The way we do the TOP 2018 list here at Teeth is that we’ve waited until the year was actually over. That way, we’re sure we didn’t miss giving proper credit to that one album that released a minute before midnight on the 31st. So just in case some metal band from Tonga got an idea, we were ready for it. Nonetheless, every year there’s more and more material out there for us to listen to and it’s pretty much impossible to cover it all. Yet, 2018 saw plenty of albums that deserve to be remembered next year — and some being which will stick around longer. Maybe you missed something? Maybe you have your own ideas what ruled in 2018 and what should never have been released in the first place? Check our lists out, see how our picks matched up, and let’s hope 2019 doesn’t prove to be worse.

It looks like a copy of Grave’s Into the Grave and some HM -2 pedals have finally made their way to Russia as the debut full length from Nizhny Novgorod’s Wombripper is a pure, unabashed, primal throwback to Grave’s classic debut. Honestly- that’s probably you all you need to know right? Some Russian metal fans might […]

I’ve been a fan of Patrick Loisel since his Kralizec days ( I highly recommend you track down 1999s Origin)  and Augury has certainly continued that legacy. And while not very prolific, when Augury does drop and album, the world takes note. 2004s Concealed and 2009s Fragmentary Evidence both are critically acclaimed and arguable classics […]

Another year on the books, another year packed with excellent metal in every style. And while we didn’t see any significant trends emerge this year, you will notice if you look at our collective lists that there’s very little overlap in our picks. The new releases from the old guard, the standard bearers, and the heavy hitters of death, black, doom and beyond only make up a fraction of what’s offered here – everything else is new arrivals and recent rising stars. No matter where you find it, metal has never been so prolific or diverse, and that is great news for all you out there who are black of heart and hard of hearing. So get ready to dig in and get lost in the deepest bowels of the metal underground – when you come up for air, it’ll be 2018.

Technical death metal. There’s generally two type of people when regarding the sub-genre. Those that don’t like it, considering it nothing more than a noodly-broodly fretboard wankfest that’s more show than substance, and well, those that do. I happen to fall in the latter category and think that tech-death is some stellar shit. Honestly, I’d […]

Ever since Nile erupted forth with their Egyptian take on brutal death metal, ethnic, and cultural elements have crept into death metal more and from from Ade  to Scarab and others. But here comes France’s Impureza to add one I have not heard before- at least not in this full on capacity: Flamenco. Sure, a […]

I wasn’t sure how these young Canadians would follow up their excellent 2014 debut, The Lucid Collective, a completely over the top , noodling clinical and triggered tech death tour de force, only since topped by First Fragment‘s Dasein since then as far as sheer tech death insanity goes. Well, they are up the the […]

Well, here we are at the start of a fresh new year. And while New Years is usually a time for bright-eyed, wishful optimism and wistful reminiscence, the global political and social climates have the world at unease. Yet despite a near blastbeat-pace of bummers and deaths, 2016 gave us another year of stellar extreme music.

Teethofthedivine soldiered on in 2016 as well, with some new faces on the team (though our distaste for digital promos hasn’t changed a bit). We also experienced a growth spurt on social media, so if you’re not following us yet, why the hell not? ‘Cause while other sites seem content to feed you with celebrity blogs, lists of ‘top 10 albums from 1993 which which had llamas on the cover’ or so-called humor pieces, TOTD just did what we do best: reviews, reviews, and reviews. One review every week day for the whole year. That’s 300+ reviews, folks.

We hope to add more interviews, features, and contests in 2017, and we do it all for you guys – our loyal readers, sharers, likers, and listeners. So keep on keeping it real in 2017, as it might be the last year the earth continues to spin. We’ll do our part to make sure metal stays as relevant in 2017 as it has been in the decades before.

So with much ado, here are the hand-picked releases that the TOTD staff enjoyed in 2016. Given the thousands of releases that assaulted our collective senses last year, hopefully we’ll introduce you to a few new favorites. And as always, stay tuned for our Fillings and Cavities feature, where we’ll shovel even more death, destruction, blackened weirdness, and melodic wonders into your willing ears.

Here is yet another awesome band from Switzerland, adding to the countries fine 2016 efforts from Beansidhe, Buried Side, Deathcult, Schammasch, Colossus Fall and others (and hopefully Bolzer). This time it’s in the form of progressive tech death metal cut from the same cloth as First Fragment, The Faceless, Decrepit Birth, Gorod and Obscura in […]

Well, I’m going to go ahead and say it.  I know we still have a few more months  left to this year, but I am going to go out on a limb and say it. Mephistopheles‘ new EP release,  In Reverence of Forever, is hands down my favorite metal album released this year, and quite […]

Tucked in between all the high profile technical and brutal death metal that labels like Comatose and Unique Leader has churned out in 2016 is this solid little debut record from France’s new act Red Dawn,  and no it’s not a concept band based on the movie. What it is though is well crafted and well […]

