Ah yes, Nile. The band that has recently joined the “trendy to hate club” (founded by Cradle Of Filth). Whether it’s the false pretense of the Egyptian “gimmick”, the large label affiliation, or after two good albums, fickle metal fans are ready to move onto the next band, Nile are suddenly a hotbed of criticism. […]

For the first half on the nineties Enslaved was by far my favorite band. As time went on and they changed their style, no one band rose up to replace them as kings of the wandering, multi-layered, chaotic long-playing epics of black metal art. Romania’s Negura Bunget, formed in 1995, first entered my radar in […]

Let me tell you something – The End Records has become a monster label in U.S. metal. Not content with Epoch of Unlight and Scholomance reigning American black metal, Green Carnation taking the doom scene by storm and Virgin Black bringing goth and darkwave to their collective knees, The End now gives you Winds, a surefire […]

The revolving door continues for Finland’s Barathrum, with Pelceboop replacing Somnium, Abyssir replacing Beast Dominator, Trollhorn is gone but not replaced. That’s about 18 members in 12 years. Demonos Sova strikes again, and this time he figures we can count by now. Venomous does not announce itself as the seventh album. Other than that, not […]

Ambient Space Earth Music – that’s probably a pretty good description of Arcana Publicata Vilescunt, the first release to come out under the moniker Nostalgia. For those who are looking only for metal, you can easily skip this review since the album doesn’t include any distorted guitars or any bombastic drumming at all. The closest […]

I’m not sure how one should adjust their mindset when talking about the twenty-something year old Skitzo. In a way, they seem to be a tribute band in general, praising the art that is known as heavy metal by copying big shot names like Slayer (“Angel’s Blood” – Hmm, I wonder what Slayer songs that […]

Originally released September 2000, the fine folks at ISO666 have given us a high quality demo on cd, where it should have been from the beginning. Griffar, formed in 1997 in France, three years later released their first “demo”, Of Witches and Celts, on cassette, which “took so long because we cared for doing well…and […]

Here is a seven piece band from the Netherlands that is attempting to join Slovakia’s Thalarion and Seventh Moon as the top bands in the emotive doom/goth/death genre that uses female vocals to complement the male growl (the beauty and the beast effect). While this a decent album within that ever so cumbersome genre, Thalarion […]

So, like most people, I have been in the dark about Zao the past several months. I’ve heard rumors of members leaving, old ones coming back, a possible break up and whatever else was on the Internet rumor mill. I was holding my breath in anticipation to see what would happen with this seminal metallic […]

It wasn’t until I discovered the literal translation of the album’s title that the full depth of this album really hit me. After numerous listens, the darker, heavier approach had me a little stunned, and to be honest, a little disappointed. But after discovering Vansinnesvisor , means “Songs of Madness” (or “Lunacy”), it all came […]

You’ve got to give Metal Blade credit. Rather than searching overseas for the latest In Flames clone, they have simply stayed in the homeland and discovered an In Flames clone, and very good they are too.BYE resides in the mini Sweden we called Massachusetts, which is suddenly home to a plethora of death metal bands. […]

The Hellhammer machine grinds on. When Celtic Frost dissolved into a glam band their sound split into two components: Darkthrone and what would, a few years later, become Warhammer. Where Darkthrone was the evil atmospheres and grim attitude of ‘Frost, Warhammer, starting in 1994 resurrected the heavy rhythmic grinding doom. Since such an entity was […]

God Was Created is the second album from Arizona’s Vehemence, and upon looking upon the typical death metal cover and spiky logo, I was bracing for another assault of U.S.-styled Immolation copycat blasting or Suffocation worship. Man, was I fucking wrong! Instead I was graced with quite possibly one of the best U.S. death metal […]

Coming off the Cosmic Genesis release, I could not wait to expand my brain particles with Vintersorg’s latest, Visions from the Spiral Generator. From his work with Borknagar and Havayoth, to the folk project of Otyg, his cosmic lyrics, and his self-named project, is there a more humble metaller pushing the status quo to take […]

Top 3 reasons why this album is fucking amazing. 1) It’s produced at Sunlight Studios by Tomas Skogsberg. 2) It has a sample of a steel clashing battle. 3) It has the most killer, blood-boiling riffs this side of The Crown. Ok that’s pretty much it, but I guess your wanting a little more detail.This […]

Farthest From the Sun is a 4 track 51 minute affair done by Sauron, of Spain. This is the debut album from Apotheosis, and the booklet offers several hundred words on how great his computer generated demos are and a dozen words about this debut, which contains two promo songs reworked. Bragging about creating two […]

“Anyone who isn’t dead or from another plane of existence, would do well to cover their ears, right about now.” This superbly appropriate sample from the move “Dogma,” opens the song “Inhuman,” on Origin’s second album, Informis, Infinitas, Inhumanitas. Never has a sample been so fitting. I’ll be the first to tell you, I wasn’t […]

Bands like Agoraphobic Nosebleed make or break with me on their willingness and ability to inject a little flava into the whir. Listening to thirty-plus minutes of hypergurgle is no more innately interesting than listening to an electric fan. (I’m weirdly fascinated by the fact that we finally have bands whose music imitates the sounds […]

I was first introduced to Charon a few years back by their second album, Tearstained. While it didn’t offer nothing new nor did it held any big surprises, the catchy songs were able to stick in one’s head even after decapitation. Despite the horrors of trying to get the melodies out of your system, Tearstained […]

All hail albums covers that have heads on spikes! Vomitory are a well-known but cult veteran death metal band from Sweden and have released this year’s equivalent to Fleshcrawl‘s Soulskinner. Pure old school unabashed death metal; no frills, no intro, no atmospherics and you know what? It kicks ass. Blood Rapture is Vomitory‘s fourth album […]

The epithet, “True Norwegian Black Metal,” may not apply to Immortal in its current incarnation, but the fact remains that the classification never truly fit the Bergen-based outfit anyway. Even at the height of their ‘cult’ career, Immortal never wholeheartedly prescribed to the conventions of their peers – Satan, church burning and murder were replaced […]

A lot more mono(metallic)chromatic than most of the MeteorCity hopheads, and a little confusing at first. The hypenotes compare Mushroom River Band to Entombed, Motorhead, and Fu Manchu, neglecting to mention that latter-day Entombed sounds a lot like Motorhead and Fu Manchu. So this basically sounds like … Entombed. Now, Entombed recorded one of the […]

Ok, fellow ‘Enemies, before you spontaneously combust at the sight of this review, please know everything (three songs, one video) is included in Century Media’s deluxe edition of Wages of Sin. However, collector geeks and those that simply must have everything by the mighty Arch Enemy will find Burning Angel rewarding. As usual, the Japanese spare […]

During the Swedish death metal explosion of the early ’90s, after the initial assault of Entombed and Carnage and Dismember, a second wave of acts erupted. Grave, Seance and Unleashed found the coattails, and promptly were taken for a ride. Each act attained some kind of recognition and status, with perhaps Unleashed being the most […]

This relatively new Australian band has been around since 1998. The Graven Sign is their second release and first full-length. The most direct way to describe their sound would be black metal Motorhead style, not really in the sense of early Bathory, but old style black, pre-Norwegian revival. Spikes and bullets are the props of […]