Ive always been a fan of the underrated Danish death metal scene; Chunky, simple (and often intertwined) acts like Illdisposed, Iniquity, Corpus Mortale, Usipian, Koldborn, The Cleansing, and arguably one of the better recent additions, Dawn of Demise. After a solid debut in 2008s Hate Will Take Its Form and a cover based EP in […]

As part of the second tier of melodic death metal in the mid to late 90, Sweden’s Godgory never got the international acclaim or attention of their more energetic peers despite a solid four album catalog from 1996 to 2001. Partly mired in the middle of Nuclear Blast releasing endless mediocre stuff like Agathodaimon, Crematory, […]

The last chapter has been written and the book of Catholicon has been closed. The Baton Rouge band, which formed in 1994, has disbanded with some members going on to form Heir to the Throne. Throughout Catholicon’s career, which includes four full-length albums and multiple demos, the unique, creative, blasphemous, and downright diabolical style of black/death metal has not only gotten better with each release, it has stood the test of time. The culmination of that improvement comes in the form of Of Ages Past, the final Catholicon album and one that features the act’s best songwriting to date within the quasi-parameters of its unconventional, yet more refined/conventional (relatively speaking, of course) this time around, brand of sonic sacrilege that chills to the bone and melts the face. The release comes with a DVD-ROM containing a veritable treasure trove of material from across the band’s career (more on that below). With that I present to you a Q&A session with Chad Kelly (a.k.a. Blasphyre) the former Catholicon member who was an integral part of the creative/professional process and who has chosen to simply let sleeping dogs lie, rather than continue on in a new incarnation (ala Heir to the Throne) of it.

Danish Metal Award nominees HateSphere will hit North American shores later this month in support of newest album To The Nines with The Black Dahlia Murder, Obscura and Augury. Unfortunately, drummer Dennis Buhl is quitting due to severe back problems and the band is therefore forced to cancel their upcoming European tour with Hypocrisy. However, […]

So raw it’s bleeding, Visions of Death from Moravia, NY’s Disfigured Dead is the antithesis of Pro-Tools death metal. As such, it comes across as an album on which guitar, bass, drums, and vocals electrify and eviscerate in complete contradiction with recordings that are polished and surgically precise. Stylistically, you are a treated to a […]

It’s no real surprise that this unsigned Austin, TX based group is vying desperately to win a competition that would have them open for Killswitch Engage, but truth be told- if they did play right before, fans might think they are seeing a KsE cover band or a group of KsE imposters. Not that Die […]

If that title does not aptly sum up the career and music of Sweden’s Bestial Mockery (R.I.P.), then I’m at a complete loss as to what would. 2007’s swansong full-length, Slaying the Life, might have been the final fuck-you nail in the coffin, a demonstration of the group at its black thrashing war metal best, […]

These days, if you want to find out about a band – or a whole label’s roster – there are plenty of options. Websites, Myspace, streaming e-cards, YouTube, you name it. The days of picking up a compilation are pretty much over. So it was a pleasant surprise to receive Better Undead than Alive 2, […]

In the grand French tradition of eclectic, experimental and mindfuckingly heavy acts like Gojira, Comity, Overmars and more recently Erin Non Dae, come Hypno5e and their debut full length album which bundles dreamy ambience, crushing angular heft and musically artistic curveballs into one unpredictably brilliant and bipolar release of typically avant-garde French metal. I’d throw […]

Well, this is it, the final album from the Baton Rouge blasphemers known as Catholicon. Of Ages Past caps a career of some of the most unique black/death metal ever recorded and the band has done it while remaining fiercely independent, firmly underground, and resolute in its disgust for the three major white-light religions (Christianity, […]

Woe Of Tyrants spent the entirety of 2009 criss-crossing the US on a multitude of tours. After the grueling schedule came to a close, did they head home to rest and take some time off? NOPE! They dove right into songwriting for the follow up to their sophomore album and Metal Blade debut, Kingdom Of […]

Ive been is somewhat of a musical/critical funk recently, unable to filter the stacks of avant-garde black metal, tech death metal and acoustic non metal that’s filled my head of late. Its time to strip down to bare basics, and listen to some simple bludgeoning music that requires no thought, no in depth analysis and […]

