There’s been a significant amount of buzz circulating around Colorado doom merchants Khemmis and their debut album Absolution. The doom resurgence has been in full swing in recent years, with the genre’s status increasingly elevated by the likes of contemporary behemoths Pallbearer, Ufomammut and Yob, along with stellar 2015 releases from the traditional revivalist doom […]

It has been more than a thousand years since the minstrels, troubadours, and minnesingers of the Middle Ages strummed their lutes and cooed their poetry to eager and usually royal ears. Obsequiae, if they could travel back to those days, would have lulled the lords and ladies of court into wondrous reverie with a gentle opener […]

Graced with with one of 2013’s most striking artwork (courtesy of Paolo Girardi also responsible for Inquisition’s Obscure Verses for the Multiverse), the second release from San Francisco Vastum  is a simple, yet tense affair with lyrical themes based on Oedipal complexes, incest, child abuse and patricide. With former members of Acephalix, Vastum share  a similar crusty/death […]

I think I’m about the last person to check out Atriarch’s Forever The End, an album that lit up many year-end lists in 2011… What can I say? There are a lot of records to keep up with. However after sampling their craft via this split album, I’ll be looking for that debut ASAP. But not before […]

They took their sweet time, but Brainoil have finally unleashed the follow up to their 2002 debut. Their self titled debut was an intelligent mix of Eyehategod’s southern rock grooves, Buzzov*en’s coked up outbursts of speed and the Melvins off kilter riff structure and the result was a concise, straightforward album of pummeling grooves. Death […]

CONFIDENTIAL INTAKE REPORT, RHODE ISLAND STATE MENTAL HOSPITAL: Presiding psychiatrist:  Dr. Paul Fritz Examination Notes: At approximately 19:00 hours on Nov. 16, 2009, three subjects without any names or aliases other than White Mice were presented for psychiatric examination. The subjects were discovered in a small house in Providence, R.I., after neighbors complained of noxious […]

An eclipse – for many cultures, a symbol of terror and transformation – is an appropriate image for this New York-based black metal act. Their seething, caustic sound ripples and sloughs off the death, thrash and punk roots of the genre and launches skyward into the expansive realms of drone and post-rock – and then, […]

Undoubtedly the most prolific doom band in history; while Nadja’s discography – approximating 33 releases since 2003, and counting – doesn’t quite rival the ridiculous output of say Agathocles or Unholy Grave or even Merzbow, yet, it is certainly by no means do to a lack of effort on the part of cute Canadian couple […]

One wouldn’t think it would be the crushing weight of despair that brings couples together, yet here in the wake of Nadja‘s many successes we find ourselves with another product of unholy matrimony in the form of Laudanum‘s The Coronation. The apparently unhappily married Judd and Becky on guitar and drums/vocals respectively form the core […]

Hailing from Lawrence, Kansas, Samothrace (not sure if named after the Greek Island or a race of Emperor guitarists) have come out of nowhere with a stunning debut album that mixes the girth and throb of psychedelic sludge/Post Rock (think Minsk and Rwake) with the utterly rending, layered harmonies and beautiful yet wilting melody of […]

With all the complexity and technicality being thrown around in death metal this year, the third full length album from Japan’s Coffins is a welcome relief of earthy, primal mid paced doom/death metal that will appeal to fans of Cianide, Runemagick and Autopsy. With a phlegmy, hacking, feedback drenched, down-tuned guitar tone plying simple oozing […]