I had never heard of them, up until recently.  Upon gazing out the album cover for Divine Retribution you would think this is more geared towards classic or power metal, but no, it’s thrash […]

Hailing from the fertile metal lands of Stockholm, Sweden, unsung melodic black metal outfit Wormwood appear poised to raise their modest profile on the back of their hugely impressive debut LP. Taking cues from melodic black metal legends Dissection and Naglfar and blending these influences with traces of melancholic folk and pagan metal, Wormwood’s stellar […]

Back in 2015, I ordered a Solium Fatalis CD from Canada’s Galy Records, as part of the order, I was granted a free bonus CD. I chose Ordoxe’s May Death Be My Shepard as a completely arbitrary, blind selection. As it turns out, I really enjoyed the band’s super melodic take on Scandinavian black metal, so […]

First things first; hats off to Spectral Descent for being able to pique my interest in such a way that I damn near couldn’t wait to hear their debut album, Descending the Astral Plane. You see friends, like many of you, I love death metal. Love it! Luckily, I was a present and accounted for […]

I loved everything Tuomas Saukkonen did with his Before the Dawn and Black Sun Aeon projects as well as Wolfheart, his latest endeavor. The band’s first two albums, Winterborn and Shadow World are near classics of Finnish melodic death metal that immediately put the band in the same conversation as as Insomnium and Amorphis, just without the lengthy discography. So here is album […]

What better music to review post intestinal surgery, than classic-style death metal.  Morbid Flesh play no-nonsense death metal rooted in 90’s European styles of which we are all familiar.  Coming from Barcelona you can hear they absorbed bits from the various metal epicenters around Europe.  You’ll hear the groove of the Netherlands, sinister crawl of […]

Truth be told, the review you are reading almost didn’t come to fruition. Not because I am a lazy procrastinator, (even though I am a lazy procrastinator) but because I could never seem to make it through the first track of The Committee‘s second full-length album, Memorandum Occultus, before I was just bored to tears […]

Atlanta’s Royal Thunder have developed into quite the rock outfit. I enjoyed their last album Crooked Doors that came out back in 2015.  WICK has quite a different vibe from previous efforts, and this is shown right away with the opening track, “Burning Tree.” Opening up with some trancy, psychedelic-type guitar chord progressions, Mlny Parsonz […]

I’ve been a fan of Colorado’s Call of the Void, since their 2013 Dragged Down A Dead End Path debut and then the band following it up with Ageless in 2015.  Both releases on Relapse Records.   COTV play a blistering combination of crusty grind, with some hardcore/punk influences.  Super aggressive and pissed off music.  […]

So yeah, Ghost Bath is from North Dakota, not China. Let’s move past that and get right to the issue at hand- the band’s 3rd full length album and one which sees founder Dennis Mikula add members from the band’s first 2 releases as opposed to go it alone as he did on 2015s Moonlover, my […]

I have to admire Arizona’s Murkocet. They are stuck firmly in the early 00s American/thrash/groove  slightly Nu metal scene, firmly influence by the likes of Lamb of God, Slipknot, Machine Head (circa The Burning Red/Supercharger), Devildriver, Chimaira, God Forbid and such. It’s a scene I wasn’t totally into, ( I never really got into Lamb […]

Swiss brutal death metal band Carnal Decay is a name I have ran across a few times over the years, but honestly couldn’t recall any of their albums.  When their new one came out I thought it would be a good chance to dive in and check them out, and unfortunately I dove head first […]

I’ve been following the development of this project for a while now,  as for a small label and one man band, Dusktone and Scuorn‘ founder Guilian have thrown and a lot of resources and money at promoting and producing this project. And it apepars to have paid off. Touting it sound as ‘Parthenopean Epic Black Metal’, […]

This here release, I will readily admit, I completely got because of the cover artwork alone. I being a artist, was hugely influenced by Conan The Barbarian, both in novel and comic form. All the artists that worked on the Savage Sword of Conan, definitely set me on my artistic path. So upon seeing this […]

It looks like we have another burgeoning Rogga Johannsson in the making by way of Sweden’s Johnny Pettersson. Not only did he feature in the reactivated Wombath, he is in Ashcloud, Gods Forsaken, Human Harvest, Just Before Dawn, Syn;Drom, Skineater, Vholdghast and produces/mixes or masters in all of those projects. On Henry Kane (The creepy […]

From a very early point in their career it was evident that much lauded Arkansas doomers Pallbearer were something special. Debut LP Sorrow and Extinction brought doom to the masses with its spellbinding mix of traditional doom topped with powerful vocal melodies, an intense emotional pull and enough modern sensibilities to appeal to a broader […]

  Finland’s Demonic Death Judge is one of those bands that attracted me on name alone.  Their debut LP The Descent was the first one that I heard and it made me an instant kneeler at their altar of godless, unholy sludge.  The Judge’s sound is steeped in filthy bayou blues with the dirty, metallic […]