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 […]

With bands like Krisiun, Blood Red Throne, Decapitated and other top-level death metal bands putting out new releases this year, I had high hopes for Vile’s new one – Metamorphosis. With six years between full lengths you would expect somewhat of a style change, and their flashy new artwork definitely hinted at these guys going […]

Two years after their dizzying third album Process of a New Decline, French tech-death sorcerers Gorod return with this 5-track EP of inspired remakes and re-imaginings, plus one epic of a closer. First off is “Earth Pus,” a new recording of a track from their 2005 release Neurotripsicks. It’s a blustery, groovy beast, all spidery […]

I covered Gigan’s debut, The Order of the False Eye, back in 2008, and I remember it being a difficult write-up. Describing music is hard enough, but when it’s complex, undulating tech-death, it really does become a you-have-to-hear-this-to-understand-it kind of deal. The Obscura review I wrote up a few weeks ago was a challenge as […]

New Zealand’s Ulcerate set the bar pretty high for themselves with 2009’s Everything is Fire, a monstrous slab of churning, atonal death metal that ended up on many 2009 year end lists, mine included. How would they respond? The album title says it all. Even though the formula is the same as on Everything is […]

Looking for some straight forward, old school death metal with grooves and traditional song structures? If so, then stay as far away as possible from any of Ulcerate’s three full-length releases. The New Zealand trio is the quintessential forward-thinking Willowtip act, even more so than most other groups on the roster, not to mention modern death metal in general. Angular, shape-shifting rhythms, guitar work that is more about the painting of sonic pictures than popular notions of riffing, and a vibe in both lyrics and music that is suffocating in its bleakness. As such, The Destroyers of All is in fact all that and a bag of chips. Drummer/composer Jamie St. Merat, uh, opens that bag to reveal its contents…something like that anyway.

That Maruta is a quintessential Willowtip band may be more of a tribute to label than artist. Always leaning slightly more to the grind side of the death-grind divide while releasing material that is often technical, but rarely polished; the now decade old label has certainly established a trademark sound at this point. That there […]

Willowtip is very pleased to announce the signing of Dallas’ BARING TEETH. Their debut album, Atrophy, will be released in early-Summer 2011. The band comments, “We are thrilled to be working with Willowtip. We have been fans of the label for years and are excited to be part of such a great lineup of bands.” […]

Macabre and Willowtip? Now that’s a pairing that took me by surprise. The Impaled signing and subsequent release of The Last Gasp seemed a tad askew too, though not in any kind of a shocking way. None of that should be taken to mean they weren’t smart signings though; only that Macabre in particular is […]

Portland, Oregon’s BLOOD FREAK has officially signed to Willowtip.  The label will release the band’s upcoming album, Mindscraper, on April 5, 2011.  The album was recorded at Midnight Mania Studios by Blood Freak’s own Maniac Neil, with Scott Hull handling the mastering duties. 12 tracks were recorded for Mindscraper.  They include: 1. Psychoplasmics (Intro) 2. […]

Miami, FL’s MARUTA have finished up work on their new album, and second for Willowtip, entitled Forward Into Regression.  A release set has been set for February 22, 2011.  Germany’s Power It Up Records will be releasing a gatefold LP version.  A release date for the vinyl is TBD.  Vocalist Mitchell Luna comments, “So we […]

After seven years off (not counting 2005’s Zero Comfort Margin EP), one of Willowtip’s first bands returns to the fray with an absolutely sick release that shows that brutal death metal/grindcore can be way more than power chords, pig squeals and comical cover art rife with porn and zombies. The aptly named Psalm of the […]