Tom Gabriel Warrior has much to celebrate. It’s been a busy and productive few years since the return of Celtic Frost ended in a storm of animosity and a lack of shared vision. But Warrior has before seen one band dissolve only to give way to something greater, and as he graciously gave a good, long block of his time from the road (after I’d been lucky enough to see Triptykon’s New York debut), he spoke—as he often has—about the dissolution of Frost… but he also made it clear, both in stated terms and in the tone of satisfaction he’s experiencing at the moment, that Triptykon, while rooted in his past, is a band of the here and now—and of the future.

The story behind Fleshwrought is a rather interesting one; the music on Dementia/Dyslexia less so. All this flesh has been wrought primarily at the hands of ex-Animosity drummer Navene Kopperweis (guitars, drums, bass) who began the project in 2003 with the aid of a 7-string guitar, a computer, and some recording software. Later on he […]

Another much anticipated reunion and comeback album. Forbidden didn’t exactly exit on a good note with the lackluster Distortion and horrible Green, but their first two will always be bonafide thrash classics. With that said, I was extremely curious to see where they would go after a 13 year recording hiatus. I’m happy to say […]

After ripping my face off with 2009’s Unconsecrated Australia’s The Red Shore return with a new label, a new vocalist and a new drummer ― yet none of those changes stop The Avarice of Man being as completely devastating as the band’s debut. Despite the fact the band will be lumped in with the current trend of […]

As much as I like Facedown/Strikefirst Records and their quality―consistent Christian metal―none of the 2010 releases have blown me away. Sure, the likes of Impending Doom, In the Midst of Lions, As Hell Retreats, Onward to Olympas, Letter to the Exiles and The Burial are all solid, but I have to go back to the […]

I really wanted to like this heavily promoted debut record from System Divide. And why not? It’s got Belgian metal stalwart Svencho De Caluwe (Aborted, In-Quest, Leng Tche) on vocals and he’s joined by his hotterthanheck wife Miri Millman (Orphaned Land) and former Abigail Williams guitarist Mike Wilson. The thing is, the band’s effort to […]

Keep it coming, baby! I’m talking about the gurgling, coughing, crackling, and crushing sounds of old school Swedish death metal! The good stuff; not the weak imitations. There has been a resurgence of the filth these last couple of years in terms of new bands forming, old bands reuniting (or simply coming off long hiatuses), and an increased level of recognition for the forefathers. Sweden’s Interment is one of those “old” (circa 1988) Swedish death spine snappers that saw fit to reunite years later, releasing a gnarly split with the lordly Funebrarum in 2006 and knocking one out of the park with this year’s Pulverised Records’ release Into the Crypts of Blasphemy. Here is what guitarist/vocalist Johan Jansson (ex-Centinex, Demonical) had to say about it.

The UK has a lot to answer for with its mainstream rock/metal talent, but then again, the UK has a lot to answer for with regards to many other things. The long list of reprobates include the likes of Amy Winehouse, footballers and their unexplainable wage demands and politicians expensing everything from their second homes […]

I wasn’t sure what to think of this one upon the first spin and multiple spins later I still don’t know what to think, which translated means it’s just not very damn memorable. That’s a problem, unless you’ll all about meaningless musical experiences. That sounds pretty shitty of me, doesn’t it? Well friends, it sounds […]

I remember being a little taken aback the first time I heard Michael Amott’s side project Spiritual Beggars. Being familiar with his work in Carcass and Arch Enemy, what I heard was not at all what I expected, but being a classic hard rock fan, I enjoyed it. The band’s latest effort, Return to Zero, […]

Firewind has long been one of the steadiest, most reliable acts in the power metal genre. Despite guitarist Gus G.’s newfound stardom as Ozzy Osbourne’s latest guitarist, nothing has changed on the band’s latest record Days of Defiance. The record comes blazing out of the gates with “Ark of Lies,” a tune that has everything […]

I really like what Russia’s SFC Records is doing; becoming the European/Eastern European equivalent of Unique Leader/Unmatched Brutality Records: Releasing a quality mix of brutal and technical death metal, that has good production values, good packaging littered with unreadable monikers like Cephalic Impurity, Human Parasite, Fetal Decay, Ruptured In Purulence and Leptotrichia. Not to mention […]

