Frankly, this was the only place DT had to go at the moment. They’ve once again exhausted their standard melodic death metal template with 2005’s Character and ‘07’s underwhelming Fiction, so Read more […]
Finally satiating the need for a visual release, Meshuggah enters the live DVD field with Alive, a two-disc set comprising of live and backstage footage, coupled with an audio disc of 12 songs. Visually, Alive is Read more […]
The second Toxic Holocaust album to be reissued, Hell On Earth hit right before the retro thrash movement kicked into high gear. As such, the band got tossed with every other thrash jockey wearing a Read more […]
Retro thrash…it’s just the worst. It really is. The pits even. There’s zero validity to any of this stuff and it’s a bit ironic that a style predicated to fight trends is now a huge trend, but Read more […]
The French black metal scene strikes paydirt once again, this time in the form of Aldaaron. Hovering around the multi-faceted, yet attack prone brand of BM that the likes of Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Read more […]
Straight from the classic school of death metal comes the two man project of Vasaeleth. Borrowing heavily from death metal circa early 90’s (lots of doomy Incantation happenings here), Vasaeleth (which Read more […]
Probably figuring their window of opportunity was small, Switzerland’s Eluveitie return with their third album in three years in the form of Everything Remains As It Never Was. As the pagan/folk metal Read more […]
Once part of the W.A.R Records cabal that featured Eucharist, In Flames, and Darkane, Armageddon is the oft-overlooked former side project of Arch Enemy guitarist Chris Amott. Tracking down these albums Read more […]
Hardcore is such a wide canyon of styles that it was easy to totally overlook Earth Crisis’ return album, To the Death. Rewind over a decade ago and arguably no band was more important to the style. Read more […]
Boy, the gap between Cannibal Corpse and Six Feet Under keeps on getting wider, doesn’t it? Surely no one would fathom CC ever doing something like this, even if they were following up a surprisingly Read more […]
This is Nostradameus with an “e”…not Judas Priest’s Nostradamus, mind you. Since there are roughly 1.2 million bands out there barring the great prophet’s name, a little letter wrangling couldn’t Read more […]
As it stands, cross-section death metal (i.e. take a ton of styles, throw it all together) is ruling the game, so when something like Sectioned’s Purulent Reality pops, it deserves a long look, if Read more […]
When Bork mainman Oystein G. Brun proclaimed Universal was a “return to form” (cue simultaneous sighs and eyebrow raising), we’re not sure what he meant. This isn’t akin to the glory days of Read more […]
Reissuing Retribution makes total sense after the immense breakout year that was 2009 for Germany’s Obscura. Their Cosmogenesis album was a runaway critical darling, landing the band on a spate of Read more […]
Seriously, who from the sludge/noise arena hasn’t poached a few ideas from Buzzov*en? The distortion, the crazed feedback, the elongated jams…all of this was done well before the new wave stoner/sludge Read more […]
Not as power metal as their name would suggest (there is a “Stygia” who is manned by a dude who used to play drums in this scribe’s first band – wow!), Stygian take us down the ‘ole COC route Read more […]
The average follower of pop culture knows Richard Christy from his comedy/ crazy man stunts on the Howard Stern Show. Those in the metal scene are aware of his long time exploits as a drummer for acts Read more […]
These Swedes represent a guilty pleasure of sorts for this reviewer. Clearly setting their style on the 80’s traditional and cliché’ ridden hard rock eras, do not expect anything revolutionary in Read more […]
It would be unfair to lump Mob Rules in with the rest of the current power metal hacks, but we did it anyway and for that, we’re sorry. Next round of beers (German ones, no less) are on this humbled Read more […]
Starting out as a Children of Bodom cover act, this New Jersey sextet approach their debut album unlike most newcomer bands. While the current business model favors a blitzkrieg of live shows to build Read more […]
Boy, Seamless sure faded fast, didn’t it? Ex-Killswitch Engage singerJesse Leach’s post-Alive Or Just Breathing output hasn’t caused very many ripples (see the Kyuss-influenced Seamless), but expect Read more […]
Math metal is forever going to keep chasing the tail of Dillinger Escape Plan. We know that already. Yet if the scene wants to have any success, there has to be some attempt at branching out, whether it’s Read more […]
You know the underground is getting old when we start hearing about 20-year anniversaries, which just happened for the always-mighty Rotting Christ. The Greeks have remained a fixture in the underground Read more […]
With members of Destroyer 666 and Abominator in the ranks (read: the few good extreme metal acts from Australia), Destruktor live up to their name on the brutal Nailed. The troupe gets their rocks off Read more […]
We’ll be the first to admit we got a little too carried away over Arsis’ 2008 effort, We Are the Nightmare. Perhaps hearing an American death metal band properly replicate the neo-prog death sounds Read more […]
Helmed by former Dimmu Borgir/current The Kovenant bassist/vocalist Nagash, Troll has been resurrected after an eight-year layoff with Neo-Satanic Supremacy. What was once was a one-man band (with Nagash Read more […]
For the last 10 years or so, Overkill has usually elicited the “meh” response to a new album. Frankly, the band has never come anywhere remotely close to touching 1991’s Horrorscope and seemed Read more […]
A collision between a handful of French black/death metal luminaries, Aosoth’s Ashes of Angels lives up to the collective promise of its ensemble. Boasting current (or ex?) Antaeus singer MkM in the Read more […]
When a power metal band starts to level off, it’s almost a career death knell. Once you’ve peaked and peaked early (read: Primal Fear, Evergrey, Sonata Arctica), getting that initial flair back is Read more […]
If anything, true black metal has gone away from its original function. One has to find it disconcerting that any Johnny Hardcore come-lately can lay some keyboard swaths over a beatdown and call it “black Read more […]
