Contextually, this album was a challenge for me to write. As a fifteen year old some twenty two years ago I was fortunate enough to Bergen Norway’s Enslaved at Mirage in Minneapolis along with fellow Osmose Productions label mates at the time, Absu. Unfortunately for me Mirage in Minneapolis has not existed for many years […]
I’m not sure what it was that made me choose to cover The Netherlands’ based act, River of Souls, and their debut album, The Well of Urd. Maybe it was divine intervention from the metal gods themselves. Whatever it was that drove me toward the band, I am glad it did, as River of Souls […]
Amidst the myriad of styles and cross-genre pollination, sometimes it’s nice just to get back to the bare basics of what draws many of us to metal in the first place: speed, aggression and riffs, riffs, riffs. Australia’s Bloodlust keep things lean, mean and appropriately nasty with their violent brand of old school blackened […]
There is a host of bands vying for the throne left vacant by Dismember. The likes of Infected Chaos, Brutally Deceased, Harm, Blood of Seklusion, Evocation, Endseeker, Massive Assault, Fatalist, Interment and Germany’s Lifeless are certainly near the top of the list. I’ve cowered the bands prior two efforts, 2010 Beyond the Threshold of Death and […]
After hanging out with David Mikkelsen, from Undergang, during their recent US tour, he mentioned he was also in Phrenelith, from Denmark and their debut album, Desolate Endscape was out on Dark Descent Records, but that the music was different than Undergang. Obviously on Dark Descent Records, for me is going to be an immediate […]
Like an Ennio Morricone soundtrack meets Goblin and Zombi with liberal sprinkles of Inter Arma, Grim Ravine, Graves at Sea, Black Sabbath, Icepick Revival, Indian, Soulpreacher, Rwake, Swedish/Finnish gloom and an unholy, nail you to a cross of shame sludge attitude; Ottawa’s trio Longhouse have dropped a fearlessly frightening sludge-themed album that not only adheres […]
I wasn’t sure how these young Canadians would follow up their excellent 2014 debut, The Lucid Collective, a completely over the top , noodling clinical and triggered tech death tour de force, only since topped by First Fragment‘s Dasein since then as far as sheer tech death insanity goes. Well, they are up the the […]
Slovenia’s Eruption came into my radar in 2013 when Xtreem Music signed them and remastered and reissued their debut 2009 album, Lifeless Paradise. I was impressed by this thrash band, who looked to be developing a sound that could hang with the big thrash bands. I immediately picked up the second album, Tenses Collide and […]
Although The Black Dahlia Murder have often had a tendency to divide listeners, those who have kept the faith and followed the band over their decade plus career have been duly rewarded by some killer albums and a consistent track record. The band’s tireless work ethic and expert refinement of their thrashy melodic death formula […]
Witch Vomit is very much like the black mold that is abundant in the pacific northwest. If you live in the region, you know and experience this phenomena. The band is very much like it; black, murky and gives you that creepy feeling. Their sound just oozes blackness and filth. Slow, dark and pummeling is […]
It’s been 10 years since Kansas City’s Lo- Ruhamah released their impressive debut, The Glory of God, and then a subsequent interview with the band, cleared up the band’s deep philosophical themes and leanings, leanings which again arise on the band’s long awaited follow up, Anointing. Though not a Christian band, as you see by […]
When you and the crew are hanging out in the basement smoking and watching epic fail videos on Youtube are you the tunes master? The one who is trusted to wield the aux cable to feed the vibes, facilitating the good times until the last dude is passed out? Are you getting gripes under breath […]
Iron Reagan, the side-project from Municipal Waste and Darkest Hour members return with their third album. I was a huge fan of their prior albums: Worse than Dead and The Tyranny of Will. Caught the band live, opening for the Napalm Death/Voivod/Exhumed tour and they were phenomenal live.Iron Reagan play a brand of crossover thrash, […]
It wasn’t until 2014s Titan that I got into Greece’s Septiciflesh, which is a surprise considering I’m a sucker for big, epic orchestration in metal. But as with Titan, and even prior releases like The Great Mass that I went back to, Septicflesh remain all fluff and no real substance. But the fluff, remains some of […]
So while we wait with bated breath for the long overdue to Disma’s follow-up to their 2011 debut Towards the Megalith the band has put out this new ep featuring the title track: “The Graveless Remains” and “Sempiternal Deformity”. Some new line-up changes as well. Guitarist Daryl Kahan and drummer Shawn Edlridge are out. Taking […]
Vancouver butcher Graham MacSkimming has crafted a pretty impressive underground resume. As a vocalist he channels Reagers’ era Vitus with an eerie tonality and violent vocal schizophrenia in sludge/doom overlords Witchsnake and he’s had his hands in seminal death/thrash/punk cultists Violent Christ, Ligeia and several other projects that are well-worth a listen. Vile Ent is […]
Last year, I received a demo from San Francisco’s Sentient Ignition, they didn’t want a review, just some feedback from me about their sound. The basic premise of my feedback was they were promising, talented, sounded like Black Crown Initiate, and the vocals needed some work. Well, they wrote me back earlier this summer and sent […]
I’ve been a fan of Finland’s Desecresy for the last 5 years and have really loved their past 4 albums. They used to be a two-piece act, but vocalist, Jarno Nurmi decided to bail last year leaving Tommi Grönqvist, who plays all the instruments and is the band’s artist, holding the bag. Rather than pack […]
Belphegor has always been one of those consistent, respected veteran bands on my periphery that I’ve ‘liked’ but never ‘loved’. The first album I heard and covered was 2005s relentless Goatreich Fleshcult, and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, subsequent albums like Pestapokalypse VI, Walpurgis Rites- Hexenwahn and Black Magick Necromance, left me pretty ambivalent. So much […]
Feel the crushing groove…FEEL IT! I think I may have gotten a tad bit obsessed with Detroit, Michigan’s Temple of Void. At the very least, I feel the onset of becoming a huge fan of the group taking hold. Seriously, a mere four weeks is what separates the first time I stumbled across Temple of […]
It’s been 8 years since I reviewed Crimfall’s debut As The Path Unfolds, a solid entry into the Finnish folk/pagan/epic/melodic/Viking genre along sides stalwarts Ensiferum, Brymir and Turisas. They released a second album, The Writ of Sword back in 2011, but I never heard it so I can’t tell how they have developed since then. What I […]
I’ve been following California’s Parasitic Ejaculation since 2012 with their Sickening Conduct ep, dropping on the scene to a little buzz. 5 years later and the band have just dropped Isolation, their third full-length onto our laps. If you’re new to the Parasitic Ejaculation party and unsure of their sound, well brutal slam death metal […]
Not to be confused with Georgia’s excellent, psychotic sludgers Crawl, the Crawl in question here is a one man blackened sleaze sludge project helmed by one sicko that plays bass, drums and vocals. The fact that organic instruments are used yet filtered through relentless torrents of distortion gives the record an industrial feel akin to […]
Under the alias of ‘Zornheym’, bassist/guitarist Tomas Nilsson, played in Dark Funeral from 2011-to 2014, and now he and some of his Swedish metal pals (notably Diabolical drummer Angst and Facebreaker’s Richard Bendler on vocals) has formed his own band under that moniker but those expecting anything like Dark Funeral will be sorely disappointed, as Zornheym play a […]
Virginia’s Lord consistently make a big bastardly liar out of me. Ever since the band’s 2011 landmark album Chief, a tangled and complex tapestry of twisted backwoods butcher metal, Lord continues to up their game with each new album. An ever-changing line up soldiered on through the vermin bitten EP Alive in Golgotha and it […]