The last Rotting Christ album that was easy to spell was 2002’s Genesis, which speaks to the band’s gravitation to all things exotic…and then some. By doing this, they’re not making it easy on Read more […]
The European cross-country band Serenity releases their fourth studio album in War of Ages. Hailing from Austria, France, and Italy, this symphonic metal act in their nine-year history has attained glowing Read more […]
An unspoken rule in the land of promotional pictures is to never wear a band’s shirt that could tip off the listener as to how you sound. There has to be something left to the imagination, right? However, Read more […]
Within the Ruins had better be careful – some folks are going to take umbrage with “Elite” being the name of their new album. Is it to infer they are the “elite” of the computer death metal age? Read more […]
Progressive metal is a wide open playing field these days. Many artists focus on technical brilliance, at the expense of writing anything remotely relatable to the average music consumer. Others though, Read more […]
“Urgency” and “retro metal” are like two negatively charged ions. Like oil and water. Like the Cleveland Browns and consistency. You know…they don’t go together. When one slaps on a record Read more […]
The Y-chromosome is starting to infiltrate thrash. Most would rather the ladies populate their shows as opposed to playing in thrash bands, but hey, it’s good to break up the sausage party. Especially Read more […]
The second album from Italian progressive metal act Odd Dimension straddles the lines of appeal for schooled musicians as well as the normal seasoned progressive fan. The Last Embrace to Humanity contains Read more […]
A phrase rarely used today but tossed around a great deal by the elderly is referring to someone as a mean old cuss. It’s been a long time since last coming across a person that fit the bill, it’s Read more […]
They’ll probably be the first to tell you this, but The Black Dahlia Murder looked like a bunch of scene-hopping, “un-true” death metallers upon their arrival to the scene in 2003. Their promotional pictures Read more […]
Sonically low-key but thematically heavy purveyors Ancient VVisdom are a peculiar bunch. With a sound awash in vocal melodies, acoustic guitar, unorthodox percussion, and inoffensively distorted guitar, Read more […]
Surely the math has to be wrong in the presser for the re-release of In Solitude’s debut album. It claims that lead singer Pelle “Hornper” was 16 years old when the band recorded said debut, having Read more […]
The return of San Francisco thrash band Hatchet comes with a total lineup upheaval on their second full length Dawn of the End. In the midst of completing three DIY tours in support of 2008’s Awaiting Read more […]
I groan out loud as I write this because I just spent 61 minutes listening to a band that cannot decide on what genre they want to place themselves in. The mix of genres is staggering, once you factor Read more […]
Kurt Ballou…such a busy guy these days. The Converge axe-slinger not only has his full-time band to contend, but he’s also racking up quite the production resume, including (and not limited to) Kverletak, Read more […]
Every time ‘ole Fenriz does press for a new Darkthrone album, he speaks to how the band is in a perpetual state of going backward. By “backward,” Glyve means he, along with Nocturno Culto have no Read more […]
Perhaps we stand on the brink of a new fad in the black metal realm: complete anonymity. Likely as a tool for enhancing ‘mystique’ in the construction of the band’s music/image (admittedly, it works Read more […]
“The Third Wheel and the Farm Team.” It sounds like a buddy comedy with a baseball twist. Imagine all of the clubhouse shenanigans! Rather, this a close descriptor for Greek’s Nightfall, who have Read more […]
It’s such a refreshing experience to pick up an album and become genuinely captivated from start to finish. For anyone with any experience or history with heavy music, it becomes clear that the more Read more […]
One look at the menacing enormous gorilla looking down upon the remote Swedish countryside tells you most everything you need to know about this release and what you’re going to find within. Highly palatable Read more […]
It’s been almost five years since Cult of Luna graced us with the workable but uneven Eternal Kingdom, a record that, for one reason or another, failed to resonate with me at the time in the same way Read more […]
Musicians today diversify their output based on a wide array of personal tastes. Let’s face it: we only have a short time on this earth, so why not put the energy to productive use and squeeze out as Read more […]
“Cult” or “kvlt” (for you nitpickers) is all over Mystic Places of Dawn, the first release from Greek champs Septicflesh. Originally released in 1994 on Holy Records (also the former home to Orphaned Read more […]
A side-Behemoth proposition, Poland’s Hate may suffer from a partial identity crisis, yet there’s no mistaking for their randy death/black metal assault. Solarflesh is the band’s eighth offering, the follow-up Read more […]
I hate the idea of ripping into a guy, especially after he brings his family into the mix, but Steve “Zetro” Souza’s new band is a blessing and a curse. I won’t rehash all that jazz about Zetro’s Read more […]
Upon the release of Voivod’s Warriors of Ice live album a few years ago, Blistering spoke highly of freshly-inserted guitarist Dan “Chewy” Mongrain’s handle on Denis “Piggy” D’Amour’s lavish and 100% Read more […]
A bit of a notorious name (for a variety of reasons) in hardcore circles, Integrity have strapped up their boots and hiked on over to Norway’s Indie Recordings. Since Dwid Hellion and crew have never Read more […]
Illinois has certainly been a metal haven through the years. Developing a solid underground scene, bands such as Master, Trouble, and to a lesser extent Znowhite/Cyclone Temple and Cianide have found favor Read more […]
You have to admire Steve Gaines and company for their perseverance to stick to a genre like thrash metal. As a vocalist and guitarist, Gaines has served time in Tactics, Dreams of Damnation and Abattoir, Read more […]
Oftentimes, we make pleas against geographical onslaughts, only because the droves that come from the country in question are usually a bastardized version of its originators. Unfortunately, the metal Read more […]
