Amazing how some of these NWOBHM bands keep going. For a lot of these groups, their debut album is over 35 years old, which is utterly remarkable. Talk about sustainability! However, NWOBHM had a definite Read more […]
Considered by many to be one of the strongest of the deathcore crowd, Fit for an Autopsy suffered a big blow when vocalist Nate Johnson decided to bail on them last year. Well-known in the metal circles, Read more […]
Just letting ‘er rock…that’s what Christian Mistress does. Like, try to find a more meat-and-potatoes, no-frills, straight-up metal band going than these four gents and fiery lady. Not going to happen. Read more […]
Probable that this UK band’s swing to Nuclear Blast from their Rise Above beginnings has a lot to do with Carass guitarist Bill Steer’s involvement as the second guitarist – but based on this third Read more […]
Finnish death metal band Corpse Molester Cult are an intriguing band. They feature in their ranks, none other than Tomi Joutsen (he of the insanely consistent Amorphis), but don’t look for a vocal performance Read more […]
When Celtic Frost were at their peak (see: 1985 – 1987), its members did everything they could to bury pre-CF act Hellhammer. In truth, Tom G. Warrior and Martin Eric Ain were embarrassed by it. The Read more […]
Resiliency remains a constant for lifelong followers and makers of heavy metal. A whole host of circumstances and events can change the course of direction and outcomes – to the good and bad of a band’s Read more […]
Originally made familiar to this scribe (and many others) via their unheralded oTo EP from 2012, Nechochwen is an anomaly in the context of extreme metal. Their subject matter delves almost solely into Read more […]
When life serves you lemons, sometimes the best choice is to use some NY death metal to bludgeon them into lemonade. Such is the case of Hypoxia, who recently released Despondent Death, their first full-length. Read more […]
Now twelve albums into their career, Floridian death metallers Malevolent Creation still haven’t hit that “big time” death metal that their peers have kept and maintained. Some of it may have stemmed Read more […]
UK death metal just doesn’t seem to have that same “ring” to it when you talk about other scenes like Stockholm, US, or even Dutch. When you picture those places, you have a tendency to identify Read more […]
Given my proclivity to traditional metal roots, Sweden’s Ambush are a band after my own heart. A quintet of twenty-somethings who strap on the leather, brandishing flying V’s, and write songs about Read more […]
Combining the skullet intensity of Strapping Young Lad with the majesty and darkness of black metal, Annecy, France’s Deathcode Society would almost appear to be a step ahead of the game in terms of Read more […]
It’s difficult to decide whether to take Dreamcrash as a debut album from a new band, which is what we are supposed to accept – rather than a sequel to Beastmilk’s debut album from 2013. Certainly what Read more […]
At this point, a fresh, relatively new melodic metal band has to be really good to make an impact. Or, they need some kind of shtick ala Powerwolf (vampires) or Sabaton (Swedish army dudes). If not, then, Read more […]
Sometimes it’s just strange how long a band can keep firing out albums and nothing really sticks over here in the States. Debauchery are the latest case in point, with Fuck Humanity being their ninth Read more […]
Not enough attention is passed Mick Moss’s way. The gentile, thoughtful, unflinchingly dark Brit has taken Antimatter from Anathema spin-off band (see: the Duncan Patterson years), to one of the most Read more […]
Given a proper introduction to Windfaerer over the summer in the live venue, Tenebrosum became a much anticipated release for the fall season. The energy the band portrayed in the live setting was nothing Read more […]
Based on the cover of Locrian’s rather good 2013 album Return to Annihilation, you get the feeling that this Chicago trio are of the dystopian kind. You can feel such a thread running through their experimental, Read more […]
Mega-prolific Swedish metal musician Ced (real name Cederick Forsberg) has numerous projects and bands running concurrently. Rocka Rollas up to their fourth full-length in the past five years, while also Read more […]
There’s always space for a melodic death metal band that doesn’t resort to cheap melodies in each track. The combination of high-octane riffing and bellowing screams does still have plenty of charm Read more […]
The ninth studio album from Finnish melodic death/power leaders Children of Bodom I Worship Chaos continues the special vicious combination of heaviness and neo-classical fury that put the band on the Read more […]
As much as this scribe enjoys some quality technical death metal, there’s getting to be a lot of it. Everywhere you look, a new band pops up and tries to dizzy the listener with a technical affront Read more […]
Vampire’s self-titled Century Media debut was a fresh breath of retro air last year. Veering much more in the black and thrash directions than the oh so typical Stockholm route, Vampire was a breakneck Read more […]
Remember Thorns? The much-lauded project of long-time Norwegian black metal figure Snorre Ruch? This particular batch of Germans do, having named their band after a song off of Thorns’ utterly magnificent Read more […]
Good old blistering, no-frills blackened death metal. The old fashioned way. More and more bands are deciding that it isn’t necessarily for them (and moving into the modern fields). No worries on Read more […]
Responsible from bringing heavy metal to arena sell out heights worldwide in the 1980’s, Iron Maiden have weathered changing musical trends and singer defections, expanding to a three guitar lineup since Read more […]
Emotive gothic metallers Entwine seemed to be on the same level as the rest of the early 2000’s (mostly Finnish) crew of fellow crooners To/Die/For, Charon, and Sentenced (who stuck to a more admittedly Read more […]
Lots ‘o suggestion and persuasion with the double “A” here, “Throaat” giving ample leeway to how they sound, what they’re about, so and so forth, without even having as much to dive too deep Read more […]
Unfortunately, Kill Ritual’s 2014 album The Eyes of Medusa did not tickle DR’s fancy. A lot of it had to do with the vocals of one Josh “Crimson” Gibson, who was severely miscast as an 80s hair Read more […]
