An hour and a half of new recordings from Horna. Sanojesi Äärelle, (‘to the fount of thy word’), presents the Finnish  masters of minimalism at their current best. They are still maintaining that live in the studio feel, vocals in one take, cracks and slips kept intact, etc. Motorhead lives. Corvus has been with the […]

Both formed in 2003, both from California, both have cool logos, both have a full length out and now they shave a split. California’s best kept secret. I’ve never really been a fan of band names of more than two words, if you need to come up with a truncated version for everyday conversation the […]

You’ve got to respect what Markus Eck and his German webzine have accomplished with the fifth installment of their Metal Message folk/pagan/Viking compilation CDs. For this lavishly packaged release, legendary artist Ed Repka (Megadeath, Death, Atheist, 3 Inches of Blood) has provided the cover and the DVD packaged material is full of endearing artwork, including […]

Formed by members of the decidedly non death metal act Ananda (and other hardcore acts), Carmina is the full of death metal assault and only the second release on fledgling Rewolucja Records (owned by Carmina bassist Bif), and it’s a pretty scorching little EP. Clocking in at 25 minutes, the 7 no nonsense songs that […]

So after my review of Finsterfirst’s latest album, Einheit Produktionen were kind enough to send me a trio of the labels releases from the tail end of 2008, and all three warrant your attention, especially the 5th full length album from this long running German folk/Viking metal band. Much like Heidevolk, there’s a huge Vintersorg […]

Cryogen’s last release, This Nightmare EP, was one of the first I reviewed for this site, back when it was still Digital Metal. In the two years since, not much has changed in the camp musically – they still play a slightly Americanized brand of melodic death metal, drawing influence from In Flames and the […]

Based in Sweden now for over 20 years, Blessed marks my introduction to Epic Doom Metal band Faith. Their music is something of a blend of early Tad Morose, Candlemass, Progressive Rock and Swedish Folk Music (complete with fiddles & old world melodies). The songs are long, the guitars are quite heavy and the vibe […]

Here’s a promising, nicely packaged, self released, 5 song EP than will not only appeal to you retro thrash fans out there, but maybe fans of modern thrash like Trivium and Cerberus (US). Hailing from Tempe, Arizona, Hemoptysis (coughing up of blood or of blood-stained sputum from the bronchi, larynx, trachea, or lungs), have all […]

A solid split of goregrind and deathdoom, The Cracks of Doom features two proponents of the extreme underground: Philadelphia’s XXX Maniak and Japan’s Coffins. The half-hour album is split evenly between the two bands; XXX Maniak boast twenty brief cuts between fifteen and sixty seconds, totaling the first fifteen minutes, while Coffins handle two epic […]

Practically every progressive rock band wants to record their own version of Tales from Topographic Oceans, the 1974 double album that was praised—or vilified, depending on the listener’s caprice—as Yes’ finest hour (and twenty minutes) of prog-indulgence. The fact that Yes weathered the loss of keyboardist nonpareil Rick Wakeman after its release and still came […]

These guys have been hovering just below my radar for the last year and a half and in that time I have had ample opportunity to check out these Liverpool natives. Out of either apathy or laziness I just hadn’t. It is safe to say that I’m not quite as enthusiastic about this modern thrash […]

Through no fault of my own I am behind the curve on this one. Back in 2004 I received the Terrifyer promo disc and, like all promotional copies, it was bare fucking bones. Nothing cool like bonus DVD’s are ever included. Originally “Natasha” was an additional bonus dvd to the Terrifyer release, a dvd with […]

I have enjoyed beating myself senseless over the years with the more extreme elements of metal music, but every now and then I do enjoy the more melodic avenues of the genre. Jyvaskyla, Finland’s SaraLee are new to me, but I am enjoying this band’s sophomore release, Damnation to Salvation. SaraLee play a very familiar […]

The fact the third full length album from one of Funeral dooms best bands and one of my favorite personal bands came out late last year and I’m just now getting to it should give you a red flag as to what is about to follow. After two absolutely stunning funeral doom albums in O […]

Now I’m in my element. Two mighty forces combine to create a wonderfully seething and morphing slab of extreme doom/drone. Gentry Densley and Greg Anderson do well in keeping things familiar but also fresh and innovative. Densley (Iceburn and Eagle Twin) is definitely lesser known among the community, unlike the giant Greg Anderson (Sunn 0))), […]

I’m usually all for labels signed bands and releasing stuff outside of their usual fare, but Italian deathcore on Napalm Records? Fail. It’s not even very good deathcore at that, making Damned to Blindness an even bigger failure. Sounding like every teenage middle tier American myspace death metal band that’s listened to The Black Dahlia […]

I don’t know what there is upon which to capitalize in the drone/ambient genre, but Lustmord does pretty well for himself, this being a recent cap on his 25 plus year history in new album [Other]. I’ve personally never been much for the genre, but after taking the bait on one of the genre’s most […]

I’m still kind of on the fence with this release. On one hand, it’s nice to see some thrash done by dudes who don’t look 16 years old, with short dyed black hair and eye liner. But on the other hand, the kids almost do it better. That statement certainly won’t make me any friends. […]

Virginia (mainly Richmond) has shown to be a hotbed for modern American metal and has rendered some superior bands over the years. Gwar, Lamb of God, and Municipal Waste are just a few who have erupted out of this area and made quite a name for themselves. Newcomers Adversary, the latest spewed from Manassas Virginia, […]

The last time I heard from Crimes Against Humanity Records was actually the last Desolatevoid album, Self Medicated Psycho Therapy and little has changed on the Desolatevoid camp; bassist Nick Carroll still runs Crimes Against Humanity Records, vocalist Aaron Howard still sounds batshit insane and the band still plys a form of gritty, crusty, in […]

This is the debut from these Dutch folk/Viking metallers, and it’s a lively collection of good-natured anthems. The cover notes recommends it for fans of Heidevolk, Manegarm and Eluvetie. I’m not really big into this particular sub-genre, as my Viking/folk knowledge goes about as far as Moonsorrow, but this is tightly played and seems authentic […]

The past few years have been an interesting time for metal music no matter how you look at it. The amount of reunions and bands reforming has become a blessing to some and tiresome to others. Some of these acts need to let well enough alone, while others are showing new appetite and rekindling old […]

Canada never ceases to amaze me with their wealth of technically proficient extreme metal acts. Bands like Into Eternity, Strapping Young Lad, Divinity and Quo Vadis have blown my mind time and time again. Once again, I’ve come across another of such bands, this time being the oddly and utterly atrociously named Deeply Confused, a […]

I really, really wanted to like this; an experimental black metal duo from New Hampshire, from a cult label with a history of solid releases? Cobalt anyone? Even more so after reading lots of positive press including our own Scott Alisoglu and a Nathan T. Birk interview of the band in Metal Maniacs that gushed […]

If your self released effort gets reviewed here, you must be doing something right, and the UK’s (Bradford) The Belonging show that a self released effort can compete with most label released efforts. I don’t remember much about the bands prior release, Setting the Scene, so it could not have been that good, but on […]