Don’t want to go on the whole free will/determinism riff, but I firmly believe that many of life’s pivotal moments come down to a single choice. For Beantown sluggers Virulence, said moment was when they let vocalist Chris Danecek go anywhere near a microphone. I imagine it seemed harmless enough at the time. Chris: “C’mon […]

In 1995, Godflesh’s Ben Green retired to a remote cottage in the Cambrian Mountains of Wales, where he had spent much time as a child. For the next year, he virtually isolated himself from the modern world and allowed nature to speak to him in ways in which he previously could not decipher. Equipped only […]

When a fan of The Swans and Merzbow calls an album dense, you know they ain’t kidding. Kill.Crush.Destroy is a product of two different recording sections, and its first four tracks are so layered and thick that you can barely discern the guitar notes. After listening to the CD’s second half, you realize that the […]

Let’s play ‘What if…’ shall we? What if David Wayne had never left Metal Church in the first place? What if they dropped some of the thrash influence and worked in a more straight-ahead metal approach for the follow up to The Dark? What would it sound like? If you have these questions burning in […]

Italy’s Aborym formed in 1991, released a demo and broke up. The same members reformed the band in 1997 and released their debut album, Kali Yuga Bizarre in 1999. Fire Walk With Us is their second full-length, and the first to feature Attila Csihar, formerly of Mayhem, as permanent vocalist. Thier aim is to break […]

Since 1987, K.K. Null’s noise outfit Zeni Geva has honestly raised the bar on Japanese rock so high that it has yet to be matched. Main throats like Cryptopsy’s Mike DiSalvo and his ilk are still dead ringers for Null’s largely Japanese and broken English growls, though the band has created an alternate metal universe […]

As metalcore shape-shifts every month, the borders of the genre continually expand, absorbing death and thrash metal, jazz, fusion, hardcore and every other music genre it decides to take on. Death metal in sound and hardcore in attitude, Germany’s Heaven Shall Burn are one such metalcore outfit, whose sound is more reflective of Amon Amarth’s […]

Holland’s God Dethroned exponentially improves on their brand of catchy death metal with each album. With the release of Ravenous, there’s no questioning the band’s commitment to creating high-quality extremity. Ravenous comes at a time when death metal is experiencing a resurgence and bands in the genre are pushing the genre’s limited boundaries. It also […]

Arch Enemy were tight-lipped about who would fill in for vocalist Johan Liiva after he left to form NonExist with Andromeda axeman Johan Reinholdz. Rumors were everywhere, claiming former Carcass frontman Jeff Walker would reunite with guitarist Mike Amott and take the mic for an album’s worth of trademark growls. Alas, the rumors proved to […]

The legendary Horna is back with a vengeance, and even better, back on cd. After releasing seven vinyl only recordings as limited edition 7 inches, they have signed to Woodcut Records and now those of you not into spending money on split seven inches to get a few songs from Horna and a few from […]

How in the world have I never heard of Threshold? According to their website, Hypothetical is their seventh album! Kudos to Inside Out for snatching these guys up because they are very good! I say this without the benefit of hearing the band’s past albums (obviously), but this CD definitely makes me want to hear […]

I suppose you could call Ark a supergroup. The band’s pedigree is more than impressive. Guitarist Tore Ostby (Conception, DC Cooper), drummer John Macaluso (TNT, Yngwie) and vocalist Jorn Lande (Beyond Twilight, Millenium) got together a couple of years ago with the collective hope of making music with no boundaries. Their resulting self-titled effort was nothing […]

For me, any post-Chaos AD Sepultura lacks the pulse of the band’s neo-thrash/death metal. I’m not too sure if Sepultura has grown up and I haven’t, but whatever the case may be my heart isn’t where it used to be when Sepultura’s name came up in, “Best band discussions.” I hate to say the experience of […]

Revelation Nausea is crushing, high-velocity Swedish death at its best. There is no standard death metal approach here, my friend. Vomitory weaves in many elements that give this recording a dynamic that hasn’t been heard in metal this brutal in a long time. The most exciting of these elements is the intermittent use of Swedish […]

Call Abigor’s Satanized (A Journey Through Cosmic Infinity) the sleeper of the year, but little could have prepared me for this. Satanized, the long-respected trio’s seventh long-player, is one of those mysteriously rare records where, if you don’t listen too closely, it’s bound to fly right past you into the night ‘ listen intently, however, […]

Attention fans of progressive metal: every CD on your “must get” list just got bumped down one notch. Whatever was next on that list just got replaced by The Towers of Avarice by Zero Hour. This is quite possibly the best American prog metal record I have heard since Dream Theater’s Awake. Dark, brooding melody, […]

Renown for their uncompromising approach to black metal, Sweden’s Marduk has leveled many expectations and gained a loyal following over their 10-year career. From the near-death metal trappings of Dark Endless to last year’s ultra-venomous Panzer Division Marduk, the men in black wear every one of their bloody victories proudly on their shirtsleeves. And, for […]

Lately, much ado has been made regarding what constitutes the respective “waves” of black metal – in particular, the third wave. Roughly, among this “wave,” then: Mayhem’s Grand Declaration of War, Satyricon’s Rebel Extravaganza, Zyklon’s debut, and recent works by Dodheimsgard and Thorns. Although keeping in line with Finland’s fine tradition of weirdness (Beherit, Impaled […]

Patience brings rewards. In the case of Immortal and Deceased – both bands who, despite starting off on a pretty good foot, have improved exponentially over the course of four-plus albums to become the modern masters of metal – patience brings very great rewards, indeed. Such is also the case with Zao. Early on, with […]

Artimus Pyle was the drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd (I believe), though apparently that has nothing to do with this band. This Artimus Pyle plays a blazing crust-punk hardcore style, augmented with more than occasional nods to early Neurosis and the Melvins. Guitars are dingy and super dense – piled on power chords and quick changes. […]

Upon initial listening of Sombre Romantic I began to think, “Wow, has the End Records finally signed an average band? Will this be the first negative review of a End Records release?” But then dammit all to hell, I became absorbed by this deftly crafted piece of depressive art. Sharing structural and musical similarities to […]

Now that Emperor vocalist Ihsahn has Peccatum in full-swing, remaining members Samoth (now Zamoth) and Trym Torson have decided its their turn to showcase their talents outside home base. I normally feel apathetic towards such groupings, but Zyklon, consisting of Myrkskog guitarist Destructhor and Limbonic Art vocalist Daemon, on its debut World ov Worms doesn’t […]

ArthemesiA arrived from the ashes of Celestial Agony in February ’98 with their first demo. Devs Iratvs is their self-financed debut full length, which landed them on Native North Records. This Finnish corpse-painted five piece take their name from Arthemesia absinthium, the plant that the drug extract that caused Van Gogh to cut off his […]

For those of you who aren’t up on current events, or just don’t care enough to research the metal market outside of your own community, the Brazilian death metal scene is blowing up. While the country is still best known for its street-sweeping execution squads, its death metal scene has slowly evolved into one of […]

Sweden’s The Forsaken is the latest entrant (and certainly not the last) in the tidal wave of melodic death metal. The band’s label, Century Media, name-drops the venerable At The Gates, Arch Enemy and the unparalleled Morbid Angel in an attempt to lure listeners into checking out what this recently-formed band is all about. Ok, […]