[9/10] As the seemingly constant late 1990’s ad-run of Monster Ballads proclaimed, “every bad boy has his soft side.” For an avid technical death metal fan, such is the most rational justification Read more […]
For the many permutations ‘post-metal’ tends to wind up with, progressive oddly isn’t that high on the list. Maybe it’s the post-metal staples of lumbering pace or the need to express darker moods. Read more […]
Immediately identified as a close cousin to Italy’s hit-or-miss The Foreshadowing, Spain’s Autumnal engage in the sort of dramatized, lots-of-tears-falling melodic Goth that just like we said, can Read more […]
Lacking much in the way of controversy (the infamous “recording speed” debacle) that previous album Dingir had, perhaps everyone has found a new band to poke fun at. Needless to say, without those Read more […]
Norway’s black metal scene never fails to impress. Khold uphold and uplift the notorious Norwegian black metal reputation. Keeping it real and raw, they strictly use vocals, two guitars, bass guitar Read more […]
In the past week I’ve covered blasttacular black metal and slow and methodical black metal and now at last I find myself in the ‘just right bowel of porridge’ black metal. Sometimes dissonant (like Read more […]
Mascots and cover art in heavy metal can go hand in hand, especially in the melodic metal/traditional metal realm. Yes, Iron Maiden’s Eddie probably started things eons ago, but through the years everything Read more […]
You may need a scorecard to keep up with the changes in a lot of your favorite veteran metal bands. Take Bay Area thrash warriors Exodus for instance. In the past two years alone, guitarist Gary Holt has Read more […]
Freely admitting to being drawn in by the cover art, Torch Runner is a band that has not come across my speakers before this release. Endless Nothing is their second full-length effort (and first for Read more […]
The future, and its infinite prospects (or lack thereof) has been regular fodder in metal for quite some time. Generally, futuristic metal is linked solely with cyber-industrial metal, aka Fear Factory, Read more […]
Even though metal isn’t the most exorbitantly priced of all musical genres, quite the opposite in fact, it’s still great when a listener can discover two young bands for the price of one. And in a Read more […]
With Scar Symmetry’s last album, The Unseen Empire, the band took on a concept album for the first time. So what’s the best way to follow it up? Well, a three-part concept album of course! The Singularity: Read more […]
A real shame Rigor Mortis guitarist Mike Scaccia will never get to see fruits of his labor, having passed away in December of 2012 due to a massive heart attack. Scaccia, more recently known for his work Read more […]
Given a heads up from local Ralph’s Diner/Metal Thursday promoter Chris Farmerie (as he played bass on 9 of the tracks), Boston, MA has a new progressive death/black metal artist to enjoy with Rhadamanthys. Read more […]
High-level esoteric terms: check. Blackened/deathened hybridized style (for once) leaning on the black metal side of the equation: check. Abyssal incantations that scream for the unknown and embody the Read more […]
For some reason there’s been a number of bands re-recording and re-releasing old demos lately. Can’t they just do it right the first time and move on? Not to say this isn’t a good album. Dutch black Read more […]
At this point in time, Meshuggah’s a band that really needs no introduction. Innovators and purveyors of extreme metal’s more mathematical style, they have long been one of the gold standards for innovation, Read more […]
Obviously, The Last Act of Defiance is also an Exodus song title, and a popular one at that. But it’s not like the long-running, venerable kings of New York hardcore give a flying you-know-what about Read more […]
Another one of those long-standing bands that never seems to break through, Italy’s Gory Blister have been at the technical death metal game since 1991 (though they never released an album until 1999). Read more […]
Judging on name alone, Sweden’s Gormathon might strike one as a band crawling from the bowels of the death metal underworld, yet are a band that delivers a decidedly more melodic and approachable sound. Read more […]
Old and new, tales of drama and internal band rage, Satan, hatred, drugs, and themes of ritual murder and much much more await within the long-gestating and much-awaited Time To Die. To ask if it challenges Read more […]
Executing in a manner diametrically opposite from a different recent release (Abazagorath), Mortuus on Grape of the Vine nevertheless occupies a similar flair for the old world values of black metal. This Read more […]
A name change has already applied to Death Penalty here in the States, rendering them “Death Penalty ’82.” (How and why bands don’t do proper research before selecting a name is supremely confounding.) Read more […]
With all of the great music coming from all corners, Spain seems to be consistently nearly absent from the picture, perhaps owing to the language difference, but in As Light Dies, the Iberian peninsula Read more […]
1995 second wave by way of 2014 New Jersey, Abazagorath admittedly hooked me from the word go in ‘Mahound’. Though possessing an adequate production that towers above anything its sonic inspirations Read more […]
A sore thumb band on the normally to-the-leather-vest(ed) Hell’s Headbanger’s, Italian nitro punks Children of Technology play a somewhat flimsy brand of punkish metal, or metalish punk. Either way, the Read more […]
If you had no prior knowledge about Pyre and their geographic location, Russia would not be your first guess when you hit the play button on Human Hecatomb. Nope, chances are pretty high (damn near 100% Read more […]
Reunion mania has been an ever present bone of contention for metal fans. Why do some bands have to go away, only to return at the money prospects that lurk on the horizon? Let’s face it – sometimes Read more […]
Spain’s Helevorn have been doing their doom/death thing since 1999, but at their own pace. Not sticking with the usual two-year release cycle, when the band does bring forth new material, it needs to Read more […]
India’s Dhwesha are a shrewd trio of blackened doom death metallers with a lot of talent and an inordinate sound that juggles gruesome, heavy, filthy death metal and maintains a sense of musicality putting Read more […]
