Cathedral – The Guessing Game (Nuclear Blast Records)
So much for The Garden of Unearthly Delights being the last opus from the long-running quasi-British doomsters. It didn't feel like the right way to go out anyway...what Cathedral needs is that tried-and-true "last gasp/return to...
Ludicra – The Tenant (Profound Lore Records)
Like anything coming out of the Bay Area, proper description all but eludes Ludcira. How these guys (and gals) were ever branded as a straight black metal band defies convention and while yes, they...
Apostle of Solitude – Last Sunrise (Profound Lore Records)
Fronted by former Gates of Slumber drummer Chuck Brown, Apostle of Solitude do their part in keeping the vaunted doom torch aflame. To their credit, the Indianapolis-based quartet stays out of all-too-lazy Sabbath worship...
Black Breath – Heavy Breathing (Southern Lord Records)
Question: how do you make the D-beat exciting and interesting enough for a full-length? Answer: borrow from Sweden.
Fresh off a feisty EP in the form of Razor to Oblivion, Seattle’s Black Breath return with their...
Imperium Dekadenz – Procella Vadens (Underground Activists/Season of Mist)
Since there is such a preponderance of black metal, it’s becoming easier and easier to disseminate what is good and (as our British friends would say) “utter shite.” In fact, we can tell right...
Barren Earth – Curse of the Red River (Peaceville Records)
More supergroups. A supergroup here, a supergroup there, yadda-yadda. This is what happens when musicians get bored - they find similarly bored musicians and take the easy way out by paying homage to a classic band/sound/style....
Stigma – Concerto for the Undead (Pivotal Recordings)
Sounding like a cross between The Black Dahlia Murder and The Absence (two bands that are virtually identical on some level), Italy’s Stigma don’t play the originality card very well on Concerto for the Undead,...
Triptykon – Eparistera Daimones (Prowling Death/Century Media Records)
Essentially Celtic Frost with a new rhythm section (something we’ll hear Tom G. Warrior say repeatedly, no doubt), Triptykon continues in the dark, next-level-of-avant-garde-metal approach that CF took with 2006’s Monotheist. Subtract that album’s difficult,...
Order of Ennead – An Examination of Being (Earache Records)
Must be a weird scene for Deicide drummer Steve Asheim to work without Glen Benton, a man whose “antics” have probably done more harm than good for the Floridian death metallers. You never know...
Flourishing – A Momentary Sense of the Immediate World EP (The Path Less-Traveled Records)
Rare that Blistering gets to hear raw death metal in this form. Since 95% of death metal nowadays chooses to use ProTools as a buffer/mistake-ridder-of, hearing something recorded live and in the flesh is...