Blistering’s most prominent memory of Carnifex dates back to a 2008 opening gig on Obituary’s North American tour at the Rex Theater in Pittsburgh. With a crowd of mostly over-40 death metallers (yours Read more […]
Plucked from obscurity by Metal Blade, Spain’s Noctem are essentially the Spanish equivalent to Behemoth, minus the unbridled intensity and showmanship. The band’s relentless death/black metal assault Read more […]
Alas, the Australian take on female-fronted symphonic metal has arrived. As our own Justin Donnelly would tell you, Australian metal is a mixed bag of tricks, with the country unable to lampoon one style Read more […]
To the casual listener, Judas Priest has roughly three songs: “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” “Living After Midnight,” and “Breaking the Law.” Then there’s the second-tier “hits,” then the rest is Read more […]
Funny how two men can create more of a racket than a band with the usual four or five in its lineup, but that’s how Black Cobra rolls. The duo ofsinger/guitarist Jason Landrian and drummer Rafael Martinez Read more […]
Sometimes it helps to read a band’s bio. They’re usually informative, mostly full of ill-worded bravado, but ultimately serve the purpose of pointing out things to slow and usually-confused journalists Read more […]
One of the busier people in Euro metal, Mat Sinner (real name: Mattias Lasch) is somehow able to squeeze out a Primal Fear record every two years, and a Sinner album when Primal Fear is on break. On top Read more […]
Blistering initially caught Boston’s Junius while on their support run for Enslaved and Alcest in late September. Per the usual, we were distracted, this time by mulling over what Alcest was going to Read more […]
If our memory serves us correctly, the Blistering staff has never been high on Evile, supported by our “meh” reviews of their Enter the Grave debut and 2009’s Infected Nations. Perhaps we have Read more […]
Modern melodic death metal can be a bit of an irritant. Anybody that knows my musical taste knows that melodic death metal is and always will be high up on this writer’s list of favorite genres. It’s Read more […]
The product of former Venom members Jeff “Mantas” Dunn and Anthony “Antton” Lant, Mpire of Evil is another attempt at trying to match what the current incarnation of Venom is doing. Funny, ‘cause Read more […]
There are many melodic death metal bands that were beyond brilliant, but never got the adulation they deserved. Groups such as Without Grief, Withering Surface, Julie Laughs Nomore and Ebony Tears come Read more […]
The sludge metal genre is certainly one that is gaining more attention these days, with bands like Baroness, Mastodon, Kylesa, and the like all bringing the sound to the masses in a very respectable way. Read more […]
Gotta love when a band takes a calculated gamble by putting a cover song from a movie (and a bad one at that) on their album. For Atlanta’s Halcyon Way, the inclusion of “Stand Up” (from the movie Rockstar) Read more […]
A Scandinavian band aping American metal is usually cause for concern. It never works; it’s usually the other way around, and not even that works as much as it used to. Some bands are better off paying Read more […]
About as overrated of a band as there is in the underground, Iced Earth (more specifically, Jon Schaffer) have produced possibly three new ideas in the past decade. They’ve basically run triplet riffs Read more […]
One of the real bastions of hope in the North American metal scene, Skeletonwitch stand on the cusp of breaking out of their support status and into true headliner ranking with Forever Abomination. To Read more […]
Forever known for mainman Hoest’s “unflattering” pictures (click here if you like to laugh…and be grossed-out), along with his always-genius move of donning of a Swastika, Norway’s Taake have Read more […]
A classic example of a band that should have blown up big but never did, Brand New Sin have spent the better part of their existence licking their wounds from lineup issues and record label squabbles. Read more […]
Hard to be shocked and/or turned off by the cover of Archgoat’sHeavenly Vulva (Christ’s Last Rties), as we’ve seen worse (and better). Still, it’s a nice way to have one harken back to the halcyon Read more […]
Five albums in, and you know what you’re getting from Insomnium. The Finns have tweaked their melodic death metal formula ever-so-slightly since 2002’s marvelous Into the Halls of Awaiting, popping out Read more […]
Pledging a path unfamiliar to most in the music world, San Francisco sextet Hammers Of Misfortune align themselves to their own creative desires. For critics to pigeonhole their specific style is ludicrous. Read more […]
American singer Amanda Somerville has been very active in the coaching, production and vocal realm for many of your favorite gothic and power metal artists through the years. Bands like Avantasia, Edguy, Read more […]
Glad someone remembers Gothenburg melodic death metal pre-1996. And it’s a band from the Dominican Republic no less, although this isn’t your thrash-in-the-gutter because-we’re-from-a-Third-World-country Read more […]
Hard to separate Gallows from 2009’s Sovereign Descent, as Landmine Marathon’s crusty, early-90’s grind doesn’t have a great deal of room in which to maneuver, but there’s some rather head-bashing Read more […]
Big-time backers of Anathema we are, regardless of how little they want to do with metal. Falling Deeper is further indicative of that notion, being that the album features re-interpretations of the Read more […]
Arguably the next best option in Swedish doom metal next to Candlemass, Isole continue down the same cloaked-in-darkness road with their fifth album, Born From Shadows. Much like 2009’s quite solid Silent Read more […]
An Alcest/Drudkh combination had this scribe foaming at the mouth, or at least performing several cartwheels in the comfort of his own home (not really, but you get the idea). Two of black metal’s most Read more […]
When musicians establish a foothold in certain metal niches, their subsequent efforts often receive additional scrutiny. Take drummer Richard Christy, who many know for his latter work in Death, and Read more […]
Always cool to see a band rebound from a subpar effort and churn out an album worth taking notice of. Such is the case for Chicago’s The Atlas Moth, who on their 2009 A Glorified Piece of Sky effort Read more […]
