EARACHE RECORDS is proud to announce the signing of a young and talented death metal band called AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH. Formed 2 years ago in Detroit, MI, AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH has taken great influence from death metal legends such as DECIDE and co-mingled them with modern touches popularized by the likes of WHITECHAPEL […]

I’ll make a confession and tell you that I hadn’t had much faith in Dream Theater since they brought out their timeless masterpiece Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes From A Memory back in 1999. While its successors Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence and Train Of Thought both had their moments of brilliance and assured the listener […]

I guess I missed the debut album from Italy’s Malfeitor, but I sure am glad I got a copy of Incubus to review. It is one hellishly righteous cauldron of boiling black metal. Featuring bassist/vocalist M. Fabban (Aborym), Malfeitor play in a traditional Scandinavian style, in this case one that crosses the ferociously fast and […]

How many genres fold in other cultural sounds and themes as energetically and creatively as metal? We’ve got it all: Ancient Egyptian death metal (Nile) and Christian progressive black metal (Extol). Metal from both the Middle East (Melechesh) and Middle Earth (Summoning). An entire seagoing army of epic Viking folk bands (Thyrfing, Aes Dana, Moonsorrow, […]

Earache Records, the original home of many of the bands who created the grindcore genre, is set to release a special 118-track, 3-CD compilation called GRIND MADNESS AT THE BBC (THE EARACHE PEEL SESSIONS), featuring some of the first ever grindcore recordings. The tracks are all taken from the legendary JOHN PEEL’s early BBC radio […]

You’ve heard the phrase “never judge a book by its cover.” In metal, this aphorism generally doesn’t apply. An album’s artwork usually gives at least some insight into the type of music you’re going to hear. The cover art for Assaulter’s Salvation Like Destruction is misleading, though-a birdlike monolith stretches its wings against an ominous-looking […]

Futility are an unsigned act from Australia that play an aggressive version of death/doom. For a self-released debut, this isn’t too bad but it seems amateurish in comparison to some of the other premier doom acts coming from Aussie territory.Slowly, “Failed” starts of with harmonized misery, reminiscent of early Anathema and Katatonia. With the somber […]

Born Again – the Crucial Blast Records debut from France’s OVERMARS – will see US release September 22nd, 2009.  Born Again descends deep into themes of self-immolation, horror, and rebirth, and becomes a harrowing narrative as it moves through a series of different musical moods. Overmars had already established their atmospheric, electronically-tainted sludge-metal sound on their […]

Detroit war-thrash commando NOCTURNAL FEAR have finished the recording of their fourth and latest album, Metal of Honor. Session vocals were handled by Doomy G. Blackthrash of comrades Sauron, as vocalist Necromodeus (ex-Summon, and the vocalist for last year’s Code of Violence) has since departed the band. Guitarist/founder Chris Slavehunter PhD promises that Metal of […]

I’ll admit, even I have been a bit burnt out on Christian metal of late, and when I initially started listening to the debut from Fargo’s Hands I was pretty unmoved, as the rumbling opener “Hurricanes” didn’t do much for me and I simply classified it as yet another group of uppity noisy Christians spreading […]

There’s a dude on the back cover of Rex Mundi X-Ile wearing a gas mask and PVC latex. It’s never a good sign when your band photo apes something Marilyn Manson did back in ’96 (on the inside jacket for Antichrist Superstar). And it’s not because I’m anti-Manson or anything (I’m not, though I wish […]

Kicking Off October 2nd, High On Fire and Converge Will Tour With Stars of Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse and Grammy® Award Winner, Mastodon During Seven-Week Tour EA’s “Brütal Legend”; to Sponsor Metal Tour. This fall, two of the most popular bands in metal will co-headline a 34-city North American tour as the Grammy® Award-winning Mastodon hits […]

