Nachtmystium – Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1 (Century Media Records)
Perhaps the most significant USBM act outside of Xasthur, Chicago’s Nachtmystium continue their ascension in the extreme metal ranks with Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1. For anyone that has followed the band’s trajectory, it is...
Judas Priest – Nostradamus (Epic)
Three years removed from Angel of Retribution, Priest have once again set themselves up for a precipitous fall in the form of a Turbo and Ram It Down with Nostradamus.
At this stage in their career, the band might have been...
Keep of Kalessin – Kolossus (Nuclear Blast Records)
Fresh off a stellar stint on Dimmu Borgir’s The Invaluable Darkness Pt II tour, Norwegian trad black metallars Keep of Kalessin appear to be poised the upper-echelon of modern black metal with Kolossus. The follow-up...
Headhunter – Parasite of Society (AFM/Candlelight Records)
Defunct since the early 90’s, Headhunter made nary a dent in the American metal scene by the time Destruction’s Schimer was ready to hang up his studded belt and take some time away from...
Power Quest – Master of Illusion (Napalm Records)
You know, there was a time when being anything but menacing in metal was a rather large no-no. No smiles, no good times, and definitely, definitely not any ‘fun’ tunes. That all changed when...
Withered – Folie Circulaire (Prosthetic Records)
The “wall of sound” is a term often bandied about when discussing the rash of post-metal/hardcore/whatever bands that are currently inundating the underground. While excellent bands like Isis, Rosetta, and Cult of Luna have painstaking recreated...
Daylight Dies – Lost To the Living (Candlelight Records)
The missing link between the vaunted classic-era Katatonia sound and modern, morose dark metal, North Carolina’s Daylight Dies are now the full-blown torchbearers of all things doom and gloom. There is plenty of moods...
Heidevolk – Walhalla Wacht (Napalm Records)
Keeping with the theme thus far for 2008 that folk/epic/whatever metal has set up camp in our collective pysche’s, here comes Heidevolk, a band that no doubt are the bottom-dwellers of this style. If...
Desaster – 666 Satan’s Soldiers Syndicate (Metal Blade Records)
Kinda like throwback thrash, primitive churn-and-burn BM can be pumped out fairly easily. Not to say bands like Impaled Nazarene or the band in question, Germany’s Desaster are without merit, it’s just that when...
Deicide – Till Death Do Us Part (Earache Records)
If this really is the last Deicide album (as Glen Benton has hinted in several interviews), then consider the band having come full circle. Naturally, there were some significant road bumps and career mishaps...