Not exactly surprised that a band called Earthling has a natural, uh “earthy” feel. It’s part-and-parcel with coming from the South, Virginia, to be exact, although one could attest that relative locals Read more […]
I don’t even know where to begin with this, especially after giving the songs a bit of time to gestate in my head. What we have is an album that feels like a collection of b-sides from the mid-90’s. Read more […]
We like lists. Grocery ones, too. They’re often a way for us metal folk to get our thoughts in order, to make sense of the deluge of releases that come out every year, and find the proper pecking order. Read more […]
Rise Above head Lee Dorrian probably sees a lot of himself and his soon-to-be former band Cathedral in London’s Age of Taurus. On their Desperate Souls of Tortured Times debut, there’s loads of Cathedral-mongering Read more […]
Swiping the “ALT” with “Human” makes for a snazzy band name, doesn’t it? Surely all of us have used the vaunted keyboard function of “Control-ALT-Delete” at one time or another, so there’s some context Read more […]
On their debut The Hundredth Name, Demon Lung start off very slowly. They like to take their time, pulling you in and letting the music just simmer. On the opening track “Binding of the Witch,” it takes Read more […]
Sometimes a work of any kind simply overwhelms you. It washes over you, courses through you, leaves you completely and utterly exhausted with amazement and terrified wonder when it has come to completion. Read more […]
Instrumental metal has always been an underdog in the sub-genre of heavy metal overall. Often too heady of an experience for some, or too shred/chops-oriented as to only appeal to the ardent school musician Read more […]
A band forever lost in the Bodom/Kalmah/Norther shuffle, Finland’s Eternal Tears of Sorrow have been attached to their symphonic melodic death metal style a bit more than they should be. It’s why they’ve Read more […]
The French black metal scene is starting to build a really deep bench right before our eyes. The obvious top-rungers are Blut Aus Nord and Matthew Bowling-obsessed Deathspell Omega, both of whom have manage Read more […]
From the same duo that holds court in the vastly-underrated Majestic Downfall, Mexico’s Zombiefication play a far more linear style of death metal than their “other” band, who is an odd-duck pairing of Read more […]
As really the lone true Gothenburg band left standing, Dark Tranquillity usually find ways to prolong their career without becoming banal. They’ll hit a two-to-three album stretch, exhausting their fancied Read more […]
Album #3 The Devil’s Cut finds White Wizzard with another retooled line-up and trying desperately to keep the revolving door of singers at bay. It’s exasperating trying to figure out who is singing, Read more […]
No real buzz around Heaven Shall Burn these days. It’s definitely not at 2004 levels, when metalcore of any variety was still relatively fresh and not an annoyance. The Germans were deemed by many to Read more […]
Viscerally modern and at times, eye-poppingly extreme, Luxemburg’s Scarred have a nice little mish-mash going for themselves on their sophomore Gaia/Madea. First plays at making comparisons for these Read more […]
Dyed-in-the-wool, old-school death metal bands like Bone Sickness have always given Dead Rhetoric reason to ponder their thoughts on the current state of death metal. You know, bands with really clean Read more […]
We’re a bit curious to see if Bodom will stop short of saying they never should have left Nuclear Blast in the first place, this, after over a decade on Finnish mega-label Spinefarm. The years Laiho Read more […]
Sadgiqacea is from Philadelphia and their False Prism debut was produced by Woe mainman Chris Grigg. There are four songs totaling roughly 40 minutes. Their name is hard to pronounce and even spell, so Read more […]
A peculiar body on the Nuclear Blast roster, but perhaps unsurprising given the vibrancy of this retro-rock revival scene (as other recent albums covered here have shown). No doom leanings from these German Read more […]
I will admit that I haven’t heard of Divided Multitude before getting this review assignment, but upon listening to their latest release I’m glad I did. The band hails from Norway and deploys a heavy, Read more […]
Austin, Texas-based death metal purists Morgengrau have the right idea by not trying to push the fact that two women comprise half of their lineup. It’s usually a cheap marketing tactic by label and Read more […]
Old-time recollections of Suicidal Tendencies for this scribe include a 1993 radio spot for the band’s Still Cyco After All These Years, where shouts proclaimed “If you ain’t Suicidal, you ain’t Read more […]
One those niche bands that have never been fond of staying in place, Italian industrial metal titans Aborym are back with another strange head trip in the form of their sixth album, Dirty. It appears that Read more […]
This band of Aussie noise sculptors have been around since 2002, somehow flying under my radar with their previously recorded efforts, 2002’s Mictlan, 2004’s Occasus, 2008’s n0n and 2011’s v01d. Read more […]
Labels have come around to the fact that there is presently, an insatiable need for anything of the occult rock/metal variety. You can blame both Ghost and The Devil’s Blood for that, so it’s important Read more […]
The avant-garde is strong with this one. Change is a tricky thing to engage in for any band but based on experiences with Surachai’s past work, Embraced is a testament to how to do it well. Unfortunately Read more […]
Plenty of fascination, interest coming along with Dillinger as those kamikaze Relapse years become more in the rear-view. Frankly, there were plenty that didn’t think these guys would last, this scribe Read more […]
Let’s get one thing straight: Black Star Riders is not Thin Lizzy. That fabled 70’s outfit died in 1986 when Phil Lynott passed away from a drug-related illness. Essentially though, Black Star Riders Read more […]
Yet another Rogga Johansson band, someone whom we’ve already espoused his seemingly endless supply of time and creativity. Does the man even hold a job? Eh, let’s not waste much time pondering that, Read more […]
Danish metal outside of Mercyful Fate, offshoot King Diamond, and current Elvis-metal headliners Volbeat has maintained more of a cult-status appeal across the globe. Take the traditional act Witch Cross Read more […]
