Considered by many to be the band that holds up the progressive end of the metalgaze spectrum, Intronaut are still hovering around that area of proficiency manned by Isis, Cult of Luna, and Mouth of the Read more […]
It’s somewhat remarkable how Dani Filth has kept this training rolling amidst constant lineup changes and focus shifts. Seriously, the band has yet to have the same lineup from album to album, but here Read more […]
The brainchild of one Andrew Curtis-Brignell, Caina is an elusive, daringly complex combo of black metal, post-rock, and experimental that is another in a long line of bands that have come to define Read more […]
The career path of October Falls (the one-man project of Mikko Lehto) has taken the band from basic, somewhat unremarkable acoustic-driven folk metal to the more aggro, dense exploitation of epic melodic Read more […]
These post-Marco Aro, Dolving reunion albums from The Haunted are a tricky bunch. Not thrash, not metalcore, not Swedish death metal, these albums are either sink or swim it seems, and when the songs are Read more […]
[8.5/10] A perfect example that you don’t have to be signed to be good, long-running American female-fronted symphonic metallers Brave have taken the ‘ole independent plunge, producing an album Read more […]
Expectations…they’ll kill ya. After spending the last two years in support of their monstrous From Mars to Sirius effort, French modern metallers Gojria return with an album decidedly less forceful Read more […]
It’s hardly a secret who Serenity is trying emulate and that’s fine, to be honest. Knock-off bands can sometimes produce some pretty strong material and for the sake of comparison, Fallen Sanctuary is Read more […]
Bucking the trend of legendary prog/tech bands releasing one solitary album (see: Watchtower, Spiral Architect, et al), Florida’s Cynic return after 15 years with Traced In Air. The longevity and Read more […]
A fitting title given the state of the world, D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. is the fifth post-reunion Destruction effort and succeeds where 2005’s Inventor of Evil fails. Naturally, the band’s razor-sharp, Read more […]
Long-running Finnish death metallers Rotten Sound aren’t ones for brevity. Considering the 18-song tracklisting for Cycles, it’s like the band crammed two albums into one, or wrote nine songs and Read more […]
Quite the busy year for Arkadius and the boys, with their stint on this year’s Paganfest and now the domestic release for the CD/DVD compilation, 13 Years of Celtic Wartunes now hitting the shelves. Read more […]
Oh Anathema, where have thou been? Little has been heard from the Anathema camp since 2003’s striking A Natural Disaster, save for some odd EP’s and DVD’s, but the back-tail of 2008 figures to be Read more […]
Having finally touched down on North American shores last year with Katatonia, Swallow the Sun remain at the helm of Finnish gloom and doom metal. 2007’s Hope was a lateral move after ‘05’s killer Ghosts Read more […]
Couldn’t see this one coming. 2006’s Monday Morning Apocalypse was a commercial and critical bomb, as Evergrey tried to clutch the brass ring and distance themselves from their progressive dark Read more […]
Amidst the potpourri of disparate sounds, elements, and little ditties that make Invisible City a next-to-impossible album to classify, is an underlying Voivod influence, one that instantly made this Read more […]
We’re really starting to get hazy with all of this metalgaze stuff. For what Neurosis started and Cult of Luna and Isis picked up on is now being beaten to death by Rosetta, Ghost Brigade, and the band Read more […]
A red flag on this one went up almost immediately after learning members of Ion Dissonance were involved. Not to say ID is a bad band per se, but man, if Urban Cancer were to be loaded with “bree-bree” Read more […]
Album #3 with singer Ronny Munroe, This Present Wasteland harkens more to the workmanlike, uninteresting era of Metal Church than its exploratory, challenging efforts of yore. While 2006’s A Light Read more […]
The now very-ubiquitous Into Eternity continue to steadily climb the ladder, going against the grain with a brand of cerebral and uncanny metal that is this close to catching on. 2006’s The Scattering Read more […]
As a former card-carrying member of the Sepultura Fan Club, this scribe’s affinity for Soulfly lasted about a week in 1998, as Fred Durst’s impotent raps on “Bleed” wore thin about as quickly as Read more […]
Hearing a lot from the Hammerfall camp these days, which is both a good and bad thing. Good, in the sense Rebels With A Cause is a pretty fun watch; bad because the band must, must be taken in small Read more […]
Not on the scale of 2006’s massive Celebrators of Becoming 4-DVD, 2-CD set, Live Gothic is scaled down to two discs and a DVD of the live show. Shot during the band’s Gothic Kaballah tour in Read more […]
The legal troubles continue to pile up for Gorgoroth, which only serves to further distract its audience from releases like this. Most recently, it was decided in Swedish courts that all distribution and Read more […]
Like most bands of the classic stoner doom ilk, Chicago’s The Gates of Slumber suffer their fair share of indignities throughout this 60 minute-plus marathon. There are no surprises, the riffs have Read more […]
Hell sounds like a mess, naturally. It’s Venom we’re talking about and if the band were to ever take a second to compose themselves on a musical level, it wouldn’t be Venom, right? The follow-up Read more […]
Originally released in 2003 and now getting a fresh lease of life through Spinefarm UK’s series of reissues comes Children Of Bodom’s Hate Crew Deathroll The album which took them to number one in Read more […]
One of the true underrated gems of this decade has to be Kalmah’s 2002 effort, They Will Return, a delicious slab of hyper-Bodom melodic death metal, amplified with seismic hooks, scorching leads, and Read more […]
Christ, album #24 for Lemmy and co. Pretty impressive on all fronts, especially in terms of quality, as there really isn’t a dud Motorhead album that everyone dislikes ala Turbo or Load. Their first Read more […]
It’s only fitting that Hammerfall would add to the multi-band pile-on that is all covers albums. After all, the Swedes have zero gauge on their perception as phony trad metal torchbearers, but in the Read more […]