I’ve noticed a bit of trend in hardcore/metalcore/American metal of late; First, some really good clean vocalist are starting to surface in these acts and second some bands seem to be injecting true blue progressive metal into their sound. Not just piecemeal stuff or even scatter shot BTBAM styled stuff, but actual, structured, epic and […]

I won’t blather on about how Exodus is one of the greatest thrash bands of all time or that over their last several albums they’ve proved to be better than ever at delivering violent thrash metal. We all know this and if you don’t, you better find out soon, lest you miss out on the excellence that is Exodus. Instead, we thought that an update on the band after the release of the outstanding DVD, Shovel Headed Tour Machine: Live at Wacken (and other assorted atrocities) and before The Atrocity Exhibition: Exhibit B – The Human Condition drops in May. I caught up with iron man guitarist Gary Holt at his band’s Tyrants of Evil tour stop in Seattle.

This is why I love this gig. Every month or so, I get a package of random CD promos. Sometimes I know of the bands or the label, but more often than not, it’s yet more mystery discs from the vast reaches of the metal underground. And once in awhile, you wind up with a […]

Now here’s something you don’t hear every day. A Russian guy from Chelyabinsk doing a mixture of ambient-natured neo-folk on top of a post-rock foundation (think of Tenhi’s most ‘rocking’ songs.) And the best of all, it’s all in Finnish! Needless to say, I was skeptical. I was more than skeptical. In fact, when I […]

It looked like Divine Eve had called it a career three years ago with the glorious compilation Upon These Ashes Scorn The World, a gem packed with tracks like “The Last Of The Sunset Faded” and “Harlequin of Perpetual Destiny.” However, metal is a genre where comebacks are pretty much guaranteed – even if your […]

I’ve had high hopes for just about every project that Tim Owens has been involved in since his departure from Iced Earth, and they’ve been largely lackluster. Finally, though, the cycle of disappointment is broken with the debut of Charred Walls of the Damned. The new project was founded by former Death and Iced Earth […]

Sweden’s In Mourning made a grand entrance into the melodic death/doom arena with their 2008 debut Shrouded Divine. Their even blend of earthy, rumbling doom and agile progressive death drew a lot of comparisons to Finnish heavyweights like Rapture, Swallow the Sun and Insomnium, but they most resembled a more straightforward, less adventurous version of […]

This four-track EP comes by way of the apparently now defunct Enucleation Records (the cassette was released on Detest Records), and yes, it’s from 2009. The cover, which brings to mind the artwork for Morbid Angel’s Domination, depicts an adorned and rather slimy-looking entrance to a temple, what one can only assume to be the […]

I only recently discovered Iceland’s Sólstafir, a band that I wish I had gotten to know earlier. Their previous album, 2005’s Masterpiece Of Bitterness became one of my all time favorite records as the band seemed to blend post-rock with their blackened heavy metal heritage flawlessly for a truly mind-expanding experience; sharing a similarity to […]

The Ocean’s upcoming albums are going to be entitled Heliocentric and Anthropocentric. They are due for April and October 2010 releases. The concept at the base of both albums is a critique of Christianity from different philosophical and personal angles. While the songs, art and lyrics of Heliocentric tell the story of the rise of […]

Inferno’s Black Devotion is another 2009 release that got stuck in my pile of discs that didn’t see the light of day until recently. Better late than never, right? Anyway, it seems appropriate that this one stayed buried until the coldest time of the year because it is utterly without warmth. These 11 tracks of […]

Italy’s Absentia Lunae bills itself as warlike, hateful avant-garde black metal – yeah, that’s a mouthful, but it’s also pretty accurate. Warlike, definitely – especially with Belphegor’s Blastphemer turning in a blistering and surprisingly technical drum performance. Hateful? Absolutely. Vocalist Ildanach rants, sneers and screams as if he’s gripping and slamming the sides of a […]

Italy’s STIGMA has set Concerto for the Undead as the title for its follow up to 2008’s When Midnight Strikes! The sophomore effort is due out April 30th in Europe, May 3rd in the UK and May 4th in North America via Pivotal Rockordings. Concerto for the Undead features lyrics centered on the cult-classic comic […]