A Lizard Skynard album arrives in your inbox. Before listening to it, you guess what it might be. Do you guess: a) A groovy, psychedelic mix of southern rock and thrash? b) A cheeky mix of lounge music, psychobilly and sludge fronted by a guy in a lizard mask? c) A lurching blend of hardcore […]

The amount of music that gets released each year is staggering. Thus, it’s not a surprise that while 2010 is well underway, we still find worthwhile releases from 2009 land in our laps. What’s more, during the past few years Australia has become so much more to the metal crowd―particularly Alchemist, Cemetery Urn and Destroyer […]

Given the cover artwork, and the name, I figured Scorched-Earth would be some haphazard grindcore band and the Mars experience would be up after, oh, 30 minutes at most. I was also reminded of the old school trajectory-based strategy game Scorched Earth on the PC (come on, space, tanks, and that band name?). Color me […]

Better late than never, right? That’s what Cheech said in one of the Ghostbusters movies anyway, and he seems to be a reputable character, so I’m going with it. The subject of this review, Acheron‘s 2009 release entitled The Final Conflict: Last Days of God, saw the dark of night via Displeased and Ibex Moon […]

So Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer, who has always seemed a very patriotic sort, has now launched a side project Sons of Liberty and electronically self-released a debut record Brush-fires of the Mind. The project is heavily political and obsessed with conspiracy theories. He’s said that he intends the band and its website to become […]

Finland’s Survivors Zero collects members from Deathchain, The Scourger and Finntroll for a modern metal / brutal death metal hybrid, where groove meets wailing guitars. I have to admit, I haven’t been following the death metal world too closely during the past couple of years, but to me the Zero represents a style that was […]

Another band out of the recent UK deathcore/death metal scene (Ingested, Annotations of an Autopsy, etc), Machiavellian’s debut 4 song EP, though on the short side offers up 23 minutes of pretty solid and at times sludge laced deathcore that shows a little promise. Though only 4 songs, one of the songs is over 6 […]

The run had to come to an end. I’ve enjoyed a parade of pretty good 1970s and ‘80s inspired rock and metal over the first couple of months of the year. I knew it couldn’t last. Greek trio Wheelrunner has a lot of problems, the main one being that they can’t decide if they want […]

It seems that a lot of the albums I’ve gotten early this year have a heavy 1980s influence to them. Most have been surprisingly very good, a couple have been awful and then there’s the middle ground, where the full-length debut from Finland’s Armour falls.  There’s some fairly solid early-to-mid 1980s hard rock here, falling […]

In a visual comparison, both Gwar and Green Jellÿ wear elaborately goofy costumes onstage (Gwar actually taught Green Jellÿ how to make their own latex costumes). Musically, the bands share the comedy shtick, though as Gwar leans toward metal, Green Jellÿ seem satisfied to play loud punk rock. The biggest difference is that Gwar has […]

After one spin of the new Alice in Chains album, it’s screamingly apparent that our dearly departed Layne Staley did not quite make this band—guitarist Jerry Cantrell did. However, none of Cantrell’s numerous post-AIC solo tunes seriously gelled with fans, either. But there are two truisms evident in each note of Black Gives Way to […]

The full-length debut from Italy’s Future is Tomorrow certainly shows some promise, if not much innovation. It’s a concept record that looks at a funeral through the eyes of the deceased, and apparently only the first part of the concept. On a positive note, Future is Tomorrow plays a brand of power/prog without a lot […]

After being particularly impressed by Elis’ Catharsis recently, I was anxious to check out the latest from Siegfried, Nibelung, featuring vocalist Sandra Schleret from the Elis record. It also didn’t hurt that I happen to be a fan of Wagner, the original metal musician, so I was intrigued by the theme of the record. This […]

It never fails. Every year when I put my year end list together and get it posted, an album comes along within days that knocks my socks off and could have easily made my top 10. Metal of Honor, the fourth full length from Detroit’s Nocturnal Fear is that album this year. You know something […]

