California’s Laceration released a really nice debut album in 2021, Demise.  While there were some elements of thrash metal interwoven into their sounds, mainly with some of the solos, still not enough to be a hybrid death/thrash band.  The band is death metal. Following up on that debut album with a slightly shorter sophomore […]

I’m not familiar with Germany’s Servant, having not heard the band’s prior two albums. Still, I’m always down for some ‘melodic-yet-furious black metal’ (per the promotional email). Especially as I dig a lot of the music that AOP Records puts out, especially the likes of Firtan, Waldgeflüster, Groza, Finsterforst, and Harakiri for the Sky. So I […]

When was the last time an album hit you with such emotion that you felt like it was casually going to rip your heart out and leave you with a gaping hole where your emotions used to live? I have a list of bands that have created music like that, and those are the ones […]

Ohio’s Ironflame is a writing machine.  Since 2016 they have released four full-length albums and now they have dropped their fifth one Kingdom Torn Asunder on us. I have enjoyed all their prior albums a lot, although I did feel their 2022 album Where Madness Dwells, slightly suffered in the production department and the hooks […]

Though I reviewed the debut, Voidgazer, from this discordant death metal Texas duo back in 2021, I missed the follow-up, in 2022, Demiurge. What I do remember about the debut though was, while the churning Incantation-y murk was good stuff, the duo was really at their best when delivering more lumbering, grooving controlled riffs. And […]

I’m from Kentucky, the heart of Bluegrass and Country music, sort of… I think Nashville would disagree and probably Oklahoma, Kansas and any other state that cuddles up next to the southern states would as well. But to say I grew up around Country Music is an understatement, for years I was immersed in it. […]

Turkish brutes Carnophage have been slinging their brand of death metal since the early 00’s.  Matter of a Darker Nature is their third album and it’s been eight long years since their last album, Monument. This is 8 songs in 33 minutes of no-frills brutal death metal in the vein of the likes of Dying […]

There’s been some watercooler conversation about Darkthrone lately at the home office; specifically the difference between new and old and the new bands that pay homage to the early 90s era. I got a couple of recommendations and this is the first review for the newer-than-new debut for Avmakt and it’s called Satanic Inversion Of… […]

I reviewed South Africa’s brutal death metal/deathcore band Vulvodynia’s Praenuntius Infiniti album three years ago and was super impressed with the album, seeing I had been a recent fan of theirs and that was their best album up to that point. The signing to Unique Leader Records propelled the band as well and put the […]

It appears parts of Africa, namely, West Africa, has a bit of a burgeoning metal scene over the last several years.  One such stand-out is Arka’n Asrafokor.  Back in 2019 they dropped their debut album Zã Keli and now the band has followed it up with Dzikkuh.  Picture their debut album, but more extreme and […]

For a while there in the early/00s, Nails was one of the flagship bands of what I call the “Southern Lord” sound. Bands like Nails, Trap Them, All Pigs Must Die, Black Breath, Dead In the Dirt, playing a filthy form of Swedish Death metal-hued d-beat, crust, grindcore/hardcore. And I’m confident in saying popular new bands […]

Power Metal has been part of my life since Helloween and their Keeper of the Seven Keys albums. A long time, considering that that first album was ’85-’86 I think. Manowar was around then, wearing animal skins and looking absolutely ridiculous. I confused (and wrongly assumed) that Hammerfall were Manowar clones. It might’ve been the […]

Category 7 is a brand new “super-group” which formed in 2023.  This self-titled album is their debut and the band members are John Bush – Vocals, Mike Orlando – Guitars, Phil Demmel – Guitars, Jack Gibson – Bass, Jason Bittner – Drums.  So we have these metal players who are currently in or were ex-members […]

God Dethroned is back with album number 12, and at this point, it’s difficult to keep rewriting the same review as Henri Satler and whoever is in his band (yet another different drummer here) are so god damn consistent at this point in their career it’s silly. After a trio of albums about WWI, Satler […]

I’ve been on a huge Lord of the Rings/ Tolkien kick recently and have been seeking out some music to satiate my need, enter Swedish duo Morcaint. Mornië Utúlië is the follow-up to last year’s Ellesar EP, and the duo of Ulvtyr and main composer Heruhim certainly know their way around Tolkein-themed atmospheric and melancholic […]

Maggot Stomp, as I have stated before, is one of the best smaller, underground death metal labels out there.  They have been responsible for finding talent, early in a band’s career, and then the band blows up and gets bigger offers, such as Sanguisugabogg and Frozen Soul, jumping ship to Century Media Records a few […]

Spain’s Totengott returns with their third album, Beyond the Veil, and first for Hammerheart Records.  I have enjoyed their prior two albums, Doppelgänger and The Abyss quite a lot.  The band originally started as a Celtic Frost cover band and their primary influence falls in line with the monstrous Monotheist reformation album as well as […]

“Can I offer you a nice egg in this trying time?” –Frank Reynolds In this case, the egg is the 20th Anniversary edition of one of my favorite albums of all time, the seminal Ashes of the Wake. Wait, wasn’t there a 15th anniversary reissue? Yes, yes there was. As for the “trying time,” just […]

Greece’s Hail Spirit Noir is one of the most experimental bands out there.  Their last album, Mannequins, from 2021 I reviewed on here and I still really enjoy it.  This was their most audacious piece of work because it was made up of more synth/wave, 80’s horror movie instrumentals and sounds.  Only a handful of […]

August 23rd 20024 saw both Fleshgod Apocalypse and Nile release new albums. That’s the music equivalent if Deadpool  & Wolverine and Alien Romulus had been released on the same day. I love both but one has to be listened to and reviewed first,  and be seen first. Well, hopefully, you already read my review of […]

After a killer year in 2022, but then a relatively slow year in 2023, Symphonic/blackened Deathcore is back to having a superb 2024 with killer releases from Synestia/Disembodied Tyrant, Drown in Sulfur, Eden Adversary, Ruins of Perception, A Wake in Providence, The Archaic Epidemic, Vile Revelation, Downfall of Mankind and of course, Immortal Disfigurement (the […]

I love French Black Metal, and that goes back to the early 2000s when I first heard Mutiilation, Anorexia Nervosa, Deathspell Omega and Osculum Infame. From the press release: Gravenoire was formed in early 2022 by Maximilien Brigliadori (BÂ’A, Diablation, former Hyrgal), Emmanuel Zuccaro (BÂ’A, Verfallen, former Hyrgal), Vicomte Vampyr Arkames (Diablation (former Seth / […]

Australia’s Werewolves have returned with their fifth album Die for Us, having released an album, each year, since their 2020 debut The Dead Are Screaming.  This time around, no longer with Prosthetic Records, like their prior albums, have released this independently. If you have slept under a rock for the last five years, and have […]

Reviewing the new Fulci album seems natural. I’m a huge fan of Italian horror in general, of course including Lucio Fulci. I rock a Tropical Sun back patch on what I’m certain is the greatest battle jacket ever created, I saw them live last year, and I learned seminal Italian words like “pizza” and “spaghetti” from them. […]

I’ve reviewed a fair amount of Denmark’s, Crocell’s releases and have enjoyed all of their albums.  The band started out as a pretty hefty sounding melodic, but chunky, style of death metal.  Several years ago the influx of black metal began to permeate into their releases and with their sixth long-player Of Frost, of Flame, […]