With 2007s debut, Nailed. Dead. Risen, California’s Impending Doom rustled some feathers and raised some eyebrows with their attempt at  pure, brutal death metal from a Christian viewpoint. On some levels it succeeded, but it also felt a bit forced and gimmicky. So here is the follow up, and I’m glad to say, that for […]

Like this record, I’ll get xstraightx to it: 9 songs, 22 minutes of very impressive, incredibly hefty, heaving Straight edge hardcore/metal that’s some of the most impressive of this style I’ve heard since Black My Heart and Redline. Also, because some of the huge, open note breakdowns, this will appeal to the likes of The […]

There is prolific and then there is what Fistula’s Corey Bing does. The man that has redefined the term. A veteran of the Northeastern Ohio sludge/doom battle zone, Bing has played in numerous heavy hitting acts – Accept Death, Sollubi, King Travolta, Ultralord, you name it. But Fistula has always been the area’s flagship act with a sound that is quintessential in its hatefulness and crushing weight, yet one that is also varied and always impeccably written and recorded. New album Burdened by your Existence owes as much to crust as it does Black Sabbath, driving listeners into the ground with crawling menace and ripping out throats with quick turns into speedier tempos, and everything in between.

Bing is a lifer in the truest definition of the term. Guys like Corey are the reason I continue to write about the world of metal, particularly the underground superheroes like Bing and the fertile community in which he resides. His work is created out of love, nothing more, nothing less, just like many of the scene veterans with which he has played. In the interview that follows, Corey and I discuss Fistula past and present, his former and current projects, record labels, and what this beloved thing call metal is supposed to be all about. As much as I hate to make self-important douche-bag claims, I’m inclined to call this Fistula interview a pretty damn definitive one. Soak it up and sweat it out.

I invite you to check out SelfMadeGod Records and the bands webpage after this review because the description they have of Mothra’s music is not only hilarious, it’s pretty dead on. Honestly, I am having a difficult time placing Mothra into a specific genre, but I am completely impressed by this Polish act. Dyes is […]

Brantford, Ontario, Canada based metal band Our Lady of Bloodshed has signed with Northern Storm Records. The group’s debut album “VII” will be released under the label on June 16th, 2009. Our Lady of Bloodshed is currently streaming tracks online at http://www.Myspace.com/OurLadyofBloodshed “We are all very excited about this partnership,” says Our Lady of Bloodshed […]

Personally, I have never really cared for My Dying bride. As much as I love dismal doom metal, this veteran act has never struck the right chord with me. Is that blasphemy? No, it’s just this reviewer’s disposition. However, no one can deny how important this band has been to doom and gloom, and For […]

It is no secret there are bands that are mediocre on CD but manage to destroy live. Goatwhore is one such band, an act whose studio efforts have never wowed me the way their presence on stage ALWAYS has. Skinless is another, and though I’ve liked their earlier material, From Sacrifice to Survival onward hasn’t […]

Holy hell. 2008 saw tech death metal explode with the likes of Origin, Decrepit Birth, Brain Drill, Trigger the Bloodshed, Severed Savior, Psycroptic and such; a year hard to top right? Well, 2009 already has seen brilliant releases from Obscura and Ulcerate as well as solid releases from Inevitable End, Gory Blister, Trigger the Bloodshed […]

Here’s yet another excellently put together, self – released effort, this time from Phoenix, Arizona’s Loren Battle, however, the music isn’t quite as promising as the cover art and self described mix of “beauty and brutality”. What we have here is a very predictable style of metalcore that’s on the heavier end of the spectrum […]

As a deathcore fan, 2009 has been off to a pretty solid start with the likes of Rose Funeral, Impending Doom, Glasgow Grin, Within the Ruins, Earth From Above, etc. However two recent releases in particular have savaged my genitals with the tenacity of an African Honey Badger and I was wearing beehive underpants; the […]

First off, I’m generally not a writer who spends half the review on an albums packaging or artwork, but Defeater’s Travel’s and its multi panel, digipack gatefold packaging emblazoned with no frills, grainy and real, black and white photos is simply superb and a welcome change to the usual over the top colors of the urban […]

