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...
Soulfly – Omen (Roadrunner Records)
There was a time when no self-respecting metal fan would touch Soulfly with a 10-foot pole. Being how duped a lot of us were with 1998’s self-titled debut (the Fred Durst guest spot is...
Dillinger Escape Plan – Option Paralysis (Party Smasher Inc./Season of Mist)
Quite the odd scene seeing DEP without the Relapse tag next to it. It’s almost like when In Flames jumped from Nuclear Blast in 2006 for Come Clarity. For a lot of people these bands...