Holy hell. 2008 saw tech death metal explode with the likes of Origin, Decrepit Birth, Brain Drill, Trigger the Bloodshed, Severed Savior, Psycroptic and such; a year hard to top right? Well, 2009 already has seen brilliant releases from Obscura and Ulcerate as well as solid releases from Inevitable End, Gory Blister, Trigger the Bloodshed […]

Three nasty, noisy albums into their career, Sweden’s Crowpath continue to make caustic, brittle attack that seems to be a perfect fit for Willowtip and gives the label’s relatively quiet 2008, a noisy, discordant ending. With a turbulent, chaotic sound akin to a being stuck in a sonic landslide, Crowpath’s largely unclassifiable mix of grind, […]

After hitting the melodic death metal jackpot with Arsis’s debut back in 2004, after a small wait, Willotip appear have tried their hand in uncovering another melodeath band in Houston’s As Eden Burns, though it has less spectacular, if solid results. While certainly a busy melodeath metal band similar to Arsis, there’s a lack of […]

Though some may consider The East coast and Florida the main stays of US death metal, but for the home of technical, brutal death metal, you need to consider that in California there are such amazing death metal acts as Deeds of Flesh, Vile, Brain Drill, Decrepit Birth, Odious Mortem and Severed Savior, who after […]

The third in Willowtip’s excellent recent grindcore revival trilogy (Phobia, Kill the Client), Maruta (a Japanese name for the collective victims in the infamous Unit 731 war crimes) ironically lies somewhere between the two as they mix furious, relentless modern grindcore with a more classic power chord driven sound. Seething blast beats feral screams, deep […]

Melding the grind worlds of Brutal Truth and Napalm Death, Orange County’s Phobia still sounds better than most modern grind bands—and ten times better than any crust of yore. The raw and muddy production values of early Terrorizer, Napalm Death, and Carcass doesn’t follow Phobia and their revolving roster, this time tapping Intronaut drummer Danny […]

After a relatively quiet 2008, Willowtip has literally unleashed the hounds with three top notch grindcore releases; Phobia’s 22 random Acts of Violence, Maruta’s In Narcosis, and this the devastating follow up to Kill the Clients impressive debut Escalation of Hostility. Though still steeped in the steroid fueled, punky Napalm Death -ish grind and blast […]

Willowtip Records, along with Metal Maniacs, and Berzerker Wear Clothing, are very happy to announce the War On Everything Tour, featuring IMPALED, PHOBIA, MALIGNANCY, ILLOGICIST, KILL THE CLIENT, & MARUTA! IMPALED / PHOBIA / MALIGNANCY / ILLOGICIST / MARUTA 8/22 Oakland, CA @ The Metro 8/23 San Marcos, CA @ The Jumping Turtle 8/24 Hollywood, […]

From the same coalition that brought us the excellent Sickening Horror release, comes another phenomenal technical death metal release from a part of the world you would not usually expect, this time in the form of the full length debut from New Zealand’s Ulcerate. Though not quite as experimental as the Sickening Horror release, Of […]

So the recent Willowtip/Neurotic releases such as Sickening Horror and Ulcerate have produced some absolutely mind numbingly superb technical death metal, but with Corpus Mortale, the results are far simpler, chunkier and slightly less impressive, but solid for what it is. I actually remember hearing this Danish band a few years ago on the Succumb […]

After the rather disappointing follow up to the excellent Mondo Medicale, Impaled, maybe driven by The County Medical Examiners stealing their Carcass worshipping thunder earlier this year with Olidous Operettas, have returned with a sickening yet masterfully melodic vengeance on their Willowtip debut. Despite a slightly underwhelming production, the 11 tracks that comprise Impaled’s newest […]

Holy. Fucking. Shit. Thank you Willowtip for licensing this gem this from Neurotic Readers, what was the last technical death metal album that truly changed how you viewed and listened to technical death metal? A mind altering, genre smearing album that altered the death metal landscape? For me personally, I have to go back as […]

Things have been relatively quiet in the Willowtip camp in 2007. Though we’ve had the likes of Odious Mortem and Electro Quarterstaff, the label hasn’t quite reached their usual level of brilliance so far this year, and while the recent Malignancy release and the upcoming licensed Neurotic releases look to up the ante, Italy’s Illogicist […]

Though the semi legendary underground New York act has been around since 1993, this is only the second full length album from this long running band that now has ties to Mortician, and it couldn’t be released on a more fitting label. Sloppy (in tone and vocals) yet complex, gurgling, pinch harmonic filled classic goregrind/death […]

After their debut album, Devouring the Prophecy on Unique Leader records, what could be a better fit than signing to Willowtip records, already the home to other such masters of technical brutality such as Gorod, Dim Mak, Illogicist Carpharnaum, and delivering Willowtip’s first, eagerly awaited release of 2007? Plying a similar form of complex yet, […]

Here is album number two from French tech deathsters Gorod (formerly known as Gorgasm) and in a year that has seen such tech death metal luminaries as Decapitated, Gory Blister, Spawn of Possession, Psycroptic and Anata deliver arguably their finest efforts, Gorod enter the fray with their own equally exceptional offering to the genre.Though they […]

Another scorching record from Willowtip, this time in the form of Dallas’s own Napalm Death worshiping grinders, Kill the Client who have delivered a blistering Stateside response to The Code is Red… While most copycat metal rests on the laurels of the subject material, Kill The Client’s homage to Napalm Death (as well as Nasum […]

The word melodic gets thrown around like food when Anna Nicole Smith eats a buffet; a word chucked into death metal to show something other than sheer brutality, but other than a few solos, what makes death metal truly melodic?.Arsis, that’s what. Let me tell you, the 13 minute center piece of this criminally teasing […]

Highly touted by Willowtip as the second coming of Cynic and Pestilence, Australia’s Alarum has some mighty big expectations to fill with their progressive, tech infused metal. But whereas prior tech death attempt by label mates Carpharnaum floundered in overdone tech frivolity, and Necrophagist took the more brutal route of technical death metal, Eventuality actually […]

It’s always hard reviewing a genre you don’t particularly get, but when graced with power metal, grim black metal or grindcore, I try my best to be objective and at least recognize ability and talent no matter the genre. However, in the case of grindcore, a few releases have found their way into my album […]

We all know Willowtip does death metal and grind as good as or better than any other US label, but how will they fare in the European dominated melodic/black genre? Fucking phenomenally. As with most Willowtip releases, Arsis’s offering is the extremity tipped, red headed, bastard child of a parent genre. Arisis is to melodic […]

Indianapolis-based Upheaval may frequent on the hardcore/metalcore side of the fence, but their circle of friends isn’t stopping them from creating some of the most harrowing, if not predictable, death metal this side of AngelCorpse. Indeed, Upheaval’s second platter, Testimony to the Atrocities, hails of the genre’s most illustrious outfits as inspiration. The most notable […]