Talk about a match made in heaven…….Switzerland’s  Stortregn, a formerly pure 90s melodic black metal band turned more technical, surgical, shredding death metal with some of their black metal remnants left behind, on The Artisan Era, arguably the flagship label for this style with bands like Inferi, Demon King, Enfold Darkness and such. I’ve reviewed […]

[A meeting at the Extreme Metal Research & Development Labs, Level 5, The Moon] “Krallice goes Disgorge (US)”…………. “That’s it?” “That’s the pitch.” “Isn’t that just Gorguts?  They share a member” “…No…  Gentlemen, women, and non-human friends present, if you’ll fit your VR headsets on, I’ll explain this incredible breakthrough in today’s presentation. Gorguts recent […]

Abiotic have had an odd trajectory. They released an honestly bland debut in 2012, then a good follow up in 2015. While a little half-baked, it seemed like a step in the right direction, and made me think the only way to go for them was up. Then, silence. Enter 2021 and their new album, […]

Here’s some tech death from the best heavy metal label in existence, Transcending Obscurity. If you don’t believe my words, you can always check my year end list where I mentioned this. Once again, though, that’s in my words, so if you don’t believe it here, you won’t there. Anyway… Here’s some new tech death […]

Someone really wants to be on The Artisan Era. I mean, look at that logo, cover and the music fits the label perfectly being a shreddy melodic form of polished, surgical, blackened, technical death metal that’s in line with the likes of Inferi and such. At that someone is Ric Galvez, who plays all the […]

Jeeeezus!  San Francisco California’s Ominous Ruin debut album is here and it’s a hell of a first effort. If it is conceivable to think of a heavier Spawn of Possession or Archspire these guys might very well be in that mix. “Ritual” kicks off this forty-six-minute clinic in riff fury and intensity. Guitarist Alex Bacey […]

Several months ago Everlasting Spew Records posted about the new Fractal Generator album Macrocosmos and posted a brand new song.  I had never heard the band before and after checking out the song immediately got their 2015 self-released debut, the outstanding Apotheosynthesis.  I was blown away by this Canadian brutal band as they combine death […]

Long running German death metal act Profanity return with their fourth album – Fragments of Solace, which is 7 songs in 41 minutes guaranteed to rip your head off, slam it against the concrete then shove it through the Earth’s core exploding it in the process.  I have seen the band logo for years, but […]

Atrae Bilis is promoted as technical death metal. Canadian technical death metal, to be specific. I didn’t know this, or at least had never thought about it before, but with that genre tag, they’re in great company. Gorguts, Cryptopsy, and more recently, Archspire fit that bill. As just mentioned, great company, even if I don’t […]

2020 continues to throw forearm smashes in my eardrums in the form of awesome Death Metal.  I have been following Incinerate since they started in 1998 which is around the same time that I started my first band Pentagoria.  I had met vocalist Jesse Watson at Milwaukee Metal fest that year and was excited to […]

In the before times, earlier this year, I made it out to two shows. One of those was the Shadow of Intent tour which featured Signs of the Swarm, Brand of Sacrifice, and today’s review subject, Inferi. It was the first date of that tour at a really bad ass venue to which I had […]

Around three years ago I reviewed this amazing progressive technical death metal band from Amsterdam.  I was absolutely floored by their debut album Esoteric Entity. The band’s second album, Neoconception is a concept album revolving around an asteroid hitting earth. “Downfall” opens things up and the madness begins.  If you are not familiar with Spectrum […]

Holy Smokes! I was fortunate to review Cult of Lilith’s debut EP Arkanum back in around 2015. Back then Cult of Lilith was still trying to find their sound and were a bit more tech-death oriented. Fast forward to 2020 and we have their first debut full-length album Mara. Hailing from Rejavik Iceland there are […]

Well this definitely on my list for most improved tech death bands of 2020.  Kansas City Missouri’s Ahtme return with their 2nd full length album Mephitic.  I must admit I was a bit ho-hum regarding their 2018 debut Sewerborn.   It beyond clear that the sound of the group has matured a bit and the song […]

Baltimore’s Codex Orzhova are a highly original act.  Whether you want to call them mathcore, deathgrind, Nintendocore, Robotron/Defender grind noise, I feel Baja Blasted is the most original album for 2020.  The band released a self-titled album 2 years ago, however this album contains some of those songs and I am unsure if that first […]

Having been around since 2009 Death metal international group Serocs are to me one of most underrated Tech Death bands out there right now.  Vore features Laurent Bellemare on vocals who is also the vocalist for the band Sutrah that I reviewed earlier this year.  Serocs also features Kevin Paradis on drums also of Benighted […]

Montréal, Quebec’s ultra-brutal tech-death/deathcore act Beneath The Massacre return with their fourth album, Fearmonger.  The band seemingly going into a hibernation for some years, as their last album Incongruous, was released in 2012.  Much of the band has remined intact, the newest member is Anthony Barone, on drums.  When bands are so over-the-top brutal I […]

I once read a review regarding Belgium’s Pestifier and their then, sophomore release, Reaching the Void, where the group was described as sounding like a collision of Obscura, Beyond Creation, and Vektor. I’ve always like that analogy of the band. It’s true, clean, concise, and includes by association other influential acts such as Pestilence, Death, […]

As I peruse through albums I might consider year end candidates I see a lot of black metal; …And Oceans, Abduction, Kryptamok, Aara, Afsky, Eisenkult, Glaciation, Marrasmieli  to name a few. But there is very little truly special  death metal.Sure there’s some good stuff like the always reliable Abysmal Dawn,  The Project Hate‘s Purgatory or […]

When I heard a few months back that Ulcerate was working on a new album, I couldn’t have been more excited.  I own their entire LP catalog, and after seeing them live in San Antonio 4-5 years ago, I was floored at the atmosphere they create and the fact that they were able to produce […]

Imagine for a moment Abysmal Dawn were your average, every day, 9-5 productive cog in society. It’s not too far from the truth. After all, they do make death metal for a living (although, let’s face it, they probably need other jobs, too). They get up, go to work every day, do a great job, […]

It’s been 6 years since Milwaukee’s Ara released Destroyer of Worlds, and although guitarist Jerry Hauppa (who once wrote for this very site) remained busy with the likes of Steel Iron, Northless and Prezir,(sadly his instrumental project, Concentric is no more) it’s a new Ara record I’ve been waiting for from Mr Hauppa and co. […]

Italy’s brutal bastards, Devangelic return with their third album, Ersetu and their first for Willowtip records after departing from Comatose, who released their prior 2 brutal albums.  Devangelic play no frills brutal death metal.  By now you know what you’re getting into with a Devangelic album. 9 songs in an abrupt 31 minutes, but when death metal is played this brutal, this is […]

Starting 2020  with the same productivity (Myth of I, Aronious, Sutrah) as they ended 2019 (Immanifest, Singularity, Flub, Equipoise, etc) The Artisan Era is quickly rivaling Unique Leader Records when it comes to tech death, even if The Artisan Era seems to have a a little more focus on symphonics. However, there may be some […]

When one who is familiar with the label sits down with a Unique Leader release, there are a few items which come to mind. Firstly, this is going to likely be technical death metal. There will be fantastic musicianship on display. Frequently, the production will also be brick walled, and it may be difficult to […]