It’s stuff like this right here that I appreciate about reviewing. Even though 90% + of the stuff I get to review is either average or totally lame, there is occasionally something that shows up that catches me completely off guard - for example, this EP/demo from Belgium’s Forced Evolution.
As the name might imply, Forced [...]

I’ll be the first to admit that the Gothenburg sound is probably the most overdone and over saturated style in metal, but I’ll also quickly admit that I’m a huge fan, especially when done right. Meet Finland’s Omnium Gatherum if you haven’t done so already. The Redshift marks the bands fourth long player, and fourth [...]

And so the thrash resurgence/revival marches on. This time I have before me the debut full-length from Head On Collision (HOC). I first discovered the band while tooling around Myspace (hey, it really can be awesome sometimes right?) 2-3 years ago, looking for some fresh thrash. Not only did the band impress me, but they [...]

Here’s one I’ve been anticipating for awhile. Pitch Black Forecast is the new project from Jason Popson, formerly half of Mushroomhead’s vocal attack. While I was curious as to what kind of direction Popson would go in leaving his former mega-band, I was more interested in the fact that the godly Gene Hoglan was to [...]

Oh for the love of Dio…
Who the hell thought this was a good idea? A decade ago, this would have made a big splash, but as far as I can tell, it’s 2008 and nu-metal is long dead, thankfully. The last thing we need in the metal world is another band of this ilk peddling [...]

By now, The Haunted should need no introduction. Featuring 2/5’s (at one time 3/5’s) of Swedish legends At the Gates, they’ve had their fair share of the metal spotlight over the past decade. Their vocalist is subject of much heated debate on blabbermouth over his personal blogs, and over the past couple years, their fan [...]

What’s up with Canada? It seems that nearly every act coming from up north is just loaded to the brim with talent. Prime example: Divinity with their debut full length Allegory. This young band shows more technical superiority and diversity than the bulk of bands that could be considered veterans out there playing this style, [...]

*thwack* *thud* *sswack* *thwack* Excuse me, I was just beating a dead horse. I figured if I caught it on tape, maybe it could land me a record deal. It’s really no different than Arizona’s A Breath Before Surfacing (ABBS) - mish-mashing At the Gates riffs with excessive blasting, breakdowns, death grunts and growls with [...]

Through Your Silence is a metalcore/deathcore band from Italy. While not terrible at what they do, Whispers to the Void does little to change my mind about deathcore or offer up anything new.
All the expected elements are here - chugging breakdowns, the occasional blast beat, Gothenburg melody, vocals that work as a balancing act between [...]

I praise lots of bands and albums, many of which probably more so than they truly deserve - what can I say? I tend to be an overly enthusiastic metal head. Though if there is one band that deserves every ounce of praise I heap upon them album after album, its Regina, Canada’s Into Eternity.
Between [...]

What are all these lists without a thrash version? Since I seem to be the resident thrasher here, I put it upon myself to compile a list of personal favorite thrashtastic albums for you all to debate over. As others have stated, this isn’t meant to be some sort of definitive list of greatest thrash [...]

I don’t have anything against female vocalist in metal, it’s just that I prefer the more aggressive and suiting sounds of male vocalists. Sure, I like Arch Enemy and Light This City, but Angela Gossow and Laura Nichol are growlers, and suit their respective bands sound, not to mention my personal preference. I’ve just never [...]

Sporting ex-Darkane vocalist Lawrence Mackrory (from the excellent Rusted Angel album) on bass and backing vocals, I had high expectations from Enemy Is Us and their second full length Venomized, despite the not so great band name. What I got was a heaping dose of unmemorable mediocrity.
Venomized is a lesson in Swedish repetitiveness. Don’t get [...]

Wow - here we have an unsigned act from Hamburg, Germany called Storm of Sorrows that labels need to snap to attention and watch, because these guys are loaded to the brim with talent. Their second LP, Slave to the Slaves really caught me off guard with the massive amount of skill contained within.
Melodic death [...]

Viva la thrash revival! Here’s the Bay Area’s own Hatchet with their debut full length, Awaiting Evil, a real barn stormer filled front to back with face melting riffs, leads, solos and quite possibly my favorite vocalist I’ve heard yet from the movement in Marcus Kirchen. His delivery isn’t entirely unique or distinctive, but he’s [...]

I wasn’t expecting much from Man Made Paradise coming in, as a name like Ticket to Hell is as cliché and generic as metal band names come. I thought for sure I was in for something cheesy and/or boring, but the second I pushed play, my jaw dropped and I was locked in. Man Made [...]

First, let me get my bitching and moaning out of the way. Megadeth has been a favorite band of mine for several years now - they were one of the first “real” metal bands I discovered. I’ve seen them live twice, once with crappy support, and once with Exodus, but unfortunately, I missed them. Since [...]

*sigh*
Bland, boring, vanilla, unoriginal, uninspiring, unenthused, lacking of energy - all descriptors of Engel’s Absolute Design. Coming from one of my favorite metal cities in the world, Gothenburg (on top of the impressive list of musicians and their former bands - I’ll dig into this more shortly), I expected more - at least a little [...]

While The Crossfire is Fall of Serenity’s fourth full length album, they are not the same band that recorded 2001’s Dead Man’s Requiem. Even since their last album, Bloodred Salvation, bass player John Gahlert has taken over vocal duties, guitarist Alex Fischer moved over to bass and Ferdinand Rewicki joined the group filling the void [...]

This new live DVD/CD from Germany’s finest thrash band, Kreator, is a re-package, re-edit and re-release of their 1990 VHS, Live in East Berlin. Included with the live show is the mini horror movie the band made for their Coma of Souls album titled Hallucinative Coma, a documentary type thing with interviews from around the [...]

They Bleeding Skies is a new band formed by Claudio A. Enzler of My Darkest Hate/Sacrificium and JJ Kontoniemi of Icon Clan and Chapters of Downfall is their debut offering. Melodic death metal in the vain of Amon Amarth is the order of the day here, and they do it pretty well.
Thy Bleeding Skies utilize [...]

We were late getting into the venue, as we decided to eat before going in and as a result, missed Soilent Green unfortunately. I’ve never been a big fan of the band, but yet I wanted to see them, as seeing a live band can sometimes sway my opinion of them - oh well.
While settling [...]

Completely unfamiliar with the band coming in, I was advised before doing this review to do a little research regarding France’s Destinity, as it seems they’ve gone through some sort of direction change since their inception in the mid 90’s. After digging around at their website and Myspace, as well as their page at metal-archives.com, [...]

Coming from Newcastle, UK (the home of my favorite beer I might add) is this painfully boring, tough guy attitude oriented and blatantly unoriginal metallic hardcore quartet by the name of Boltdown, and their debut LP Omnicide.
What makes them so “painfully boring” you might ask? Well for starters, they seem to model themselves after the [...]

Cannibalised, the third full length from Biomechanical, is my introduction to the band. I caught wind of the band earlier this year through another site and promptly checked out their Myspace. The one song I heard from this album there left me reeling my jaw from the floor - it was like hearing the chaos [...]