To be honest, I really haven’t had a whole lot of interest in Sepultura since they split with guitarist/vocalist Max Cavalera in the mid-1990s. I boughtAgainst just to see what the “new” Sepultura was like and wasn’t really that interested in keeping up with them after that. They’ve done a few things here and there I’ve […]

First of all, thanks to Candlelight for giving this album a US deal. I don’t think Nuclear Blast has any idea how many Bal-Sagoth fans there are in the US… Truth be told, as I’ve gotten older, Bal-Sagoth have become less relevant to me. Whether it is my aging process or the fact Bal-Sagoth have […]

Adding to an already stellar year for Candlelight (and it’s only March!), comes the fifth album from Viking metal stalwarts Thyrfing, who with Vansinnesvisor took a far darker, more foreboding, death metal take on the traditionally pompous Viking metal. However, with Farsotstider (Times of Plague), Thyrfing seem to have found some balance. That’s not to […]

The evolution of Amorphis, for me, has been one of the most disappointing musical turns in recent memory. I was a latecomer to the band, only discovering them with Elegy, an album that completely blew me away. It was exactly the kind of music I was searching for at the time, melodic and moody, yet […]

So not only has this Washington, D.C., band changed their name (from Love in a Time of Cholera), we have a pretty significant stylistic change and both are for the better. Their self released full light The Sun Through Glass was solid, catchy of Hot Topic-y styled ‘core record that showed promise, but on this […]

I’ll forgo the usual introductory band history and opinionated opening paragraph and get straight to it; With their second album, North Carolina’s Daylight Dies have masterfully yet subtly elbowed their way into the international metal elite. Not only does Dismantling Devotion separate the band from what is essentially a two band race within the US’s […]

While it might seem that it couldn’t be further away from metal aesthetically, Tenhi remains as one of the heaviest bands around. The weight does not come from razor sharp riffing, bowel-depth vocals or blistering drums for that matter, although percussion does play a big role in the group’s spellbinding sonic witchery. No. The band […]

Dismember need no introduction or lengthy dissection, so I’ll get right to it. Of the patriarchal Swedish death metal bands of the early 90’s they have been the one band that stayed true and stayed together. However, their last effort on the ill-fated Karmageddon Media, Where Ironcrosses Grow was a little disappointing even if still […]

A bland thrash blemish on Candlelight’s exceptional year from ex-members of Einherjer that shows that you should just let sleeping Vikings lie. Norway’s Einherjer were on of Viking metal’s early darlings with a level of creativity and experimentation that set them apart from the sword swinging hordes. Then how is that a thrash band formed […]

It’s been a good year for black metal for me so far; Thyrane, Lugubrum, Grand Belial’s Key, Oblomov, Dark Funeral, Leviathan’s 35 split CD’s and this superb effort all have made black metal interesting for me again. Frankly, I’ve never really delved to far into Aborym’s discography, so this album came as a surprise to […]

For some reason, I always compare France’s Yyrkoon with Poland’s Trauma; both are underrated and in the shadow of their respective country’s other higher profile bands, yet both are just as talented and skilled. I reviewed Trauma’s Imperfect Like a God right around the time I reviewed Yyrkoon’s Occult Medicine and both were excellent releases […]

Furious straight edge hardcore from Ft. Lauderdale on tap here, and while it’s rife with tired hardcore cliches and structures, it?s one of the better and most conviction filled efforts I’ve heard. There’s not much to explain here: 14 angry breakdown laden anthems of societal/political disgust (“Tight Lipped Politics”), straight edge pride (“Let’s Get Free”) […]

Sometimes it amazes me how the music industry has kept itself alive this long. Think about it for a minute. Think about all the great bands you know that have been left to languish in obscurity, and then think about all the crap that gets pushed on listeners by the record companies. I pondered this often […]

