“Dogged” would be an apt term for Pro-Pain bassist/founding member Gary Meskill. The New Yorker has seen numerous lineup changes, trends, and everything else come and go since the band formed 20 years Read more […]
Already tired of this annoying “beard metal” thing. It’s hard to get behind band’s who immerse themselves in crust and noise, thinking there’s going to be some semblance of originality or better Read more […]
If there’s a bigger travesty for the calendar year than the lack of a domestic release for Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa, then please tell us. Blistering had to use alternative means to track Read more […]
Get in and get out. Not a very difficult concept and Desalmado have it down pat on their Hereditas EP. The precursor to the band’s full-length (which is being produced by current Sepultura drummer Read more […]
Always behind these guys, not just because they’re from Cleveland, but because they’ve always been the heaviest of the modern American metalbands. Granted, being the heaviest doesn’t always translate Read more […]
Australian black metal virtually has no identity. Well, of course it doesn’t since there’s like, no black metal bands of note from the Land Down Under. Not counting Destroyer 666 or the sorely-missed Read more […]
Perhaps the only band in the melodic death metal scene that could give Omnium Gatherum a real nudge, Nightrage continue their dominance over the style with their fifth album, Insidious. While it can be Read more […]
Not too often we stumble across a sludge band that is actually concerned with putting together good songs, but such is the case for Oakland’s Brainoil. On their second full-length Death of This Dry Read more […]
Now well past their full-on power metal phase, Edguy seem to have settled in nicely into their role as resident, rocking funnymen. The constant double-bass churn and overblown choruses of their yesteryear Read more […]
Always found these guys (and chick) to be one of the more intriguing propositions in the crowded-as-fuck symphonic metal realm, only because they’d be a straight-Viking metal band if it weren’t for Read more […]
As we’ve come to learn, black metal is a rather malleable subject, able to bend and contort in various directions, most of which Norway’s The Konsortium are willing to attempt. Rudimentary black metal Read more […]
A tough sell to the extreme metal crowd, instrumental albums likeChaos and the Primordial either land instantly or suffer from the cries of too much wanking, too much shredding, too much this, too much Read more […]
Resident “face” of hardcore, Jamey Jasta’s first solo album can’t been seen as an album where Hatebreed throwaway ideas go to die. In fact, the cleverly-titled Jasta has more melodic vocal hooks Read more […]
Quite the difference six years makes, eh? At roughly this time in 2005, Bury Your Dead were arguably atop the American hardcore heap, backed by then-mega label Victory Records and making the rounds on Read more […]
Not a bad year for classic death metal, eh? In a year in which Autopsy and Exhumed have stormed back, it’s only fitting that one of the scene’s originators (Craig Pillard, he of Incantation fame) puts Read more […]
Excessive Cruelty. Such a familiar sounding title, it’s like Nocturnal Fear nicked it from the notepads of Mille Petrozza or Tom Angelripper. And it makes sense, for NF’s brand of proto-thrash is of Read more […]
Cruel, this classic heavy metal game that White Wizzard is playing. Beset with a a barrage of lineup changes (the most notable being that most of WW’s early lineup jumped ship to form Holy Grail), bassist/founding Read more […]
He of the husky, bear-skinned throat, towering persona and fleet-of-fingered bass skills, ICS Vortex (real name: Simon Hestenes) is best known for his decade-long stint with Dimmu Borgir, which ended abruptly Read more […]
Somewhat of a post-metal/hardcore supergroup, with members of Converge, Bloodhorse, and Hope Conspiracy in the mix, All Pigs Must Die is a d-beat du jour that doesn’t let up. On their debut God Is War, Read more […]
Poised to be the next breakout band in thrash, Boston’s Revocation could become this era’s Coroner if they played their cards right, something that’s quite evident on their third album, the domineering Chaos Read more […]
Seriously, who isn’t putting out records from Chicago these days? It’s like everywhere you turn, a new band from Chicago has a new album coming out. And being that the metal scene loves a good geographical Read more […]
If we didn’t know better, then we would think Powerwolf were some recently re-activated NWOBHM band, back for another shot of glory. Seriously, doesn’t “Powerwolf” slide in nicely next to Angel Read more […]
The type of album that spits and gnashes at you, Flourishing’s The Sum Of All Fossils isn’t your mother’s grindcore album, nor is it emblematic of anything else involving the “core.” Rather, it’s just Read more […]
Hard to reconcile with an album in which the vocals are this porous, but such is the case for Germany’s Isolation and their debut full-length, Closing A Circle. On the surface, the band’s wintry mix of Read more […]
Always thought “Fleshgod Apocalypse” was a gnarly name, one that evoked visions of all things savage and cinematic. Plus, it’s not very often someone uses “apocalypse” in their moniker and comes Read more […]
Someone’s gotta keep this retro thrash ship afloat, right? It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the scene would eventually burn itself out after every loafer with a classic Slayer shirt Read more […]
We’ve long preached as to how there’s virtually nothing you can’t do in metal, and while there have been plenty of misses along the way (i.e. anything involving rap, for starters), there’s always Read more […]
Veronica Freeman is woman and hear her roar. And this just isn’t any banshee wail – Freeman has a serious pair of balls (of the hypothetical nature, of course) on her, and it’s enough to make most Read more […]
Ghost Brigade is a band that needs to be heard. To those who haven’t caught wind of the Finnish melancholic metal masters, do so without hesitation. Their previous album, Isolation Songs was a monster Read more […]
Falconer has always been an interesting listen. They’ve never been quite like other power metal bands, and for the most part, have been a quality and different offering. Their folk-inspired tunes have Read more […]