(Los Angeles, CA) April 14, 2009 – The Syracuse, N.Y.-based UNHOLY, who will support Earth Crisis and Walls of Jericho on a national tour next month, have posted the Aeron Alfrey-designed cover art for their Prosthetic Records debut, New Life Behind Closed Eyes, on their MySpace page, http://www.myspace.com/unholy.  “The cover as well as the interior […]

In an update issued by the band: “We’re proud to announce that we’ve  licensed our own new EP, Doomsday Derelicts from our North American label, Century Media, to be released on our own in-house label Battle Kommand Records for release in North America! The CD will be at press shortly and we anticipate a release […]

DARKEST HOUR, the Washington D.C. powerhouse metal quintet, will proudly release their fifth full-length record, The Eternal Return, June 23, 2009 on Victory Records. The band tapped producer Brian McTernan (Senses Fail, Thrice, From Autumn to Ashes) and recorded at his Baltimore, MD-based Salad Days Studio. Guitarist Mike Schleibaum comments, “To put it simply, this […]

I’ve discovered that there is a big difference between listening to Psyopus’ Odd Senses with a clear mind (yesterday) and in a hung over state (this morning). The latter is not recommended for those trying get their proverbial shit together after a night spent drowning in Crown Royal, vodka, and beer.In any case, I must […]

Pennsylvania’s Sathanas have been causing a ruckus in the underground since 1988’s Ripping Evil demo, but it is these last several years during which they’ve been on one hell of a roll. In 2005 they released the Entering the Diabolic Trinity album and followed it up with the scorching Crowned Infernal (both on Pulverised Records). […]

Skelmersdale England’s death-thrash outfit Machiavellian has posted a video teaser for their new album “The Impossibility of Death in the Minds of the Living” online here. The group’s debut release will surface this spring on Year of the Sun Records. Recorded at Foel Studios in Wales, “The Impossibility of Death in the Minds of the […]

Translation Loss Records are extremely excited to announce the addition of Richmond, VA’s CITY OF SHIPS to their roster!   CITY OF SHIPS has been touring relentlessly since its inception in 2005, promoting self-released EPs as well as CD and Vinyl releases from independent Richmond, VA labels Forcefield Records and the Perpetual Motion Machine. The trio […]

My CD collection is full of albums I ‘like’. Not albums I’m going to revisit and listen to over and over again, but certainly not an album I’m going to trade in, sell or use for Skeet shooting once I’m done reviewing it The second album, Dawn of Reprisal from the UK’s Malefice is one such […]

Maybe it’s the five year wait, maybe it’s the fact I’ve listened to soooo much similar styled noisy, lurching, techy mathcore in the last 4 years, maybe I’ve just turned into a miserable, jaded old fuck. I’m not sure what it is, but after being blown away by 2005s The Design, the follow up, The Campaign, […]

Now this – this is what I’m talking about. Metal Blade got it right with Lazarus A.D. More than just another retro thrash band, these gents from Wisconsin aren’t afraid to modernize their ripping thrash sound with a heaping dose of groove, seething vocals and a top notch production. Taking more than a couple cues […]

Even though I consider myself a huge fan of Progressive Metal, it so fell out that French quintet Adagio, one of the strongest contemporaries in the genre, had been lost on my radar for unreasonably long five years before chance threw us together again. No sooner had I heard the first thrashy riffs of “Vamphyri”, […]

Harpoon is a drum machine based ‘grindcore’ duo featuring vocalist Toney Vast-Binder of 7000 Dying Rats fame and guitarist/drum programmer Dean Costello (the band has also added Lair of The Minotaur bassist DJ Barraca). The term grindcore is relative here-this isn’t pure Napalm Death, nor is it the modern pseudo grindcore (Pig Destroyer, etc) that […]

If someone walked up to you on the street, threw a handful of Sunkist Fruit Gems in your face and then whacked you in the nuts with a large mackerel, it’d be about as wtf surprising as the first few minutes of this album. This is the kind of spastic, dizzying assault first perfected by […]

WHEN AND WHERE Dates: July 31, August 1, and August 2, 2009 Venue: El Rodeo Community Center Address: 451 W. Hueneme Rd., Oxnard, CA 93033 STAGE SOUND / STAGE FURY This year we are pleased to announce that we will have a 2 stage set-up for the first time. The two stage set-up could be […]