Torture’s indie debut Storm Alert was never released in the U.S. That’s a shame, too. If this album had hit me in the late 1980s or early 1990s, it would have blown me away. In 2006, the re-issue from Escapi sounds pretty dated, but for an old thrasher like me, it’s still a quite enjoyable […]

Rounding out my recent gamut of quality sludge/noise comes Wisconsin’s Desolate Void, who measure up favorably to the likes of Lair of the Minotaur, Ultralord and Black Cobra but with bit of a nasty, Southern tinged grindcore sheen that brings about a bit of Eyehategod or Soilent Green.At the center of Desolate Void’s caustic tantrums […]

A taster EP from this progressive, post black, avant-garde, Winds meets Arcturus meets Solefald collaboration. A collaboration, that to me, comes across like a slightly more diverse and edgy version of Winds and has the benefit of Solefald’s Lazare (Lars Nedlund) on vocals rather than Winds’ rather underwhelming Lars Eric Si (who play bass in […]

I hate to gush about a potential record of the year so early in 2006, especially with albums from In Flames, Eyes of Fire, Thryfing, Bal-Sagoth and Skinless lurking on the horizon, buts it’s not just the sheer quality of Misery Inc’s sophomore effort, Random End that impresses me, it’s compressed by the fact it’s […]

1349 is easily one of the best new black metal bands out of Norway, but considering the long history the band members have pre 1349 maybe they are not really eligible for the newbie prize. A few years from now, after a few more albums and more tours under their bullet belts, 1349 should be […]

Christ, now THIS is retro kids. Just look at that artwork. This is raw garage thrash punk crossover circa 1986 fronted by an annoying female screamer/yeller (who has since departed), that will appeal to those that enjoyed the recent Municipal Waste album, only if you can get past the squealing banshee doing vocals. Personally, I […]

As much as I wanted to make some snide remark about this being watered down hardcore, and Victory’s watered down hardcore roster, I couldn’t because for what it is (screamohardcore, metalcorrepunkrock), it’s pretty solid and certainly better than some of Victory’s other more aggressively promoted bands (ahem, Hawthorne Heights, Bayside).Hailing from Germany, veterans Waterdown sound […]

First thing’s first; great cover.Now, I really wanted to like Bleeding Through’s third album. I really wanted it to be a huge middle finger to metalheads that look down on Bleeding Through with disdain and I wanted The Truth to remove Bleeding Through from the hated Hotopicore trifecta that also includes Avenged Sevenfold and Atreyu. […]

On their debut album, Close to Prime, German outfit Luna Field had an interesting take on how to merge (in their words) “atmospheric black metal” with “militant death metal.” They simply split the album into two halves – the Dead Side and the Black Side. This was not a strict dichotomy, as the Black Side […]

Though I really only regard this album as a competent and solid entry into the female fronted Goth rock album category that I will rarely listen too, I will concede that it is one of the sexiest albums I’ve heard in a while.Beseech has undergone a considerable lineup overhaul since I last heard them on […]

Leviathan is back with another split release. This time the glutton for punishment is Sapthuran. Bands know how tough the situation is, to be the flip side of a Leviathan release has got to be a lot of pressure. Even if you release something utterly fantastic it is still likely to get overpowered by Wrest. […]

In the late ‘80s, the death-metal genre was first forged in the heat ‘n’ humidity of Tampa, Florida. After three of metal’s most durable records’including their 1989 debut Slowly We Rot and 1990 follow-up Cause of Death’the venerable Obituary seemingly peaked with 1994’s World Demise. After managing to squeeze out the tired Back from the Dead three years later, they went into permanent hibernation, and fans thought it was indeed the end complete. Excitement started to build in early 2004, however, when the band reconvened for a one-off hometown show, and the following year brought more gigs plus a new studio album, Frozen in Time, and Obituary sound like they haven’t aged a day. At the Hartford, Connecticut stop on their autumn East coast tour, frontman John Tardy was happy to talk about the band’s colorful history, his collaboration with rap artist Necro, and what the guys have been doing for the past seven years between albums.