I avoided this one for awhile, because well, truth be told I haven’t really dug on any new metalcore in quite some time, and all the albums I actually wanted to check out, with expectations and everything, failed me. So here we have this fresh band from the UK, The Eyes of a Traitor (TEOAT […]

Woodstock, Ontario based Misguided Aggression has officially signed a with Year of the Sun Records and Kerosene Media for the release of their upcoming debut full-length, “Hatchala“. The album will surface in stores across Canada on March 17th, 2009. The group is currently streaming the tracks “Our Kingdom Come” and “Pigs in the Market” from […]

So to coincide with the band’s current US Pagan Knights run with Suidakra and Tyr, Scotland’s purveyors of Pirate metal have given us a 4 song EP to tide us over until the next album, slated for a 2009 release. The EP consists of 1 new song (the 6 minute title track), a reworked track […]

The fact that Wisconsin’s Desolatevoid is not a household name in the extreme metal underground is a fucking crime. Perhaps some bands are just meant to be tunnel dwellers. Nah, screw that, it’s time for you and all your friends to grab a copy of debut album Self Medicated Psycho Therapy and new long player No Sign of Better Times and find out what happens when you put crust punk and NOLA metal into a blender. The music is pissed off, calamitous, and abrasively groovy, while the lyrics are a few hairs short of complete dementia. Schizoid vocalist Andy Howard, guitarists Mark Stolp and Brent K, drummer Tim Smith, and bassist/CAH Records chief Nick Carroll discuss what makes Desolate Void tick and why you’re probably too much of a pansy to handle this kind of sonic terror.

Though the third release from the newly restarted Strikefirst Records won’t appeal to too many readers of this site, it will appeal to fans of the first As Cities Burn album as well as the likes of Misery Signals, Means and such; jangly, layered, melodic worshipcore with an overabundance of emo/clean vocals, that as usual […]

Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. Seen Through the Veils of Darkness. The Somberlain. In the Nightside Eclipse. If you already own or know these albums, then there’s nothing here that’s new or fresh – or that you haven’t already heard recycled elsewhere over and over. I hate to start off a review on a negative note, but […]

Three nasty, noisy albums into their career, Sweden’s Crowpath continue to make caustic, brittle attack that seems to be a perfect fit for Willowtip and gives the label’s relatively quiet 2008, a noisy, discordant ending. With a turbulent, chaotic sound akin to a being stuck in a sonic landslide, Crowpath’s largely unclassifiable mix of grind, […]

Where as most deathcore in 2008 was content to prolapse your bowels with breakdowns and little else, the full length debut from Belgium’s Days of Betrayal is actually one of the more complete deathcore albums I’ve heard, with an actual focus on songs and riffs and opposed to endless open note beat downs. Released in […]

Vocalist Andreas Hedlund, also known as the infamous Mr. V or Vintersorg, is probably the busiest man I can think of in Metal music. His ever-lengthening discography always seems to impress me in some fashion, though his style is an acquired taste at times. His bands Borknagar and Vintersorg alone are regarded as some of […]

Imagine a Civil War battlefield, littered with the lumpen shapes of fallen soldiers from each side. As twilight falls and cries rise up, one man – barely out of boyhood – squirms in the blood-matted grass. His lips cracked with thirst and his stomach knotted in hunger, he drags himself to the canteens and rucksacks […]

Before starting this review proper, I have a small rant to get off my chest: what the fuck is up with all the delayed North American release dates? This album was released in Europe way back in October, and here we are in February finally getting it in the US. There are several albums I […]

Candlelight Records today announces its third label packaged tour for North America. Set to kick off on June 6, CIII will feature the talents of US black metal legends Absu, with support coming from France’s Glorior Belli, Austin-based Averse Sefira and Los Angeles-based Sothis. The tour will visit 22 cities throughout the US and Canada […]

