Chronicling a two decade plus history with their first double live album/DVD (at press time the audio version only made available to this reviewer), Elvenking has developed a certain cult appeal for their Read more […]
The utter disappointment in Monolithe not naming their fifth album Monolithe V…what are these guys thinking by breaking such an album title string? (Not serious, obviously.) Continuity, not uniformity Read more […]
Not often to you get an intriguing band description that actually lives up to the hype. Claiming the title “Barbaric Brass Death Metal,” Markradonn features 9 members in the band. Those fearing of Read more […]
Some like their death metal straight-forward and by the books. If you happen to fall into that camp (which is perfectly fine, by the way), Cerebric Turmoil is not going to be your cup of tea. Lots of Read more […]
Ye old Swedish death metal. Buzzsaw guitars, memorable riffs, plenty of groove, plenty of bite. When done well, there’s plenty to be cheery about when listening to this particular branch of death metal. Read more […]
Road dogs during the past two years in support of their excellent third album Slave to the Sword (personally witnessing stunning shows with Dark Tranquillity, Omnium Gatherum, and Lich King a few times), Read more […]
Blow through Sick With Bloom a couple of times, and it becomes readily apparent Yellow Eyes are soon to be the next fawned-over American black metal. Contextually, they’re akin to Krallice, but not as Read more […]
Blurring the lines between melodic death metal and metalcore, Odium’s newest effort, Terraform manages to do both justice without sacrificing any heaviness or songwriting chops. These can indeed be Read more […]
We all know that there’s been plenty of melodic death metal that continues to roll out, regardless of the way that it was bogged down by the bastardization of it, with plenty of keyboards and melodic Read more […]
The name sure had us fooled – “Tankrust” is not the timely mash-up of Tankard and classic French rockers Trust, the band best known for providing the original version of “Anti-Social,” a song Read more […]
With the band’s geography being a bit of a talking point (it’s not every day that you find a heavy metal band from Pakistan), let’s toss that all aside and just take a look at what these guys have Read more […]
A London, Ontario outfit who has been buggering around the neo-prog scene for seven years now, Matter in the Medium serve as a reminder that if you’re not holding onto to the djent caboose for dear life, Read more […]
Melodic death/thrash, particularly from the North American standpoint, is one that is hard to break free of the mold. Most bands seem to follow the same basic pathway – equal parts Scandinavian worship Read more […]
Forming five years ago as the cover band Silent Screams, Puerto Rico thrash quartet Calamity changed names and decided to tread on original paths – unleashing a 6 song EP last summer prior to issuing Read more […]
Based in Chicago, but featuring a multinational mix of members, Against the Plagues have been working on their sophomore effort for several years now (since 2012 in fact). The combination of black and Read more […]
As winter finally begins to fall upon us, the need for some frost-bitten, cold black metal becomes more and more apparent. There’s just something more appropriate about looking out the window and watching Read more […]
Polish for “cult of graves,” Kult Mogil in a span of a year, have already produced a demo and the album in question, their full-length Anxiety Never Descending debut. Accompanied by the band’s comment Read more […]
Perhaps wisely keeping djent bands off the Nuclear Blast roster (unless you want to consider Meshuggah, who are the unintentional creators of the style), label founder/owner Markus Steiger has created Read more […]
Post-hardcore that flails around like this could be called “panicky,” or “urgent.” There’s a concerted sense of desperation to what French trio Birds in Row are doing, like, “There’s X amount Read more […]
It’s always exciting to find a band that describes themselves as something different and can actually follow through with that claim (unlike a slurry of press sheets we go through at DR where everyone Read more […]
Often the subject of many influence lines and “sounds like” areas for much of the current crop of death metal bands trying to imitate that putrid and rotten sound that made them famous, Autopsy really Read more […]
A big ‘ole slog would be Lament Cityscape’s The Torn debut. Comprised of the Oakland, CA duo that is Mike McClatchey and Sean McCullough, the pair’s hunkered, stuck-in-the-mud apocalyptic doom sludge Read more […]
Some albums make it seem like time travel is indeed possible. For all of those old school death metal albums flooding the market, some can take you back to the early ‘90s. In the case of Undawn, the Read more […]
In this day and age, it’s become harder and harder for a band to simply come out of nowhere and floor you with an incredible album. Yet that’s exactly what Russia’s Sunless Rise has done with their Read more […]
It’s not often that you find a band that really sets themselves apart from the rest so soon in their career. One listen to Ashen Horde and it’s clear that the one-man band has channeled influences Read more […]
Funeral doom is a genre that many avoid like the plague. Admittedly, it does take a certain mindset to look past the plodding pace and sometimes excruciating lengths that these bands utilize for each Read more […]
Not the first Draconian side-project to be released by Napalm (that would be Shadowgarden), Mammoth Storm feature Draconian guitarist Daniel Arvidsson in its ranks, showing that perhaps the Austrian label Read more […]
The long-term, seemingly endless pining for death metal days of yore is reflected equally in the bands who have kept it “true,” and the ones who are just learning how to do so. While there’s no official Read more […]
Reverence’s 2012 When Darkness Calls was one of those entirely rare finds in the veteran power/melodic metal field. Generally, such coming-togethers of gents who have spent time in high (or low) profile Read more […]
Fortunately choosing to not judge an act on name alone (the English major in me hit the stun pose at the nonsensical Decease… archaic versus the proper Deceased), this Greek quintet started in 2007, Read more […]
