Contrarian caused a few waves back in 2015 with their highly regarded debut, Polemic. A supergroup of sorts founded by Jim Tasikas with Brian Mason (Sulaco), Leon Macy (Mithras) on guitars with George Lollias (Nile) on drums. It was a Death homage, with  a heavier lean on the band’s latter, more progressive tones, adding some […]

Usually when perusing the promo portal I skip over reissues and re-releases to focus my attention on new stuff. However, upon discovering Willowtip records was repackaging the three full-length albums from UK’s highly innovative extreme metal duo Slugdge and dubbing it The Cosmic Cornucopia, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to delve in and spread the […]

Nine years is a mere nanosecond compared to the endless expanse of space and time, but that’s how long it has been since Mithras’ last full album, Behind the Shadows Lie Madness. That was my #1 album for 2007, and it still gets frequent play (its album cover also still gets regular desktop background honors), as there […]

Well, I’m going to go ahead and say it.  I know we still have a few more months  left to this year, but I am going to go out on a limb and say it. Mephistopheles‘ new EP release,  In Reverence of Forever, is hands down my favorite metal album released this year, and quite […]

Defeated Sanity return to us with an unorthodox dual e.p. release.  As they should.  With a discography of stellar releases they have an earned reputation for reaching beyond the death metal abyss and fans expect more from them than even the nearest band to their rank.  Last we heard from these dastardly villains was 2013’s […]

Finland’s Gloria Morti, despite having been around since 2001 and have 4 previous albums are new to me. But being on Willowtip and having members in its ranks with ties to Wolfheart/Black Sun Aeon/Before the Dawn, Swallow the Sun, Morbid Vomit and Gorephillia, was enough to make me check them out. And I  glad I did. […]

After the band’s impressive 2008/9 EP, and a pretty well received full length debut, The Prodigal Empire in 2011, a lot of folks were hailing this Denver act as the new Arsis meets The Black Dahlia Murder of the scene, mixing shredding black/death metal with melodic death metal . But the band went a bit dark […]

Sure, there have been some great Death and Chuck Schuldiner homages in 2015- notably Gruesome and Skeletal Remains. But what if the spirit of Chuck Schuldiner was implanted into something  a little less obvious and something a little more cavernous? And what if that something was a sort of super group featuring George Kollias (Nile, […]

  Speed… speed… and more SPEEEEEEEDDDDD!!!  That’s what you should expect out of the 3rd LP from this Italian brutal death metal quintet.  They want to play as fast as possible, and fast they most definitely can do. I remember this band from their last full length, Degenerating Anthropophagical Euphoria, which was a good album, […]

Back in 2007, the UKs Sarpanitum released one of the best debuts from a UK death metal band of recent memory, Despoilment  of Origin. It was released on Galactic Records, the label owned by Leon Macy the founder of fellow UK death metal act Mithras, who also were making quite a stir in the death metal scene […]

The ability to convey mood is a technique that may be lacking in metal more than it ever has.  As with any art form when it becomes oversaturated, the superficial elements that make up its basic skeleton get amplified over actual substance, making a hollow representation of what could have been a unique statement by […]

Willowtip’s entry into 2014 early/Spring run of superlative tech/brutal death metal comes by way of the tiny country of Malta and the  third album from Abysmal Torment, a band previously unknown to me. And boy is it a doozie. Using Floridan death metal as a very broad template, Abysmal Torment manage to dirty the core sound […]

Los Angeles Californian, grind/punk/crust act Nausea, FINALLY return with their sophomore album, hell it’s been over 2 decades since the unleashing of Crime Against Humanity, for crissakes.  But we know how life is.  It’s really tough to keep a band going, especially when you throw in life responsibilities, on top of band responsibilities.  I will […]

If you’re a death metal fan, one of the Dutch scene in particular, you’ve likely heard of the band Prostitute Disfigurement.  In addition to their catchy name, they’ve managed to produce some pretty good albums.  The last one of theirs I got into was 2008’s Descendants of Depravity, but then the band broke up in […]

Here is hopefully the first of a new feature here at Teeth of the Divine, The New Classics. if you have been listening to metal for any amount of time you well know there there are a certain few records hailed as unquestionable classics. Legendary releases that, 20 years after their release, are still revered, still influential and still great listens. Of course, most of those classics were released in the ’80s and ’90s: Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets, Altars of Madness, Left Hand Path and others, to this day, are considered true classics and will be in another 20 years.

Willowtip’s strength as a label has long been their association with forward thinking and technically proficient metal bands willing to push the envelope and challenge the listener. Naturally they have wisely broadened their roster over the years to include artists of a more cut-throat and straight-forward brand of extremity. Yet my original attraction, and continued […]

It’s taken all the way to September, but we have a late favorite for what very well could be the brutal/slam death album of the year. If you were disappointed in the last LP from USA slam death kings Devourment (as I definitely was), then Saprogenic are here to cure what ails you. They’ve put […]

PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT Joins Willowtip Records Dutch death metal hellions PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT are pleased to join Willowtip Records’ stable of sonic chaos for the release of their upcoming new studio offering. Lovingly titled From Crotch To Crown, the long-awaited follow-up to 2008’s deviant Descendants Of Depravity full-length promises to deliver the band’s sickest, most violently aggressive […]

Wormed, Spain’s brutal purveyors of tech-death, have been gestating for about a decade before finally dropping Exodromos; the much-anticipated follow-up to their widely acclaimed 2003 debut, Planisphaerium.   Maybe it was my mindset at the time but their debut didn’t really move me in the way it rumbled the underground.    Not that it’s a bad album […]

Brutal death/tech-death/grind maniacs Malignancy are back with their third full length, though they have been at it for nearly 20 years now.  Their last album, Inhuman Grotesqueries, was one I remember listening to and seeing on the Willowip site, but the weak production left me wanting more as it hid the talent that was bubbling […]

It’s another word for anti-intellectualism. People are stupid, ignorant and seem to be proud of it. This is a disturbing trend.”  So says Adam Laszlo about the meaning behind the name of the project he helms all by himself – Sophicide.  Perdition of the Sublime is an absolute scorcher, made even more impressive by the […]

Grindcore mainstays Phobia are back with their 6th full length, and on this newest one they made the odd choice to introduce… clean vocals and female gothic influences?!? Ummm… No. This is straight up ass-melting grindcore, and it’s what these guys have been pummeling eardrums with for over 20 years. When you can personify the […]

A handful of lesser known, lower profile releases of brutal/technical death metal have grabbed my attention of late; the likes of Pyrrhon, Nocturnal Torment, and Parasitized have shown that there is still plenty of new bands from unexpected realms delivering material to compare to big boys like Origin, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Spawn of Possession and such, […]

Willowtip has scored yet another massive-sounding and terrifying band in Australia’s Beyond Terror Beyond Grace. If you want to know what they sound like, well, the name says it all. These guys have created a black/post-metal sound at once brutal and transcendent – full of terror, full of grace and yet beyond both. Nadir pulverizes you with […]

Willowtip has officially signed Sydney, Australia atmospheric death metal band Beyond Terror Beyond Grace.  The label will release the band’s newest album, Nadir, on April 3rd, 2012.  Recorded and mixed by Joel Taylor (The Abandonment, Encircling Sea) at Three Phase Studios in Melbourne, Australia over only two weeks in May 2011, Nadir captures a band […]