From the label that brought us the excellent When the Deadbolt Breaks comes a grooving, loping doom/sludge act, though this one comes with a thick stoner doom haze and features (former) Metal Maniacs scribe JJ Koczan on vocals. Hailing from New Jersey, Maegashira (some rank in Sumo wrestling I gather) is armed with a beefy, […]

Portland Oregon’s Nanda Devi (named after the second largest mountain in India) aren’t doing anything particularly original or inspiring with their take on the suddenly popular to hate post rock, Neur-Isis styled metal, but it’s a worthy entry into the genre. Five relatively rangy songs (6-10 minutes) and three untitled instrumental fillers make up the […]

WHITE WIZZARD, LA’s high-energy, NWOBHM-influenced metallers – who could be described as a cross between DIAMOND HEAD and VAN HALEN – have signed a worldwide, multi-album deal with Earache Records. WHITE WIZZARD formed in 2007 and shortly afterwards recorded their HIGH SPEED GTO demo, which only made it into the hands of a few select […]

New Album Due This Fall  Shadows Fall have announced the formation of their own label in conjunction with Warner Music Group’s Independent Label Group and Ferret Music. The band will release their 6th studio album this Fall. More details coming soon.  Lead singer Brian Fair has this to say about his bands new venture:  “All of us […]

New York-based extreme metal band BURNING HUMAN has completed work on its debut album, titled Resurrection Through Fire. The record will drop on April 21, 2009 via E1 Music (formerly KOCH Records). Resurrection Through Fire administers ten frighteningly intense tracks of underground death metal that inflict lethal doses of crushing brutality, relentless speed and blast-furnace […]

Oslo City District Court has delivered a verdict on the main question in the GORGOROTH trademark case, which took place at the end of January 2009. The court has decided that King Ov Hell’s trademark registration #243365 of the band name GORGOROTH is NOT valid and shall therefore be deleted. The court states that King […]

UNEARTH AND LAZARUS A.D. TO SUPPORT!!! Bay Area thrash legends TESTAMENT are taking the stage once again for their first US headlining tour in support of the award-winning The Formation of Damnation. The band’s first new studio album in nine years won “Album of the Year” at the 2008 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards. The […]

Originally released on 625 Thrash Records back in 2007 and now re-released by arguably the original grindcore record label, Texas’s Insect Warfare continue where the monstrous grindcore recent efforts of fellow Texans Kill the Client, Maruta, Captain Cleanoff and Napalm Death, left off. Basically, Insect Warfare is like my mother in law; short, explosive, loud, […]

You can talk about winning streaks in metal all you want, but how many acts have been on one as long and consistent as Napalm Death? Think about it. The game was raised way back on 2000’s Enemy of the Music Business and continued with 2002’s Order of The Leach, then raised again on an […]

Hailing from Finland, Folk three-piece (with the aid of some noteworthy session members) Crimfall entered the folk metal fray back in 2008 with their Burning Winds demo. And now with their Napalm Records debut, As the Path Unfolds, those demo tracks as well as eight brand new tracks deliver exactly what you’d expect from a Finnish Folk/Viking band-and more. With the luscious Helena Haaparanta providing an operatic gloss to the expectedly up beat, typically Finnish, blackened yet epic and bouncy fare, Crimfall, like the recent release by Kivimentsan Druidi, Arkona and country mates Battlelore, have given folk/Viking metal some elegance amid the grime and chain mail driven throes typically associated with the genre. From the bombastic chorus of “The Crown of Treason” through the ethnic chants of “Wildfire Season” and Middle Eastern Aura of “Sun Orphaned” to ballad “Aubade” the album covers all of Folk Metal bases with confidence, gusto and an orchestral grandeur. I visited with guitarist Jakke Viitala to find out a little more about one of Finnish folk metal’s newest additions…

Whereas the upcoming release, Lullabies For the Dormant Mind from label mates The Agonist is a vital, powerful and stunningly good example of female fronted metal done right, the debut from Wisconsin’s Luna Mortis is little more than a mish mash of styles that while, has some promise simply does not do enough to justify […]

Nearly 4 years is much too long for a follow up to such a bad ass album, that being Rumpelstiltskin Grinder’s (RG) 2005 opus Buried in the Front Yard, an album that knocked me on my ass from the word go. I remember reading a review of it and thinking “this sounds like my kind […]