After the band’s impressive 2008/9 EP, and a pretty well received full length debut, The Prodigal Empire in 2011, a lot of folks were hailing this Denver act as the new Arsis meets The Black Dahlia Murder of the scene, mixing shredding black/death metal with melodic death metal . But the band went a bit dark […]

Unique Leader looks to be having the same sort of outlandishly good year as it had in 2014 with the likes of  Ohmnihilty,  Inherit Disease, Ahtme,  Omaphagia, and The Zenith Passage so far, and then you have the upcoming monster from Katalepsy still yet to come. But I’m pretty confident in stating that this will […]

Every few years a album comes along that changes the game in tech death. Going back to this band’s namesake with Gorgut’s Obscura, Death’s seminal latter output, Origin, Atheist, Cynic, Necrophagist, Theory In Practice’s Colonizing the Sun, the Canadian scene, Gorod and others. And here is another one, in Obscura’s fourth effort Akróasis. These Germans are far from new comers  and certainly […]

Canadian neoclassical-influenced tech death unit, FIRST FRAGMENT, will release their long-anticipated debut full-length, Dasein, on May 20th via Unique Leader Records. Captured at Humanoise Studios with Mathieu Marcotte (Augury, Humanoid) and mixed by Hugues Deslauriers (Augury, Defilementory, Vengeful etc.), the eleven track long player features guest appearances from current and former members of Spawn Of […]

2015. Another, goddamn, year over already. And how’d it end? With a major downer with Lemmy going somewhere else. Who do we have left? Ozzy? Rob? Alice? Anyone else? Damn. It wasn’t all that bad of a year though, even if the world seemed to become even crazier than 2014 — if Fox News is to be believed. Plenty of good music got released and what we’ve got here is a top list of metal related stuff that Teeth of the Divine’s staff handpicked themselves. Unlike most of our corporate overlords, we don’t outsource our opinions, enslave some poor bastards and build safety nets around them just in case they decide to call it quits. Actually, that’s not true. We’re not a hive mind, we enslave people to write for us but we sure as hell aren’t spending any of our huge advertising revenue to keep them alive. Ha! Anyway, browse around and find some worthy stuff you might have missed!

So this a the French death metal band with a very similar name to the long running Italian death metal, Antropofagus band huh? Well, Ok, but the results are the same; damn solid tech/brutal death metal, although these guys are not quite as brutal and have a little more quirk and experimentation to them. I […]

There’s been some pretty odd band names this year (Mutilatred, Dysrider,  Famishgod, Meatwound, Neurotic November, Weak Aside). There has also been some fine old school Swedish death metal (Morbid Vomit, Wombath, Mass Burial, Entrails, Abscession, Infected Chaos, Skelethal, Feral, Cult of Endtime). Belgium’s Torturerama have the honor of being on both lists. However, it’s the second one they might […]

Symphonics/orchestration and brutal death metal aren’t uncommon bedfellows, but it isn’t exactly a thriving, saturated genre, due to the obvious dichotomy the two style provide. Fleshgod Apocalypse certainly elevated it to critical acclaim and mastered the sound but before that the likes of arguable trendsetters Nocturnus as well as, Agiel, Scrambled Defuncts, Ovid’s Withering and a few […]

WOW! I’m a newcomer to Australia’s self proclaimed ‘extreme progressive metal’ act Ne Obliviscaris, but after hearing Citadel, the band’s second album, there’s no doubt in my mind that this act has to be one of the more special and ambitious bands I have heard in some time. So much so, that I’m actually having a […]

In 2012, I covered the Slaughter on the Water III festival aboard the USS Hornet in San Francisco Bay. Yes, a death metal festival on an aircraft carrier. Actually, make that inside the hangar of an aircraft carrier, and you’d better believe that shit was loud. I got tinnitus in my balls. The day was a blur […]

I am only casually familiar with Wretched‘s previous release, Son of Perdition, which struck me as a more technical, less core-ish Carnifex, and belonging to that sort of ilk that has all the right ingredients but somehow didn’t manage to make it stick. With their fourth full-length offering, Cannibal, Wretched has stepped up the game […]

Formerly known as Gary Busey Amber Alert, California Alterbeast has released an album that adds to Unique Leaders killer 2014 so far which has included the outstanding Soreption release,The Kennedy Veil, as well as the upcoming Near Death Experience and Beneath albums. However, this isn’t quite as much of a brutal death metal affair as […]

Here is hopefully the first of a new feature here at Teeth of the Divine, The New Classics. if you have been listening to metal for any amount of time you well know there there are a certain few records hailed as unquestionable classics. Legendary releases that, 20 years after their release, are still revered, still influential and still great listens. Of course, most of those classics were released in the ’80s and ’90s: Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets, Altars of Madness, Left Hand Path and others, to this day, are considered true classics and will be in another 20 years.

Dang it. I wanted to like this sooooo much more. Oblivion sees former All Shall Perish founder and guitarist Ben Orum reunite with buddies Nick Vasallo (vocals) and Luis Martinez (drums) from his pre ASP band, Antagony, a vastly under rated progressive deathcore act from a decade ago (seriously, go listen to the bands second […]