For some reason there’s been a number of bands re-recording and re-releasing old demos lately. Can’t they just do it right the first time and move on? Not to say this isn’t a good album. Dutch black Read more […]
At this point in time, Meshuggah’s a band that really needs no introduction. Innovators and purveyors of extreme metal’s more mathematical style, they have long been one of the gold standards for innovation, Read more […]
Obviously, The Last Act of Defiance is also an Exodus song title, and a popular one at that. But it’s not like the long-running, venerable kings of New York hardcore give a flying you-know-what about Read more […]
Another one of those long-standing bands that never seems to break through, Italy’s Gory Blister have been at the technical death metal game since 1991 (though they never released an album until 1999). Read more […]
Judging on name alone, Sweden’s Gormathon might strike one as a band crawling from the bowels of the death metal underworld, yet are a band that delivers a decidedly more melodic and approachable sound. Read more […]
Old and new, tales of drama and internal band rage, Satan, hatred, drugs, and themes of ritual murder and much much more await within the long-gestating and much-awaited Time To Die. To ask if it challenges Read more […]
Executing in a manner diametrically opposite from a different recent release (Abazagorath), Mortuus on Grape of the Vine nevertheless occupies a similar flair for the old world values of black metal. This Read more […]
A name change has already applied to Death Penalty here in the States, rendering them “Death Penalty ’82.” (How and why bands don’t do proper research before selecting a name is supremely confounding.) Read more […]
With all of the great music coming from all corners, Spain seems to be consistently nearly absent from the picture, perhaps owing to the language difference, but in As Light Dies, the Iberian peninsula Read more […]
1995 second wave by way of 2014 New Jersey, Abazagorath admittedly hooked me from the word go in ‘Mahound’. Though possessing an adequate production that towers above anything its sonic inspirations Read more […]
A sore thumb band on the normally to-the-leather-vest(ed) Hell’s Headbanger’s, Italian nitro punks Children of Technology play a somewhat flimsy brand of punkish metal, or metalish punk. Either way, the Read more […]
If you had no prior knowledge about Pyre and their geographic location, Russia would not be your first guess when you hit the play button on Human Hecatomb. Nope, chances are pretty high (damn near 100% Read more […]
Reunion mania has been an ever present bone of contention for metal fans. Why do some bands have to go away, only to return at the money prospects that lurk on the horizon? Let’s face it – sometimes Read more […]
Spain’s Helevorn have been doing their doom/death thing since 1999, but at their own pace. Not sticking with the usual two-year release cycle, when the band does bring forth new material, it needs to Read more […]
India’s Dhwesha are a shrewd trio of blackened doom death metallers with a lot of talent and an inordinate sound that juggles gruesome, heavy, filthy death metal and maintains a sense of musicality putting Read more […]
Kvlt as fuck, more or less. Hailing from dark corners of the Earth and possessing a surprising degree of finesse across these four otherwise ugly bits of work, this is cavernous death metal, no frills Read more […]
Retro rock is so prevalent at the present time that it starts to beg the question of where is the tipping point to where this stuff is more Allman Brothers than Led Zeppelin? It’s a valid inquiry given Read more […]
Note: This review is based solely on the 2CD edition, not the DVD. Some often wonder what the point of a live album is, but it does seem to act a good indicator of a band’s popularity. For Meshuggah, Read more […]
Sometimes awesome and sometimes frustrating, Lunarterial is a peculiar piece of work. Chaotic and at times dissonant death metal freely intermingling with often lengthy doom passages, it’s death doom Read more […]
Adding to the Italian stranglehold on brutal death metal, Septycal Gorge may not immediately feel as similar to their countrymen (ie: Hideous Divinity, Bloodtruth, Hour of Penance) as there is a definitive Read more […]
Journalists who’ve written in the scene for a while become immune to bio bravado. So when reading about these Italian thrashing death metallers on their debut full length album Mirroring the Abyss and Read more […]
Just take a moment and gaze upon what might just be the coolest cover art of the year. Seriously, that’s the type of thing that you frame on your wall! With such a cool cover art to present Horrendous’ Read more […]
Hailing from the same town as Def Leppard, Sheffield, UK’s Northern Oak went the crowd-funding route for their third album, Of Roots and Flesh. Such a show of support for an unsigned band, relegated Read more […]
Two bands, two songs, twelve minutes of epic, obscure, raw and all around terrific black metal. Sound good? I think so. Don’t underestimate the length because it’s like a black hole that’ll send Read more […]
The joys of growth made real and made present for all the world to see. Two years removed from the long-loved (by me, anyway) Intrinsic and sonically a lifetime away from debut Exoplanet, Language sees Read more […]
The Ukrainian metal pecking order is like this: Drudkh, then everyone else. It’s an odd circumstance given that Drudkh never grant interviews, nor appear in band photos, which is the type of stuff that Read more […]
Ævangelist’s sophomore effort, Omen Ex Simulacra, found it’s way into my personal top 10 albums of 2013. As inhospitable as they come, as far as metal albums go, it was the atmosphere of Omen that Read more […]
Progressive rock seems to be a like-it-or-don’t kind of genre, but anyone with ears can usually tell that a commonality with the stuff is great musicianship. Actually, the same can be said with heavy metal Read more […]
Based on the visuals produced via Chile on Hell, veteran American bands would be advised to shoot their live forays in a South American and/or European country. The convenience factor of shooting in the Read more […]
If you ever wanted to know what the sound/process of getting hit by a truck somewhere in rural Sweden sounds like, Storm is probably a pretty good embodiment. Surprisingly agile for a debut doom album Read more […]
