Yeah I know – what a silly band name. A name like that makes me want to skip right over an album, but as I’ve learned in the past, a name does not necessarily make the band. A perfect example of this is Rumpelstiltskin Grinder. Anyway, here we have the debut full length, Existenzminimum (an […]

This is old school black crossed with Shatraug metal, or put another way, Mercyful Fate meets Sargeist, can’t go wrong with that. At first I didn’t even read the logo, just popped the cd in and looked at the cover art. It would hold up well as a King Diamond cover and I figured this […]

Arcturus, Solefald, Manes, Morgul, Frantic Bleep – all part of an avant-garde, oddly theatrical sub-genre of black metal, and all of them from Norway. Now you can add Vulture Industries to that list, and if you’re an Arcturus fan, you’ve got good reason to rejoice, because debut LP The Dystopian Journals sounds like it could […]

“Sieg Hail Satan”, that says it all. This is slow and heavy keep it simple stupid style self proclaimed true Norwegian black metal with a loud bass with a heavy rumble and chug along guitars. Tom Warrior grunts and roaring vocals round out what fast period Marduk would call a ballad. Lyrics are standard fare, […]

*sigh* Bland, boring, vanilla, unoriginal, uninspiring, unenthused, lacking of energy – all descriptors of Engel’s Absolute Design. Coming from one of my favorite metal cities in the world, Gothenburg (on top of the impressive list of musicians and their former bands – I’ll dig into this more shortly), I expected more – at least a […]

What still with us? Here is another album of songs to leave the land of the living. Got a suicide pact in the works? Call them all over, here is the disc to get it done with, stop procrastinating. Necronoclast is back for their debut release for Moribund and second full length overall. Same formula, […]

There is beating the dead horse and then there is kicking the skeleton after all the meat has rotted off. Horna milk all they can out of an idea but discard it before it becomes too putrid. Once again we have ‘unoriginal’ black metal with rehashed elements highlighting past glories, on once again, if you […]

It’s no surprise that Earache took the liberty of releasing a compilation of strictly new school thrash ‘revivalists’, as their roster boasts more of these bands (Bonded by Blood, Evile, Municipal Waste, SSS, Gama Bomb, and Violator all appear here) than any other major metal label. Thrashing Like a Maniac, just as any good comp […]

Before its release, much had been written about Year Zero as a concept album: the anti-Bush/1984 storyline; the intricate alternate-reality-game’s online narrative; even how spectral analysis of certain soundbursts produce the cover’s bizarre Hand of God image. All cool stuff, but I’m more interested in how the music’s evolved. Since the days of The Fragile, […]

The Morningside hail from Russia and play a relaxed, melancholic brand of melodic death/doom. Brave Murder Day-era Katatonia and Morningrise-era Opeth immediately come to mind – not surprising, considering these bands are listed as influences. Aside from albums like Rapture’s Futile and some aspects of earlier Agalloch, this particular sound seems to be rare, so […]

Bands outside the dominant demographics of heavy music (obvious internal Mecca’s being New York, Florida, Boston, Gothenburg, Quebec, etc, etc, countries there is no need to list we all know the whose who) usually fall into two divides. The first is that they take their influences (which can be easily detected) and compose thrilling pieces […]

So here is a limited edition (500 copies) 7″ vinyl spilt with new songs from Grayceon (“The West”) and Giant Squid (“Sutter’s Fort”). Both bands are arguably two of the better avant-garde, post-rock bands around, with both acts featuring the vocals of Jackie Perez Gratz (Amber Asylum) and her cello amid the dramatic, fluid, evocative […]

Brant Bjork has always exhibited a trademark laidback attitude about rock music, having first cut his teeth in the mega-influential stoner-rock icons Kyuss, then departing that success to join the looser but no less phenomenal Fu Manchu. With a slew of formidable solo records, Bjork now gathers Kyuss alum Alfredo Hernández on drums, Cortez on […]

Miami’s Consular must hail from the swampiest sections of the Everglades, for their molasses-slinging hurricane of sludge begins with the typical scavenging of spare chords from Grief, Eyehategod, Iron Monkey, and the like. But this four-piece stops there, adding instead more melody without detracting from the sheer density of their sound. Their debut Don’t Cross […]

Rarely does a band stack up to their ambitious bio, but UK’s End of Level Boss do in excess. Flirting with Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Metallica, and Godflesh on their 2005 debut Prologue couldn’t even hint at what was in store for this London quartet on Inside the Difference Engine—and now, thankfully, every semblance of […]

Black thrash with a sneer that quickly morphs into a grin. When I want to listen to metal purely for escapist fun, enjoyment that puts a smile on your face kind of metal, I’ll put on Gamma Ray, for a few songs anyway, and then I’ll need something a bit more intense yet still happy. […]

There’s not too many high-quality, new, young death or black metal acts coming out of the UK right now. Sarpanitum and Scythian are the only ones that immediately come to mind. However, after Spearhead’s 2005 primal but forgetful debut, Deathless Steel Command, the Brits have returned with a superior follow-up (subtitled The Doctrine of Imperial […]

Here’s how you can recreate Torch of War’s debut full length all by yourself; Trap a mosquito and hook up an amp to the container then record its wings buzzing incessantly for 35 minutes (guitars). At the same time, get a simple plastic beach bucket and have a child bang on it as fast and […]

Most splits I review are often at least by liked mined or musically similar acts, that’s not the case with this split as it combines the gnarly Bolt Thrower fronted by a manic banshee sound of Arizona’s Landmine Marathon with the classic thrash metal of former Exhumed members. Landmine Marathon’s, debut, Wounded, was a gritty, […]

Most splits I review are often at least by liked mined or musically similar acts, that’s not the case with this split as it combines the gnarly Bolt Thrower fronted by a manic banshee sound of Arizona’s Landmine Marathon with the classic thrash metal of former Exhumed members. Landmine Marathon’s, debut, Wounded, was a gritty, […]

Thanks to the US postal service, it took numerous attempts an several months for me to get my copy of this for review from the label and after the wait, though I’m not completely sold, this is if anything, a very, very challenging and ambitious work. If you think the likes of Between the Buried […]

Despite most tribute albums being overblown, indulgent, and downright selfish, Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess jumps on the crowded bandwagon with his own homage to his primary influences—but the difference is The Road Home doesn’t suck…at all. Rudess chooses a varied set list and hand-picks his musician friends to pull it off correctly. Emerson, Lake […]

After NonAnthropgenic and SoulSavior, V:28’s trilogy is apparently now complete with VioLution, which basically continues their industrial black-ish metal tone that still imbues a sort of modern Enslaved meets label mate Havoc Unit in a blackened industrial visage. The thing is, it’s still just relatively uninteresting as nothing really ever ‘happens’ or peaks on the […]

This is melancholic black metal from the USA. This is their second full length, and their demos were recently combined on cd as well, so the whole discography is readily available. Krohm is a relatively new band, with the first full length in 2004 after forming in 1995 by Dario Derna, who was previously, back […]

Estonia’s Goresoerd deliver 16 short tracks of chunky, blasting, groovy grindcore with a tongue in check delivery that should appeal to fans of Blood Duster and a lot of the Obscene Productions stuff. Though hardly a groundbreaking record, the usual mix of short, sharp punky blasts (“For Idiots All Over the World”, “Circle of Masturbators”, […]