It’s no surprise that I love Panzerchrist as much as I do. Their core sound has remained consistent throughout their storied career. Each album has stood as a testament to their brand of brutality that has remained solid since 1999’s Six Seconds Kill. Maleficium Part 2 is the follow up to last year’s Maleficium Part […]
Imperial Crystalline Entombment hail from Waldorf, MD, and is the brainchild of Ron Vento from Aurora Borealis, who also owns NightSky Productions and is a well-known name in extreme metal for his recording and production qualities. Abominable Astral Summoning is the newest and third creation for I.C.E. Ron provides all the instrumentation, while Mike Hrubovcak, […]
Despite its name, death metal never dies. It’s always relevant but has had a resurgence over the last few years with a crop of newer bands bringing forth the corpses of the past, along with established acts doing the same. There’s no substitute for the old-school sound championed by Dismember, Bolt Thrower, Entombed, and the […]
Crungus (a name given to an AI-generated creature – I’ll let Wikipedia explain this one further) is a Texas-based death metal band that happens to feature a former writer for this very site, Kris Allred, who performs bass here on the band’s second album, their first on a label. So now that’s out of the […]
Sweden’s most consistent bunch of Vikings need no introduction. Unleashed have been stalwarts of the scene since Johnny Hedlund was booted from Nihilist back in the late 80s. It worked out pretty well for him because 36 years later, Unleashed are poised to release Fire Upon Your Lands, their 15th full-length album. Hot off the […]
Oh man, this shit right here is fire. Denver’s Victim of Fire has been around since 2016, and this is their third album. They describe themselves as ‘Stadium Crust’, whatever that is. But what I’m hearing is an utterly nostalgic throwback to the early second wave of metalcore, when Maiden, At The Gates, and dual […]
Sometimes it’s bloody difficult to find information about a band. Take Sowulo and their fifth (!) album: Niht. There’s nothing on Metal Archives about them at all, I mean, five albums in, you’d think there’d be something, right? Nope. So here I go into this with only the barest of information. It’s a good thing […]
It’s been 5 years since Las Vegas Brutal Death metal act Cordyceps released their debut, Betrayal. And while I feel like they missed the boat by not releasing this album a little sooner, at the same time as The Last of Us TV show (where the Cordyceps mushroom is the cause of the apocalypse), as […]
I was a huge fan of brutal TXDM band Kill Everything’s 2018 debut album Scorched Earth. There were a few split releases since, but it’s not until the lovely titled Headless Cum Dumpster that we finally get the second album. Brian Wynn – Guitars and Shane Newbrough – Drums remain intact as the sole remaining members […]
After a few albums of top-tier deathcore, Signs of the Swarm earned their spot as one of the genre’s better bands, with 2021’s Absolvere being their very peak in my humble opinion. But on 2023’s Amongst the Low and the Empty, along with a jump from Unique Leader to Century Media, came a slight development. While […]
I’m always down for some French black metal on the always reliable Antiq Records. That said, the last releases I dug into were the non-French act, Belnejoum, and the harrowing semi-French depressive black metal of Enterre Vivant. Both enjoyable, but not the usual regal, medieval-sounding French black metal I have come to expect from the […]
I’ve been a fan of Angerot for the last several years, reviewing them here and enjoying their version of Swedish inspired death metal. I really enjoy it when bands think outside of the box. Angerot’s longtime drummer Matt Johnson, departs, but the band has new songs to record and to keep their label happy. So […]
Sometimes an album comes along that speaks to me on a deeply cerebral level. This has happened before; I tend to cover the weirdest shit I can find, usually crazy Folk Metal and Avant-garde Metal.Occasionally, though, I’ll cover instrumental powerhouse albums like Zombi and their fantastic Direct Inject album. Which brings me to Agropelter. A […]
Finland’s Sarastus (Finnish for ‘Dawning’) was formed in 2014 and has 2 full-length albums since then. I grabbed the promo for Agony Eternal as I have been on a back metal/melodic black metal kick of late, and the promo dropped terms like ‘anthemic hooks are at the forefront’, ‘melodies spiral with nightsky fervor’, and ‘too […]
I cannot believe it’s been 23 years since Relapse released the discography of Ohio’s brutal goregrind band – Hemdale. As it is called once again here, Rad Jackson took all the complete works of the band and released a beautiful reissue. Christ, I remember playing a show with these fellas, and there are a bunch […]
This review is incredibly late, but I have reasons. Some are personal, but some made me think the Metal Gods (RIP Ozzy) were working against me. In one instance, when I tried to sit down and finish this out, my headphones wouldn’t pair even when perfectly charged. Another time, they somehow weren’t charged at all […]
I reviewed France’s Creeping Fear Hategod Triumph, their second album, several years ago and commented on what a damn fine slab piece of Morbid Angel/Immolation and some Hate Eternal-inspired death metal it was. Realm of the Impaled is the third album, and yes, the band is still going with the goofy-looking Baphomet to adorn their cover […]
I consider myself a fairly well versed JRR Tolkien/ Lord of the Rings fan, but there are those that are just next level, Stephen Colbert types that are just way beyond me. and the duo that forms Anfauglir, Griss (guitars/vocals ) and Lord Bauglir (vocal/synths/drum programming) are in that category. Case and point; Anfauglir is […]
Back in 2022, I did a review in these hallowed pages for an all-female international beast called Castrator. That album was Defiled in Oblivion, and it was one of my favorite releases of that year. Since that time, they’ve been doing… whatever bands do; I’m assuming playing shows and recording this album. What an album […]
I reviewed Minnesota’s doom death band Red Vinter’s demo We Built Our Own Death Machine, on here and one of the band members, is originally from the DC/MD metro area, Mike Bullock (vox/bass). He was in local bands Indestroy, Ironchrist, and Scab, from that area. Earlier this year, they released their first official release – […]
First off, there is a contender for the best album cover art of the year, right there (Though Clamfight’s S/T is still my favorite so far). After a 5-year wait, Germany’s most American-sounding death metal stalwarts, Dehuman Reign, are back with album number 3. And little has changed since 2020s Descending Upon the Oblivious. Still […]
I love raw as fuck Black Metal. Whether it’s one person or four, if it sounds like it was recorded on a Tascam four-track in someone’s basement studio, I’m all fucking there. I’ve covered some raw bands here before: Avmakt, Ad Infinem Omnia, and Horna, to name three, and Embers of Ouroboros are now firmly […]
Italian brutal death metallers Putridity returns with their fourth album, Morbid Ataraxia, their first in ten years, though they did release a nice stopgap EP Greedy Gory Gluttony, in 2023. The band has remained intact for the last several years and as with their other releases, Putridity goes straight for the jugular, not really […]
Deliquesce (to liquefy during decomposition), is an Australian brutal/tech death project from Disentomb’s Adrian Cappelletti. He’s joined by vocalist James Cooper (ex-Incarnate), bassist Armando Wall and American session drummer Lyle Cooper (Mithridatum, Humanity Is A Cancer). And it’s a bit different from the hulking, brutal death metal of Disentomb, as Deliquesce is even more technical […]
Full disclosure: I grabbed this promo as I thought it was a new album from Finland’s doom/death band Noumena. Then I actually read the promo, saw some stuff about a female singer and production/mastering credits from some folks responsible for Lacuna Coil. At that moment, I braced for the worst, preparing for some sugary female-fronted […]