This is Horna, no compromise black metal from Finland, no trends past or present, the Motorhead of black metal. Ignore all trends and be true to your origins is Shatraug’s motto and, like Motorhead, their songs are not as simple as people think. They can masterfully craft simple song structures that are more complex than […]

Think Blasphemy and Conqueror if you are not familiar with Black Witchery, if you are familiar with them think Conqueror. This time out the sound is more streamlined and more monotonous. Think 26 minutes of absolutely mindless savagery done with drums and guitar. Forget songwriting or any pretense at musicianship. This is bash till you […]

Canada’s favorite hardcore sons return with imaginatively titled II to follow up the buzz causing debut One. Playing a form of stark, barren post hardcore, that I call ‘minimalist core’, Cursed’s noisy Converge meets newer Entombed meets Motorhead form of brooding metal isn’t for the casual hardcore/punk fans as it’s dirty, grimy and vitriolic. With […]

Adding to 2005’s already promising death metal crop, come Austria’s Belphegor with their 5th blasphemous offering. While this is my first exposure to this rather revered European act, it won’t be my last as Goatreich-Fleshcult is a prime of example of death metal done Fuckin’ A right. With a hint of black metal (a few […]

Ireland hasn’t exactly been up front of the stage with some of the other European countries, when it comes down to the heavy metal department. Sure, everyone’s heard of Thin Lizzy, but besides them the only two bands I can mention for sure are Cruachan and Primordial. Both of which caress and treasure their region […]

What’s not to like about an album emblazoned with the logo of my beloved New Orleans Saints? After almost 4 years of silence, the follow up to 2001’s ‘return to form’ album Sonic Excess in its Purest Form is here and ready to sit on your chest and slap you repeatedly. With their 8th album […]

The measuring stick for mediocrity has just gotten a little shorter. Charnel Valley has released their opening salvo in what promises to be a short career. Once you get past the lame amateurish cover art you get to hear “epic, raw and imaginative black metal.” I kid you not. Five days from conception to completion […]

There are few things in the reviewing world as satisfying as a really well done, no frills death metal album. Oh sure, discovering new bands and experiencing originality and genre expanding acts is nice, but the visceral, pulse quickening feeling of perfectly rendered death metal is still a rewarding experience. And Chaostream is such an […]

I deliberately reviewed this album next to Merlin’s lackluster effort to show that Great White North has some decent bands on their roster besides Merlin, Divina Enema, and Aggression AD. OK, so they have Fuck The Facts which saves them immeasurably, but they also have this nifty little Canadian outfit called Paroxysm. With artwork done […]

Holy shit. Two major league things going on here. First, a great release on Crash Music. Second, a filthy, piss ridden exercise in death/thrash from Finland of all places. One part gritty Entombed, one part At The Gates and one part grimy leather and spikes retro black thrash a la Bestial Mockery, Pyuria deliver a […]

Residing on a label formed by members of He Who Corrupts, you should have little doubt as to how noisy this 11 song, 10 minute “album” is. Strictly for those that become erect listening to the likes of Daughters, As the Sun Sets and The Number 12 Looks Like You, Illinois’ Tower of Rome is […]

If there’s any band that can rebound from the ill timing of a album called Dead Yuppies, (it came out right after 9/11) it’s NYHC veterans, no, NYHC pioneers Agnostic Front. After almost a two decades of angry, genre defining political rants and brotherhood, the Front return on a major label with a new facelift […]

Now that the Northern melodic death metal bands seem to be leaning towards more accessible tones, the battleground has opened up for the acts in the American continent. Quite surprisingly one of such newcomer bands, Soulscar, hails from Canada and even more surprisingly – there is little to be heard of the metalcore influence that’s […]

Rewarded for the widespread acclaim of Zos Kia Cultus, Poland’s Behemoth were promoted from Olympic Records to the big daddy, Century Media and also arguably surpassed Vader as Poland’s most important extreme export. So how do you follow that kind of success up? You don’t. You merely deliver what’s expected and continue with the sound […]

Littered with metalcore clichés in the form of calligraphy album title and forlorn song titles, my expectations weren’t to high for this album ,especially considering the rather average effort that preceded it, the death metal tinged metalcore musings of Black Sands of the Hourglass. However, with a change in label (from Tribunal to Eulogy) and […]

Finland’s purveyors of depravity and sickness return one more time. Ten songs thirty seven minutes. My favorite song is the final seven minutes, the title track, even though the words suicide and anno aspera are repeated far too often. Great slow rumbling song, ominous. Vocals are recited trance like in the background and the guitars […]

So the mighty Swedish super-group (as much as the band is loathe to avoid that term, it’s rather fitting) return to follow up their widely lauded and critically acclaimed full length debut Resurrection Through Carnage. There have been some big changes in the band since their last recorded outing. The mighty Dan Swanö has shifted […]

Am I the only one in metaldom who really, really thought the band’s second album, The Grand Grimoire, was a masterstroke in the death metal arena? Whether not you agree with me, Holland’s God Dethroned returns with inarguably one of the best death metal releases of the year. Again! Masterfully produced by Berthus Westerhuys, the […]