Here’s an interesting side occupation: Manowar tribute band. In order to meet the would-be criteria, wouldn’t the band in question have a similar muscular appearance and proclivity to loin clothes? Read more […]
When half of your lineup consists of former or current members of Helloween, Blind Guardian, Tad Morose, and Masterplan, you certainly start leagues ahead of any newcomer in the melodic/power metal field. Read more […]
With Enslaved having long abandoned the Viking metal sound they are largely responsible, most eyes (and ears) turn to their countrymen, Einherjer. The band, a functioning entity since 1993 sans a few year Read more […]
Noticeable resemblance to Annihilator’s Alice in Hell cover out of the way, Spain’s Dantalion don’t have much to do with Jeff Waters and gang, being that they’re a melancholic death/doom band and Read more […]
Swedish death metal by way of Germany; sound familiar? It probably won’t be the only familiarity that one faces when hearing Envoys of Extinction for the first time. The intriguing fact here is that Read more […]
It’s always nice to get a pleasant surprise. Judging the artwork on Presentiment and then following it up with only listening to “Black Spiral,” this one was initially tagged as a Fleshgod Apocalypse-wannabe. Read more […]
Intertwining Spanish and Latin aspects for a band name that roughly translates to ‘Renegade Angel’, it’s a good thing that many metal fans subscribe to a ‘music first, everything else second’ Read more […]
One of the biggest problems with post-metal when reviewing is how broad a term it is. You can push things towards the quieter end with the shoegaze-y stuff or you can thoroughly bury things in sludge Read more […]
A ravenous eagle signals heavy metal is on the prowl – welcome to my first exposure to the Italian band Renegade on their fourth studio album Thunder Knows No Mercy. Keeping the old spirit of New Wave Read more […]
A relative unknown on these shores due to their uber-cult status, the Netherlands’ Pentacle can be considered one of its country’s first extreme metal bands. Some of the band’s members have enjoyed Read more […]
Some albums need to be taken at face value for their frenetic rush of adrenaline. There’s no need to hear subtlety or variation. Occasionally you need an album that is just going to relentlessly pound Read more […]
As previously noted in the Veilburner review earlier this month, Dimesland are among the emergent in a new crop of “weird” death metal. Though with Psychogenic Atrophy, don’t fret if you aren’t Read more […]
When you hear the term, “one man band,” there is a tendency at this point to associate it with black metal. Not that it doesn’t happen elsewhere within metal, but the number of one man black metal Read more […]
Any sentence with the words “Finnish” and “mournful” should get the ‘ole ears-a-perking up. The starting point for this, as you should know, is Sentenced, a band who took its brash, somewhat reckless death Read more […]
Finnish thrash now belongs to Lost Society, who in spite of their relatively young age, have managed to earn a following. Whether it’s because of the label they’re on (Nuclear Blast) or their sloppy/dirty Read more […]
Really hard to keep track of this one, “Infestum,” from “Infestus” for some reason. Granted, infest is quite the metal term, so it’s hard to keep bands away from it (a quick search will find Read more […]
Named for its pine cone shape, the pineal gland serves to secrete melatonin, a hormone that regulates your sleep cycle. Before we discovered its true meaning, it was thought to be the “third eye,” Read more […]
Ever feel that some melodic death metal bands like Arch Enemy are a bit too polished? If so, it seems that a search of India’s Zero Gravity is in order. To combine with the initial Arch Enemy reference, Read more […]
An unheralded thrash band from the 80s reforming to give it another run…not exactly a new refrain. Being that these bands aren’t walking into a pot of gold by reuniting, there’s a certain degree of fortitude Read more […]
To be fair (or unfair, who’s to say), it’s due to a lingering obsession with the video game Contra that this one ended up in the review bin. Something about that game always brought me back for more, Read more […]
Santiago, Chile’s Animus Mortis are on to something with Testimonia, their second album and first in six years. By that measure, they’re a rare black metal commodity who is purposely sideways and avant-garde, Read more […]
Can we start officially using a “weird” death metal tag? 2014 has seen more than its fair share of the strange and demented efforts from bands like Baring Teeth, Pyrrhon, and Dimesland. You can now Read more […]
When it comes to death/doom, there’s often a tendency for bands to linger on the doomy side of things. There are some exceptions of course (Novembers Doom can write a real jackhammer of a song from Read more […]
If the cover art weren’t so prototypical Ed Repka-oriented, the church burning, snake holding preacher man on the cross would make me believe we would be in for a black metal record – but alas, No Read more […]
Quite the conundrum in terms of title here. Darkspace’s last album (six years ago at this point) was called Darkspace III. The remainder of the band’s discography is similarly labeled and the tracks Read more […]
Scranton, Pennsylvania’s Threatpoint have made quite a robust impression on the scene since their spring 2012 inception – Careful What You Wish For being their second full-length album in two years, Read more […]
First being exposed to Thaw with their excellent split with Outre last year, it was a no brainer to ensnare their most recent full-length (following last year’s self-titled affair) for review. Even Read more […]
The potential has always been there for Sweden’s Isole. The band’s 2008 opus Bliss of Solitude remains a vastly underrated go at melodic, morose, and spacious doom; doom that had more to do with mood Read more […]
Better be careful with that title, Lonely Kamel fellas – you have to know some smarmy “journalist” is going to mutate it improperly to accompany a bad review. DR has progressed beyond such things Read more […]
In the busy fall season, sometimes “smaller” albums just get lost in the mix. Such is the case for Finland’s Scapes and their debut effort, One:Unseen:One. Digging into this one while trying to Read more […]