After reviewing and enjoying the debut album from Jaldaboath, I thought it might be entertaining to conduct an interview with Sir Jaldabaoth, the Grand Guitarist Inspector and Grand Sovereign Songwriter General of the self-proclaimed Hammering Heraldic Metal act (aka James Fogarty). Feeling that such issues as his split with The Meads of Asphodel, fellow British metal acts, cross cultural comedic boundaries and their current album Rise of the Heraldic Beasts warranted serious investigative journalism. Of course I should have expected that a knight responsible for crafting such songs as “Bash the Bishop” and “Axe Weilding Nuns” would not turn out to be a typical journalistic foray, and quickly descended into an uninformative but amusing episode of Black Adder…

Upon hearing the news that The Crown, one of the most revered, and one of my personal favorite death/thrash bands were reuniting, I was ecstatic. I was slightly disappointed that vocalist Johan Lindstrand would not be involved, assuming he’s too busy with his lame post-The Crown band One Man Army, but ultimately thought things should […]

After a critically acclaimed debut (2008’s …Of Frost and War), Dutch supergroup (members of Gorefest, Asphyx, Thanatos and Houwitser) left fans wanting after a strange digital only EP last year, but have now fully satiated fans with a full-length follow-up that continues the quality of the debut. Though still a war themed album, On Divine […]

I’ve always liked Kamelot, and over the years, I’ve enjoyed just about everything they’ve done. But I’ve never been a hardcore fan. So maybe it’s a little strange that a record which is somewhat experimental for them has quickly become my favorite offering in their catalog. It’s not like Poetry for the Poisoned belongs in […]

What’s better than a silly, semi-profane band name? Apparently a misspelled silly, semi-profane band name. At least that seems to be the theory of this German band that longs to bring back the 1980s glam scene. To be honest, after seeing the name of the band, I was kind of hoping that this record wouldn’t […]

The read on this EP is pretty simple, actually: if you enjoyed Triptykon’s earlier-this-year debut, Eparistera Daimones—and you should have!—you’re going to devour this compact but powerful collection. Tom Gabriel Warrior, along with bandmates V Santura, Vanja Slajh, and Norman Lonhart, offers two never-before-released tracks from the debut album sessions, a fully realized version of […]

In the overly pissed-in kiddie pool that is today’s heavy metal music, it’s nice to see a mean, smirking heavyweight like Chicago’s Cardiac Arrest land a cannonball right in the center and, with a sonic blastwave, send so many thumb-sucking weaklings flying. I mean, it really warms the heart. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, three of four members of said band were recently able to communicate with Teeth of the Divine about everything just short of My Little Pony and brain surgery. Read on for the gory details.

Ex-Dream Theater keyboardist reunited in 2003 with his old drummer Mike Portnoy (who himself is also ex-Dream Theater now) as well as Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos to form a project called OSI. Many who felt that Moore’s influence was something Dream Theater were sorely lacking after his departure were elated as this reunion of […]

So it’s been about six months since White Wizzard’s full-length debut, Over the Top, blew me away. It’s a record that will most certainly be near, if not at, the top of my year-end list. But much has changed for the band in those few months. They’ve lost a guitarist and singer Wyatt Anderson, who […]

DEATH ANGEL are back with their new opus ‘Relentless Retribution’. The two previous albums ‘The Art of Dying’ (2004) and ‘Killing Season’ (2008) seemed to divide the crowd quite a bit. How does the new album fare? Inspired? Uninspired? Total Thrash Domination? Read our review!

If you are only recently getting into Amorphis and their somewhat resurgent last three albums, (Eclipse, Silent Waters and Skyforger), you must grab this 20th anniversary retrospective album, to see just how really fucking good Amorphis were on their first three albums. Coinciding with the recently released Forging the Land of a 1000 Lakes DVD/CD, […]

Austria’s Heathen Foray are a new act to me. Being relative newcomers to the Viking metal scene, but already they have released two quality albums: 2009’s Passage and their stellar new effort, Armored Bards. Like easy comparison Amon Amarth, Heathen Foray use the backbone of crunchy, melodic death metal and deeper vocals to deliver their Teutonic […]

As the intro “I” and a song called “Wounds, Bloodstains and Richochets” scrolled across my iPod and well produced, synth driven metalcore/melodic death metal thundered into my ears, I wondered to myself, “Wow, Bleeding Through have another album out already? Didn’t they release their self tilted album earlier this year?” Then I began to notice […]