Finland’s Edge of Haze don’t seem like the unsigned variety. Just one listen to Illumine has a tendency to make one scratch their head and wonder how Edge of Haze is still independent after two full-lengths. Read more […]
Fresh on the heels of winning the 2013 Wacken Metal Battle, Canadian champions Crimson Shadows inked a deal with Napalm Records (joining label mates including Summoning, Vintersorg and Gloryhammer, among Read more […]
Taking a 7 year break between 1998 and 2005 wasn’t in the original game plan for Greek doom metal band Sorrows Path. It is one thing to tackle the mandatory military service issue, but quite another Read more […]
Canada isn’t just well known for the Northern Polar Vortex or their greatness in hockey, but also has a healthy talent pool in the metal kingdom to grab your attention. Edmonton’s Striker began their Read more […]
Patience has to be prevalent in this Finnish progressive metal act. Considering guitarists Markus Vanhala and Joonas Koto’s involvement in Omnium Gatherum (never mind Markus’ other work for Insomnium), Read more […]
When one reads “prog metal” and “UK,” the dots are instantly connected to djent and its various subsidiaries. And while the likes of Tessearact, Monuments, and friends continue to have their day Read more […]
Originally drawn to this one due to the tech-deathy and ocean-blue hue of the cover art. Turns out Ichor aren’t technical death metal so much as the modern variety with a pinch of deathcore tossed in. Read more […]
Winterfylleth. If you don’t know them by now, you absolutely should. And if you’re paying attention to the metalsphere you’d also know that they’ve emerged as one of the top pagan/atmospheric black metal Read more […]
Rare indeed is the band that has been in existence now for 15 years that consistently churns out their own self-financed, independent product regardless of what the record labels care about these days. Read more […]
Following the cult or “kvlt” trend, Slovenia’s Provocator profusely use every standard that’s needed to fit in with this ongoing wave of contemporary kvlt black metal. Blasphemous and profane imagery, Read more […]
Heavy metal isn’t exactly fertile grounds for greatest hits compilations short of the “big” names. There’s always a degree of trepidation that comes when these sort of albums are announced, as Read more […]
A healthy sign of any metal movement relates not only to the support of live shows on a national/international touring circuit basis, but also the number of local bands who can pull together their own Read more […]
Quite the nice find by Cyclone Empire, Ophis being something along the lines of a German death/doom revelation, done with the care of those treasured early 90s days. Abhorrence in Opulence is the band’s Read more […]
With Cancer’s discography getting the re-issue treatment, if one album should be the star, it should be Death Shall Rise. Arguably the band’s finest moment, it still retains the British band as sounding Read more […]
Perhaps the best place to begin is with the end credits, this newest opus from Opeth reflecting something the band hasn’t shown since Morningrise – all of the songs are co-written by another member Read more […]
Coming out from the shadows with their fourth album, Solace of Requiem are no stranger to the scene (it’s been 10 years since their debut was released), but they may be a stranger to you. For fans of Read more […]
Co-headlining the best festival in the progressive and power metal genres in the United States at ProgPower 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia, Redemption knew to step up their performance game to match the audience Read more […]
Hoist your shields high, warriors of faith, Hammerfall returns after a year-long sabbatical for their ninth studio album on the interestingly titled (r)Evolution. After all, the Swedes did kick start a Read more […]
Perhaps in a bit of irony, thinking of the title Sorxe just brings to mind images of a man’s deodorant (works day and night!). Of course, if you haven’t heard of Sorxe you may not understand the irony Read more […]
Here’s an absolute must-have album for crust metal fans of all kinds; black-crust, death-crust, doom-crust, sludge-crust, crust-punk, you name it, Bastard Feast probably got it because they put quite Read more […]
With equally dreamy art to adorn its cover, Set and Setting’s second offering of instrumental post-metal is the kind of music to let your mind wander off with. A Vivid Memory is a conceptual album, Read more […]
Some bands are just able to hit the sweet spot. With their sophomore effort, Instinct is Forever, Bastard Sapling have managed to effectively blend together several different varieties of black metal Read more […]
DR remembers covering the U.K.’s Xerath during our time on Blistering, and lowering the Meshuggah boom on them for being copyists, which on their sophomore outing II, they really were. Maybe the band Read more […]
If you are looking for an original take on the metal genre, one needs to look no further than California’s Botanist. Wielding a hammered dulcimer as the instrument of choice, Botanist tells the story Read more […]
One of the most long-standing and notable of the American black metal movement, Krieg is not one to follow the “one every two years” album release model. Thus when a new Krieg full-length is released, Read more […]
More beer action, this time by way of Canada’s Protokult. As noted in the accompanying press materials, even though the band is Canadian, they’re a multi-national bunch, with its members having Czech, Read more […]
A Swedish band performing in a self-appointed SID metal style? Intriguing to say the least. SID stands for Sound Interface Device – one of the first sound chips infamous in the Commodore 64 home computer Read more […]
Emotive Bavarian folksters Empyrium, a band releasing high quality material dating back to 1996, return with their first full-length in twelve years on The Turn of the Tides. Where they were once noted Read more […]
Ironically, the most notable item about Dictated is the thing you are least likely to notice if you are listening to the album. It is kind of a bummer that it really needs to be addressed here in 2014 Read more […]
With the overflow of incredible releases from Unique Leader this year (Fallujah, The Kennedy Veil, Inanimate Existence, etc etc), it was inevitable that a dud would be launched at some point. Enter Acrania, Read more […]