Translation Loss Records are extremely pleased to announce the addition of Columbus, Ohio’s STRUCK BY LIGHTNING to their roster! Hailing from Columbus, Ohio, STRUCK BY LIGHTNING features Gregory Lahm (previously of Mouth Of The Architect) on vocals and guitars, accompanying by Travis Kline, Mike Leach and John Peters. Encompassing the aggression and punk slathering of […]

The much maligned deathcore genre looks to be off to an explosive start in 2009 with the likes of Oceano and this sophomore release from Rose Funeral. I was actually surprised at this album, not only because Metal Blade signed them after the band virtually split up after 2007s Crucify Kill Rot, only leaving guitarist […]

It is with immense reverence that Southern Lord Recordings announces the signing of Chicago heavy-rock instrumental icons Pelican. Their genre-defying sound and eagerness to explore new musical directions will fit right at home alongside similar bands on the label like Earth, Boris and sunn 0))). Pelican is currently at Red Room studios in Seattle, WA […]

It’s about time for those who still haven’t heard Swedish old-school Death Metal veterans Seance to finally join the club. Having vanished into thin air in the early 90’s they resurfaced in 2008, more than fifteen years after their well-acclaimed sophomore release Saltrubbed Eyes. Sadly, I never had the chance to become familiar with them […]

Classic, or “old school” Heavy Metal, has managed to maintain a pulse, however faint, within the Metal underground despite being, well, “old school”. They employ no modern elements at all in their music rather they carry the mantle set forth by our NWOBHM forefathers. And, as with any genre, some bands pull it off and […]

BONDED BY BLOOD will be playing their first cross-country shows on the Masters of Disaster tour. Alongside fellow thrash acts, EXMORTUS and WITCHAVEN, BONDED BY BLOOD vocalist, Jose “Aladdin” Barrales looks to take a little bit of the LA thrash scene to every town they play. As the excitable frontman explains, “This is our first […]

Fast-rising Swedish rock band DEAD MAN will launch its first-ever U.S. tour tonight at the Union Pool in Brooklyn, NY. The buzz band, quickly becoming known for its colorful songwriting and dynamic live performances, is touring in support of its critically acclaimed new album, Euphoria. DEAD MAN, whose members possess a wealth of musical experience […]

Candlelight confirms the worldwide signing of Norway’s Susperia. Currently finishing work on their fifth album, the band recently announced a string of early spring UK dates that will kick off what is expected to be a busy year for the popular Norwegian metal band. “Ten years and still the same five guys,” exclaims vocalist Athera […]

Chet Scott’s 2006 self titled debut was an excellent doomy, ambient, almost stoner take on depressive Pacific Northwest, one man black metal, giving the scene an injection of creativity that strayed from typical depressive Wrest and Malefic worship. And the follow up, while taking the same elements, delivers an even more tribal, ritualistic, organic and […]

 Are you ready for this? You better be, because it’s going to be a massacre. Whilst I firmly believe reviews should never be a platform to launch personal diatribes against an artist, I have to admit that its going to be hard to not bitterly lay into Too pure to die here. Not just because […]

Dead & Buried’s last record The Company I Keep, remains stuck in my mind due to the horrendous typo that was plastered and the CD sleeve, rather then company, you had ‘comany,’ fortunately the printing press had remembered to put the music on there. From their inception they have always been a solid band, writing […]

When one thinks of Australian metal, I imagine not too many doom tinged melodic death metal bands come to mind, but enter Melbourne’s Be’lakor. The band’s 2007 self released debut “The Frail Tide” was arguably one of the most critically acclaimed and well received independent metal releases I can remember, so when keyboardist Steve Merry contacted me via myspace to review the upcoming follow up, I took the opportunity to sneak in an interview and find out a little more about the band as well as the new album…

I’ve listened to and enjoyed a lot of deathcore over the years-most of it from the genres larger names on larger labels. But one of the smaller gems I discovered was an EP back in 2007 from a Canadian band called Dear Black Diary. Hardly groundbreaking stuff, but solid and well done with a crafty […]