TRACK LIST ANNOUNCED FOR VOLUME TWO of CANDIRIA’S, TOYING WITH THE INSANITIES Artwork Revealed for Volumes One and Two of Four-Volume Set. BROOKLYN, NY – Experimental Metal pioneers, Candiria, have announced the track list for ‘Volume Two’ of their upcoming rarities and remixes collection, Toying With the Insanities, which is due out September 9th on […]

You are mistaken if you are thinking this is the Finnish doom band of the same name so click away now if you were expecting a mournful recollection of misery. Instead is the complete other side of the spectrum, fierce, robust, thrashing metal from a place more likely to be more miserable then Finland, that […]

  Reunited Norwegian black metallers IMMORTAL will release their new album, All Shall Fall, in in Europe on September 25, 2009 and North America on October 6, 2009 via Nuclear Blast Records.All Shall Fall was recorded at Grieghallen and Abyss studios in Norway and Sweden, respectively. James Minton of U.K.’s Terrorizer magazine recently posted an […]

The Bay Area metal band Skinlab have posted the artwork and track listing for their forthcoming album entitled The Scars Between Us scheduled to hit shelves on September 15th, 2009. The band has also put out a new online poster for anyone that wants to help support the bands upcoming release. You can also see […]

I’ve kind of dreaded writing this review ever since I gave Evangelion a few spins. Seeing as Behemoth has reached Dismember, Bolt Thrower, Suffocation and Grave levels of consistency and quality, they have arguably surpassed Vader as Poland’s premier metal export and almost certainly should be considered death metal royalty at this point in their […]

Man oh man; Australia produces some great extreme metal acts, especially those of the black, death, and war variety. The fertile down-under breeding ground has given us another righteous death metal act in Defamer and its first full-length release, Chasm. This one is all about evil atmosphere and old school spirit, but damn, it takes […]

World-renowned power trio HIGH ON FIRE will begin work on its long-awaited, fifth studio album and follow-up to 2007’s Death is This Communion this August. The esteemed band will commence pre-production in Los Angeles with producer Greg Fidelman (Metallica, Slayer, Johnny Cash) and the goal of capturing “the ultimate High on Fire experience.” Universally recognized […]

According to the label’s website: “We are proud to inform you that Sickening Horror (Athens, Greece) signed a deal with SFC records to release their second full-length album, which will be out on August 21-st 2009.The band was founded in 2002 and the first stuff has been created under the influence of monsters of the […]

Athens, Ohio’s SKELETONWITCH has unveiled the cover art of their new full length, Breathing the Fire, due out October 13th on Prosthetic Records. The cover, designed by Andrei Bouzikov, who has previously done art for Municipal Waste and many others, can be viewed HERE: http://store.prostheticrecords.com/skeletonwitch/cover.jpg  Scott Hedrick, the band’s guitarist said about the cover, “The […]

Born of Osiris is one of those young popular bands everyone loves to hate (moreso ‘cos of their fans I think) and they along with The Faceless initially got lumped in with the deathcore crowd. However, The Faceless further distances themselves from deathcore and aligned more with technical death metal with last year’s impressive Planetary […]

Black Market Activities proudly reveals its next release: Bishop Kent Manning, the staggering second album by the_Network, out September 15 on BMA.  Produced by Kurt Ballou (Converge, Trap Them) at Godcity Studio and mastered by Nick Zampiello (Torche, Unsane) at New Alliance, Bishop Kent Manning is a concept album that follows the epic story of […]

Wow – talk about being knocked on your ass! Carving Out the Eyes of God (from here on will be Carving), the fourth long player from New Orleans’ Goatwhore is a monster of an album, and it was totally unexpected for me. My first exposure to them was about five years ago when I saw […]

Attention all extreme metal record labels, Milwaukee’s Burial Ritual deserves a spot on your roster. Check out the precision death metal execution and memorable songwriting of Tower of Silence and I defy you to disagree. That’s not to say that self-released albums aren’t typically worthy of your time, but it is still a pleasant surprise […]