The lone traveler on the cover of Arktis, Ihsahn’s sixth solo release, may as well be the man himself. Ever since departing Emperor, Ihsahn has charted his own paths across rough and largely unknown terrain. Previous album Das Seelenbrechen veered off into particularly strange and challenging territory – even for me, a die-hard fan of his work […]

I know many readers will roll their eyes at a release such as this, but this is for the few folks that enjoy the styling of After the Burial, Painted In Exile (new album hurry up and get here already!), Fallujah, Viljharta,  Born of Osiris, Aegaeon, 7 Horns 7 Eyes,  Within the Ruins and other synth heavy, modern ‘core’ or ‘djent’ […]

Here is a group that I am excited to see are still around and making cool music. Minnesota’s Gracepoint have been on my radar since I first heard their first album Science of Discontent that came out back in 2000. These guys play a unique style of Progressive metal that is not in any way […]

Portland, Oregon’s Graves at Sea and I go way, way back.  I reviewed their Documents of Grief outing before it was an official press; at the time just a handmade CD-R that the fellas put together on the fly.  Directly after its release I had the distinct honor of interviewing the band (Nate and Nick) […]

As an uncompromising, grindcore-to-the-bone band that has been going strong for over 20 years, Rotten Sound would definitely be placed on my personal “Mount Rushmore of Grind”, along with Nasum, Napalm Death and Pig Destroyer.  We’ve had to wait five long years since their last LP, but time has done nothing but help as their […]

Pete Helmkamp needs no introduction. After the demise of Order From Chaos then Angelcorpse, and serving in Revenge, he released a couple of promising Angelcorpse-y EPs with Kerasphorus, but now, he has forged on alone with his solo project Abhomine. Playing all instruments and performing vocals, (a session drummer was used for this album) Abhomine is what you would expect from Helmkamp […]

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, it doesn’t matter – Babymetal are now the Supreme Overlords (or perhaps the Overlord Supremes) of their own Cult of Kawaii. And if you do hate ‘em, then lighten the fuck up. The absurdity of three J-pop teenyboppers fronting a metal band is too ridiculous not to love – and […]

It’s been eight years since Walls of Jericho released their last album, The American Dream, at the height of the metalcore movement and when female vocalists in extreme metal bands were still gathering steam. That release had more in common with the thrash revival of the time; the band was cleaner and more concise. Well, here […]

Lord of the Rings nerds will recognize the name of this Wisconsin death metal band as the vast underground Dwarven Kingdom also known as Moria and the site of the bridge where Gandalf uttered his famous “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” challenge to the Bal-rog. So now my inner nerd got that out of the way, you […]

See album cover for review.  The end. “Hey, dude that’s dismissive.  Drop the cynicism and do it right!” Ok.  Sure.  Point taken.  “Don’t judge a book…”, “What you don’t know might surprise you”, etc.  Even if the cover of this “book” is as telling as Johnny Cash, the Autobiography by Johnny Cash.  The many tentacled […]

You know the moment when your privates get all wet or hard (or both) when you hear something that’s undeniably good? Like, say for example, stumbling for the first time upon Disillusion’s Back to Times of Splendor or Devin Townsend’s best of compilation with all your to-be favorite tracks on it? Stam1na’s latest offering, Elokuutio […]

It is rare that it takes a group twenty years to release their first debut full length from the time that their initial demo had been released but such is the case with Germany’s Mightiest. Sinisterra opens with a nearly ten minute track “Devour the Sun” my first impression of this is that these guys […]

I sit here today holding a copy of Wildfire in my grubby hands, the fifth full-length album from black thrash titans Deströyer 666. Wildfire arrives seven years after 2009’s Defiance, with an entirely new band in tow behind lone (wolf winter) mainstay KK Warslut. A lengthy break between releases, Defiance itself was released a full […]

Baring the ambiguous ‘blackened death metal’ tag, France’s War Inside are a competent new act who do the genre label well on their second album, SUTURE. Of note, War Inside features Thomas of Regarde les Hommes Tomber on vocals, who brings the ‘blackened’ element to the table with his pained rasps and screams (and a […]

I get the sense that Dark Descent Records is still a little miffed that Entrails flew the coop to join Metal Blade, maybe even taking some solace  in the fact their latest Metal Blade release never matched the quality of the bands Dark Descent efforts. So what did Dark Descent go and do? Well basically sign another […]

Ohio’s grinding death maniacs, Embalmer have been around since the late 80’s. Obviously being around that long the band has had a revolving door of musicians throughout their 25+ years in existence. When I joined Internal Bleeding in ’94, I was introduced to Embalmer and they became one of my fave bands. Rick Fleming’s vocals […]

Back in 2013 I reviewed the debut from this Texas act, Aetherial, ( I missed 2015s Blue) and it was a challenging, engaging but exhaustive listen of progressive metal that had every genre and the kitchen sink in it. Well there’s been a bit of a line up change and a focus in delivery. Of note, […]

Megadeth has gone through many line-ups throughout the years and mainman Dave Mustaine is no stranger to controversy. Among the classic albums, there’s been a few shadier ones, but despite everything, the band is still kicking and putting out new music. Does the engine still have any power left? We take a look at Megadeth’s latest output, Dystopia.

Dark oozing blackness, the kind that slithers and gathers with malicious intent, around your body or gathers in the corners of your mind or even that underlying sense of dread and dark foreboding you get when reading that special book from your favorite horror writer or horror movie. If HP Lovecraft were alive today, He […]

Infernal Curse is charred, bottomless pit dwelling black/death metal coming from Argentina.  Over the years I’ve notice that South America tends to produce bands that deliver highly concentrated versions of their chosen metal genre and its accompanying aesthetic traits.  On Apocalipsis the catholic cathedral reverb is cranked a few notches past the usual.  Every touchstone […]

So Rhine is a project from Gabriel Tachell and some local Pacific Northwest musicians, and is the continuation of his UK act Perfect Harmony, but the name has changed and the the location is now Seattle, Washington. got it? But what matters is how damn good this is. Even with some questionable clean vocals this Opeth ian […]

I’ve heard some damn good doom-y, riff-y stuff from Austria; nightmare vomit sludgers Cyruss, killer psyched-out heavy rockers Savanah, etc.  I know I’m forgetting more than a couple in this quick brainstorm session but the point is that there’s a damn good scene over in Austria that gets overlooked when viewing the international arena at […]

So I get this mysterious CD in the mail from Russia. I can’t tell who the band is or what the release is. Windows does not recognize it, so I start trying to decipher fonts and and initially think the band is Black Wisdom, and thanks to the internet I figure out the band is […]

Starting out in the late 80’s Francis Howard (Guitars) and his brother, Moyses (Drums), along with bass/vocalist Scot Latour would put together one of the most under-appreciated death/thrash bands, Incubus.  Hailing from Louisiana, Incubus would go on to put out the outstanding 1988 Serpent Temptation, debut album. They bested that 2 years later with Beyond the […]

Oregon’s Omnihility burst onto the scene in 2014 with their second record (their Unique Leader debut), Deathscapes of the Subconscious , a pretty damn solid tech death offering with a heavy Origin lean. Well, yet another line up shuffle (as with the debut Biogenesis to Deathscapes), this time adding bassist Isamo Satu and vocalist Adam […]