There was a lot of buzz about the Relapse debut of Germany’s tech death band Obscura, especially since being joined by Necrophagist members Christian Muenzner (guitars), Hannes Grossman (Drums) and Pestilence bassist (for Spheres) Jeroen Paul Thesseling. Now I’ve had about a month to let the album, sink in, I can confidently say the hype […]

Razorback Records keeps picking winners from the nose of death. Said pickings would include Condemned Cathedral from Texas’ (Cooper or Dallas, depending on your geographic orientation) Decrepitaph. The trio’s self-described “death metal the ancient way” is filled to the rim with dirt-caked and pummeling, yet fundamentally structured and tuneful, death metal that takes its cues from the doomy side of the genre (Incantation, Asphyx, etc). And yes, zombies are involved. Drummer/lyricist/composer Elektrokutioner spills his guts about Decrepitaph.

It’s been a while since I heard anything remotely metal from Victory Records, but all of a sudden they release a slew of records in the form of Arise and Ruin’s improved thrash attack, Corpus Christi’s As I Lay Dying impression, Wretched’s impressive The Black Dahlia Murder worship and this fine melodic death core assault […]

Hot on the heels on Century Media’s Kivimetsan Druidi, come another female fronted, dirt, fur and paint covered folk metal band infusing classical/orchestral elements into the tried and true Finnish take on folk/pagan/Viking metal as plied by the likes of Ensiferum, Turisas and such. The results are largely successful, mostly due to Helena Haaparanta who […]

I was anxious to check out Bridges to Burn, the new 16 album and the first since 2003’s Zoloft Smile, which was not only a top 10 selection for me from that year, but also remains one of my all-time favorites. There is just something about the combination of harsh, riff-based groove, the easily remembered […]

Walkerton, Ontario based Odium has signed with Year of the Sun Records for the release of their upcoming debut album “At The Bottom“, which was produced by Greg Dawson (The End, Moneen). Odium’s debut will surface in March 2009. The group has posted a new song online at www.myspace.com/odiummusic.  “We’re excited to join the Year […]

Cleveland’s 6-headed metal beast, CHIMAIRA,  are set to give the world their first taste of The Infection, with the release of their first single, “Secrets of the Dead.” The song will be available for purchase via iTunes and can be heard streaming on the band’s official MySpace (www.myspace.com/chimaira). “Secrets of the Dead” is also featured […]

Swedish black metal cult AVSKY are currently recording their third album (and second for MORIBUND RECORDS), to be titled Scorn.  Reports guitarist/bassist AE, “We’re extremely satisfied with the result so far. The material is much better and more complex than before, and we will have Nox from CRAFT make a guest appearance on one of […]

Seriously, what are you expecting to read here? I suppose I’d better write something I guess…. 20 years, 11 studio albums, 1 million records sold worldwide, Cannibal Corpse are the very epitome of death metal consistency and even though the band is often still referred to as the band Chris Barnes used to be in […]

Nurtured by bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Saxon, Accept and Helloween, I don’t remember being much of a Grave Digger fan in my early years of metalhood. Yet, these Germans have been around since 1980 and have a lot of experience under their belt, which is thoroughly proven by the thirteen studio […]

In a statement made on Friday, February 27, 2009: “NACHTMYSTIUM has sad news today with a once-again recurring issue surfacing from the wake of our past. We’ve been forced, at the request of the promoters and the folks at Scion / Toyota, to pull out of the Scion Rock Fest, scheduled for Saturday, February 28. […]

While the very concept of melodic death metal is somewhat of a paradox, and one could argue what exactly it entails, I think most readers of this site at least have some general idea of what melodic death metal is, so rather than try to dissect the genre and possible entries, I’ve listed 10 melodic death metal albums that A) fit the genre in my eyes, and B) would be the 10 must have examples of the genre I would choose to take on this forsaken sand dump. Now, I’m sure I’ve missed a bunch, especially from the 1997-2004 range, so feel free to chip in and tell me how wrong my personal opinion is…

So what if you took the three guitar, Brown note devastation of The Acacia Strain and mixed it with the worshipful heft of Sleeping Giant and other Christian hardcore bands? You’d get The Great Commission and Strikefirst’s best (and heaviest) release since their re-ignition and arguably heavier than anything parent label Facedown Record has released. […]