Sometimes I like my black metal delivered in epic, rangy long albums like say Kjeld’s latest offering, Harakiri For the Sky’s vast double album or Utbyrd’s majestic foray. But sometimes I like my black metal in short sharp, icy bursts, like the debut EP, from New Finnish black metal duo Sarvekas, which is a perfect […]

What if you took the filthy icky ooze and sinewy, punky sneer of Autopsy, gave it a Sunlight Studio Swedish death metal buzz, an obsession with alcohol and puking, and a tongue in cheek sense of sick humor? Well, you’d get Stockholm’s Repuked and their fun little third album , Dawn of Reintoxiation. With some […]

So here is reunion album number 3 for Wombbath, one of the 90s Swedish death metal bands that reunited for another go. This time, lone original member Håkan Stuvemark and Johnny Petersson (Henry Kane, Ashcloud, Gods Forsaken, Ursinne, Just Before Dawn) has yet another set of different guys helping them out for this album by […]

Before Khold, there was Tulus, who released 3 albums in the late 90s. When Khold, one of the 00s most consistent (some would say annoyingly so) Norwegian black metal bands went on hold in 2006, Tulus was reformed with 2 of the original Khold/Tulus member Sarke (drums) and Bludstrup (vocals- also known as Khold’s distinctive […]

Ok folks so this year of 2020 you will see some new and expansive reviews from yours truly.  I do not claim to be a Black Metal expert by any stretch of the imagination, however that’s not to say I do not like Black Metal.  My origins with Black Metal are rooted in more of […]

Here is some fall of 2019 black metal I’m just now getting to, and this one is worth it for the band’s veteran Norwegian black metal line up alone: Vocalist ‘Vicotnik’ (Dodheimsgard, Ved Buens Ende, Strid) , guitarist ‘Haavard’ (ex Ulver, ex Satyricon), bassist ‘Cerberus’ (Dodheimsgard),  and drummer ‘Myrvoll’ (Dodheimsgard, Ved Buens Ende, Nidingr, ex […]

Sometimes I get in the mood for some good old fashioned, no frills, second wave black metal, and occasionally a release comes along that fills that void perfectly. Earlier this year it was Germany’s Darkened Nocturne Slaughtercult and their album, Mardom, and here in the fall/winter as the nights grow longer and darker, the fittingly […]

I first heard about Usurper, via Metal Maniacs magazine, roughly about twenty years ago. The band had released their second LP, Skeletal Season, in 1999 and were due to follow it up with their third full-length, Necronemisis, in 2000. As it always does, extreme metal was once again going through stylistic changes and Chicago’s Usurper […]

Anders Biazzi (ex Amon Amarth,  ex Blood Mortized, Just Before Dawn) and his arguably more busy  Just Before Dawn cohort Jonny Pettersson (Wombbath Ashcloud, Nattravnen, Henry Kane, Heads for the Dead,) and drummer Brynjar Helgetun (Crypticus. Megascavenger, Just Before Dawn, Putrevore) are back with the second album under the Gods Forsaken moniker. However, some new […]

At its onset, the third album from Norway’s Blodhemn, (a new act to me) is an odd beast that’s not sure if it wants to be a more enigmatic and off kilter type of black metal akin of Enslaved, or a more vitriolic and melodic entity in the vein of Grafvitnir, and after a while […]

Listen, I could try to force 1000 words into this review of the debut from Norway’s Ováte. i could try and dress it up and fill space, and get all sorts of creative with wordplay and shit but listen, all you really need to know that this is project is a duo spearheaded by guitarist /bassist  Aindiachaí […]

After being one of the top, but second tier Swedish death metal bands on the 90s, Wombbath broke up, but almost 20 years later, lone original member Håkan Stuvemark and some scene vets and released Downfall Rising back in 2015, a solid reunion, fitting in with the rash of releases and rebirth of the genre. […]

Former Amon Amarth guitarist Anders Biazzi is becoming a Rogga Johansson/Johnny Petterson type, being involved with numerous projects and players, including the two dudes I just mentioned. After a few fine albums with Blood Mortized and then the war metal super group of sorts, Just Before Dawn, he has a new project, Gods Forsaken along […]

Norway’s Devil made an impression on me in 2010 with their demo Magister Mundi Xum and rightly so. Injecting some rough hewn overtones of NWOBHM favorites Witchfinder General in to a bluesy old school doom sound was a perfect antidote to the hordes of image conscious hippies and their retro rock bullshit. Their debut album […]

Doom/stone metal is typically a subgenre of the metal scene that fans either take or leave. There are some kickass bands in the scene like Fu Manchu, Monster Magnet, Trouble, Down, Sleep and, of course, Kyuss and Black Sabbath. The troubling aspect of the genre is that most of the bands all sound like one […]