As I stated in my review of the excellent Obšar EP, I love receiving unsolicited, blind requests from obscure, completely unknown (to me) bands for us to review their material. So when I got an email from Moscow’s Renunciation, asking us to cover their second album, Make Babylon Great Again, I checked the band’s music […]

A debut full-length a day keeps the depression away. Today I’m going to talk about Lenax and their brand spanking first album Infection. A great debut album makes a statement, a stern fist to the face of a genre established years ago, while also attempting to cement the band in the annals of Black Metal’s […]

Loosely meaning ‘The Wild Hunt’ from Norwegian lore, it is the band name that got me to check out the promo for the third album from this Californian, not Norwegian duo, as well as that kickass stained glass dragon on the cover. Further digging revealed that this used to be a one-man project with Jay […]

Thaumaturgic Veil, the fourth full-length from Milwaukee’s Viogression, came out of nowhere. It could be that the band has no label, and maybe that is why? Their last album, 3rd Stage of Decay, was a damn good album, and this album has a very striking and cool AF album cover. Brian DeNeffe, vocals, is the […]

Can someone explain to me how Shadow of Intent is unsigned? Especially considering the absolute proliferation of the symphonic/blackened deathcore genre of late? Are the band members complete dicks? Are they independently wealthy? Do they hate labels? Imperium Delirium is the band’s 5th self-released effort, their third after dropping the Halo video game-inspired themes from […]

I’ll admit to knowing next to nothing about Indonesia. I know that it’s beautiful (I’ve seen pictures and I love their action movies, so I’m sort of an expert) but I’m not here to talk about traveling, I’m here to talk about the proud and savage Jakarta natives, Tombstone. Coming in hot as a meteor […]

Avast ye salty dogs, I have a tale to tell ya! It’s about a band of hearty fucking pirates, who have returned after an eight-fucking year hiatus! Must be nice, aye?! At any rate, ye can forget about Alestorm (even though they’re still technically Pirate Metal, they sound more like Party/Bro Metal at this point.) […]

I’m not the only one for whom melodic death metal hits that sweet spot. I reviewed Buried Realm’s Embodiment of the Divine, and it did an exemplary job. That album hinted at some of the influences, specifically two of my favorite melodic death metal bands, Scar Symmetry and Soilwork, but The Dormant Darkness features Bjorn […]

A good friend of mine, from the local scene where I live, Kevin from Unholy Anarchy Records, sent me the promo for this Baltimore-based melodic death metal band, Chiaroscuro.  He’s trying to help this up-and-coming act and figured, let me see if Frank would like it.  Quite honestly he got me in the Iron Sheik’s […]

Sometimes, an album contains all great songs, no filler, no skips. Sometimes an album has a few good songs. Sometimes you buy an album because you saw one good video on MTV Headbangers Ball in the 90s, and the rest is terrible. Sometimes an album has one really killer song that makes the whole thing […]

The first time I heard Bolt Thrower was in their Realm of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness) from 1989. It turned my Metal mind to full tilt, opening up a whole other level of brutality and extremity. Living in England during the burgeoning Death Metal scene was a special time that I’ll always cherish being a […]

Darkness Everywhere: “Hey guys! I think, we might have released the best Light This City/Darkest Hour-influenced melodic death metal of 2024 with To Conquer Eternal Damnation, I mean c’mon, we have current and ex-Light This City members in the band!!!!” Druparia: “Hold My Beer”. Seriously, first off, go check out Darkness Everywhere‘s debut album To Conquer […]

I love the Alien film franchise—yes, even Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. I also love brutal slamming death metal/deathcore. Italy’s Hideous Divinity mixed the two on their LV426 EP back in 2021, but France’s Xenotheory has entered the fray with their second album does to the genre what Aliens did to the films. Their 2022 […]

I have an unequivocal love for themed Death Metal bands. VHS, Fulci, Fluids, Satanic Tea Company and Surfin Bird Death Metallers Kólga. I mean, yeah there’s Alestorm but they’re sort of becoming a ‘party, party, drink, drink’ band like Steel fucking Panther and less fun than when they were keelhauling motherfuckers instead of getting plowed […]

Witnesses man Greg Schwan told me before the release of Joy that it is his best album. That’s bold considering I hold his releases in high regard, but especially Doom II. It’s certainly because it’s the first album I heard. I like bold statements though because confidence makes me pay attention. To begin the album, […]

Mythbegotten is a folk metal band with epic metal qualities that combine brutality with black metal-ish musical moments.  The band hails from the New England/Upper areas of New York.  Over the last several years I have increased my knowledge of this genre and there are many various acts I enjoy with folk moments such as: […]

So Canada’s Trollwar is a new act to me, but they recently got on my radar, when I discovered that Matt Sippola from fellow epic Canadians, Atavistia provided some orchestration/choirs and clean vocals for Trollwar’s latest EP. Based on the band’s discography (2 full lengths and an array of EPs/Singles, which I immediately purchased after […]

Nowadays, deathcore for me is like porn; what used to turn me on doesn’t work anymore. Whereas good old-fashioned, man-on-woman and a BJ or belly finish scene did the trick, now, I need a 40-person gang bang, a goat, goggles, Disney cosplay, and a hairdryer to even get remotely hard. And as for deathcore, a […]

Symphony Of Heaven is a Christian melodic black/death metal band from Indiana, that used to be on Rottweiler Records. But with their 3rd album has forged out alone like… that one guy…. that went … out to the wilderness? In the bible maybe? I’m trying here, that theology isn’t really my jam. What IS my […]

Get out your pitchforks sluts because we’re about to talk about nu-metal. It’s a dirty phrase for some, but like it or not, it is making a comeback. As inexplicable as that may be, Vended are in that realm, but their famous fathers who are as well are bound to shed some light on the […]

Blackened Symphonic Death Metal is quite a mouthful – would you not agree?  Torn from Existence hail from Colorado and have been around a few years and Hearken the Darkened Skies is their debut album. Hopefully, the band is getting this debut out to distros, labels etc..so this Self-Released album can be picked up by […]

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 […]

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 […]

Along with Morgue and Sun of Nothing, Axamenta is yet another band I have not heard in 15-20+ years that I am hearing after a really long gap in 2024. I first heard these epic, melodic Belgians on 2001’s Codex Barathi, but it was on 2006s Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture , where they delivered a dizzying true tour […]

Canada’s Atavistia has released 2 incredibly solid albums of epic,  symphonic balanced metal since 2020 in The Winter Way and Cosmic Warfare, which made my 2023 year-end list (I can’t speak for 2017s One Within The Sun debut). And they continue their excellent productivity with a brand new 5 song EP. Inane Ducam (subtitled ‘I […]