Here’s another album that caught me completely off guard near the end of the year. Hailing from Arizona, Vektor are yet another young entry into the retro thrash craze, but have a decidedly different approach than most of their peers. The first thing many will notice before even pushing play are the similarities of Vektor‘s […]

Here we have the debut EP from Amorphead who hail from Italy and play a modern form of death/thrash. Psychotic is a 6 track offering book-ended by an intro and outro, cleverly titled as “Dreaming” and “Awakening”, respectively, leaving four proper songs. From what I can tell of these four, they have a slightly different […]

After many, many years stuck in the wilderness, the UK is finally getting back into the Death Metal arena with legions and legions of quality bands. Despite the intricate nuances of these new minions, they all comfortably sit under the encompassing banner of “Death Metal,” be it the blitzkrieg insanity of Infected Disarray, the guttural perfection of Embryonic Depravity or the freakishly bizarre Crepitation and Amputated, these bands are Death Metal to the bone. Ingested, produced one of my favourite (and most played) albums of 2009, they are another cast iron example that extreme music is healthy and vibrant on these shores. Ingested first came to my attention as the standout band of the North-West Slam Fest 3 way split extravaganza that was released in 2007. The potential demonstrated on that juicy entrée was mouth watering, and they satisfyingly outdid themselves on their full length. I spoke with drummer Lynn Jeffs, on whom the band’s guttural insanity is pivoted, he had plenty to say on the scene, his tenure in Annotations of an Autopsy, and the future plans for Ingested.

Here’s another late 2009 release that is worth your while even if you can look past the fact that the moniker, label, logo, cover art and band’s looks scream Hot Topic deathcore. The fact is though, Australia’s The Red Shore, despite all the above going against them they are more along the lines of As […]

After two excellent splits, UK-based pagan black metal outfit Wodensthrone has delivered one of the most impressive debut albums I’ve heard in years. Grand, savage, epic and beautiful, Loss has not only found itself high on my year-end list, but it’s also quickly become one of my favorite albums in the genre. Much of this has to do with the sweeping songcraft, but it’s the evocative, atmospheric nature of the music that really transports the listener. No surprise, given that these guys take their history, their heritage and their philosophy quite seriously. Read on and you might even learn a few things…

Featuring members of black/doom act Eyes of Ligeia and Crimson Moon, Atlanta’s Legions of Astaroth have been plying their trade since 2004, culminating in this solid debut of frosty, grim and mildly atmospheric black metal. While most of the metal media seems to take heed of the more artistic side of US black metal (Krallice, […]

2009 was a pretty strong year for grindcore (and Willowtip) with the likes of Blood I Bleed, Napalm Death, Defeatist, Insect Warfare, Afgrund, Mumakil, Magrudergrind and such delivering the grinding goods, and Willowtip put the cherry on top of 2009 with the 5th album from Polish stalwarts Squash Bowels. If you are familiar with European […]

Is there some sort of unspoken mandatory rule that a band has to have a live album after their 4th or 5th studio album? The reason I ask is that I’m not sure what the point of this release is. It’s only 8 tracks long – most live albums are packed to the brim with […]

I was a bit unimpressed by the commercial meets metal output of their sister band An Entire Legion, but Tricore fares much better while treading similar ground. Less than Man, More than Rabbit leans a little more toward a heavier sound, mixing radio-ready commercial hard rock with bits of thrash and just a few blasts […]

Candlelight Records today confirms the recent signings of KRIEG, WOE and YAOTL MICTLAN.  All three add to the English label’s growing American roster, a concentrated effort of the label the past several years. Currently celebrating its ninth year of US operation, the label opened US offices January 2001 with the release of its first album, […]

With 2009 now coming to a close, GRAVEHILL would like to announce that our partnership with ENUCLEATION RECORDS is officially concluded. We’d like to thank our friend and Brother Greg Drudy / ENUCLEATION RECORDS for all his support of GRAVEHILL. As the saying goes “When a door closes… a window opens!” thus moving into a […]