After almost twenty years, Enslaved continues to push onwards into uncharted waters. This time, they’re promoting their new, critically-acclaimed album Axioma Ethica Odini on what’s possibly their biggest US tour yet (with countrymates Dimmu Borgir). Frontman Grutle Kjellson took some time to talk with me before the show in Denver. It was just above freezing where we spoke outside, but not surprisingly, the cold didn’t seem to affect him at all.

Sometimes I tend to enjoy a poppy metal record or two when it’s done right and when the album bleeds passion. Here we are with the debut album This Is War by the Australian act Forgiven Rival who play modern metalcore akin to All That Remains and Trivium. Catchy songs be damned, this young metalcore […]

Believer has just finished tracking their second release for Metal Blade Records. The recording will be mixed by Kevin Gutierrez at Assembly Line Studios and produced by Trauma Team Productions. The band is once again pursuing new musical territory. “We decided to bring back some of the orchestral feel of Dimensions by utilizing more layered […]

Quebecois technical death metallers NEURAXIS have unveiled the cover of their upcoming album, “Asylon,” which will be released in North America on February 15th, 2011. The cover art was created by artist Dennis Sibeijn of Damnengine Artwork, who worked with the band on their previous album, “The Thin Line Between,” as well with Job For […]

Nine albums into their rather underrated career and it’s safe to say that The Netherlands’ God Dethroned have entered into the metal elite inhabited by the likes of Bolt Thrower, Dismember, Obituary and such. No, not quite the genre defining metal royalty, but that small club of bands who have ascended into such a level […]

If you remember that old song “Mama, Don’t let your babies grow up to be Satanists,” then you’ll have an idea about the message conveyed on Nocturnal Blood’s Devastated Graves – The Morbid Celebration. Well, except for the “don’t” part. The work of a lone (like in the sense of “lone gunman”) Californian, this half-hour […]

Lately it seems post-hardcore music is on the rise or I mean alternative music. This is music that requires no talent and no skill to play, music that is just their so teenager’s can feel hard and different from the norm. Music…well this isn’t music, this is an abomination. I really hate when people call […]

Well, the fine folks a xo Publicity are giving one away.  For Free. Featuring 11 xo alternative, rock and indie bands including Pictures of Then, Transients Songs and Triggers , performing their takes on Christmas classics, xo For the Holidays Volume III can be heard and downloaded right here. There’s even a special appearance by actor […]

  Having recently returned from a successful stint on the coveted Blackest Of The Black tour through North America playing alongside Danzig and Possessed (among many others), Swedish black metal squadron MARDUK recently set out to destroy Asia. The tour kicked off this weekend in China and will pummel its way through Singapore and several locations in […]

It’s been two year since I last heard from Micawber. Their last album Bloodrunner contained some amazing music. Though it was plagued by a demo quality the album was insanely heavy. They return with a follow up album entitled Hell On Earth; this is easily one of my favorite deathcore releases all year. The band […]

A one-word album title. Two band members gone, and in their place, the addition of three guest vocalists, booming choirs and a massive orchestra. And then of course, those white leather and fur costumes. Yeah, it’s been an exciting and unpredictable time for Dimmu Borgir. I sat down with Galder sat down before their show in Denver (with countrymates Enslaved) to talk about the creation of their new epic Abrahadabra, the changes in the band’s sound and how to kill time on the road.

The debut from this Sydney Australia progressive folk-metal act was ambitious, but didn’t quite reach its potential. Fire:Water:Ash was a bit too wandering and unfocused for its own good. The maritime themed follow-up however, is an improved effort that sees the act fulfill the promise of the debut. Though hailing from Australia, the influences of […]

Bizarre Swedish black metal buzz band GHOST will dispense its debut directive Opus Eponymous in North America on January 18, 2011 via Rise Above Records.  The release of the album will assist the abhorrent agents in spreading their “unholy gospel” and “tricking mankind into believing the end is ultimately a good thing via the ever […]

Miami, FL’s MARUTA have finished up work on their new album, and second for Willowtip, entitled Forward Into Regression.  A release set has been set for February 22, 2011.  Germany’s Power It Up Records will be releasing a gatefold LP version.  A release date for the vinyl is TBD.  Vocalist Mitchell Luna comments, “So we […]

Man’s Gin is the side-project of Erik Wunder, one half of American post-black metal act Cobalt – and although it never comes close to that band’s rage, it’s still at times a kindred, gloomy spirit. Instead of Cobalt’s brand of brittle, angular mayhem, Wunder has woven a rich tapestry of dark Appalachian folk and alt-country […]

Finally after three years since their debut EP, Diskreet present us with their first full length album and what an album it is. Hailing from Topeka, Kansas this quintet plays a form of devastating technical death metal that annihilates all who oppose. If machines started to decimate and take over humanity this would be their […]

Ironic that the cover of Kylesa’s new disc is so monochromatic, given all of the color the band has just added to its sound. The past’s last album, Static Tensions (only a year ago), was a tight blend of terse, punchy hardcore and grumbling sludge; with Spiral Shadow, the band has embraced a whole new […]

 Kings of Swedish death metal AMON AMARTH have just announced the title of the band’s forthcoming album as Surtur Rising. Due out in the spring of 2011, Surtur Rising marks the group’s 8th full-length studio release and undoubtedly one of 2011’s most anticipated releases by fans and critics alike. Surtur Rising is the follow up […]

Phobia, the debut album from Germany’s Athorn, seems to be right up my alley. In the vein of a band like Kiuas, one of my favorite discoveries of the last 10 years or so, Athorn blends power metal melodics with thrash and groove and maybe just a little hint of death here and there. I […]

MULTI-TALENTED ARTIST’s RECORD DESCRIBED AS “A JOURNEY THROUGH SOUND” TOMMY ROGERS, lead vocalist, keyboardist and founding member of the award-winning North Carolina progressive rock band BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME (also BTBAM) will release his debut solo album Pulse on February 1, 2011 via Metal Blade Records. The versatile front man and multi-instrumentalist, who not […]

Brilliant and frustrating – two words that sum up Deathspell Omega. There’s no question that since Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice, the mysterious French duo has offered up some of the most staggeringly complex and challenging black metal the genre has ever seen. However, in their never-ending quest to batter, slash and violate the genre’s boundaries, […]

You mean The Dead consists of three Australian musicians of the extreme whose neural pathways were warped in some internal fire of the mind, resulting in a sludgified, space truckin’ and head trippin’ terror march through death metal inhabited worm holes…or some shit like that? How absolutely shocking.

As the year 2011 draws near, there isn’t anything new about post-rock being combined with metal aesthetics (or vice versa) yet Denmark’s AEDRA showcase themselves in a positive—if not solely unique—light by blending the emotionality of post-rock with slower and much meatier doom elements. But isn’t that what various post-metal/sludge bands have been doing throughout […]

Deepsend Records is proud to announce the release of Japan’s COFFINS “Ancient Torture” Double CD Digipak. A definitive collection of Coffins split releases, compilation and vinyl only tracks, together on a deluxe double disc 8-panel digipak. Features stunning artwork and layout by Mark and Mike Riddick. Pre-Order has already begun including exclusive package deals with […]

King Conquer are finally gracing us with their new album entitled America’s Most Haunted. Hailing from Naples, Florida, King Conquer play a form of brutal deathcore. People these days tend to think less of deathcore as most of the scene is becoming quite stale. So every now and then gems surface amidst the stale air […]