Today, AETERNITAS TENEBRARUM MUSIC FOUNDATION (ATMF) confirms the signing of 11 AS IN ADVERSARIES. 11 AS IN ADVERSARIES is a metal/rock/psych project that aims to offer an alternative to a swamp of occasionnally limited artists: a new band forged by the mastermind of the French band Glorior Belli, with a guest appearance of Niklas Kvarforth […]

Montreal based death metallers NEURAXIS has announced “Asylon” as the title of their sixth studio album, second for Prosthetic Records. The album will be released in North America on February 15th, 2011. “Asylon” was recorded at Wildsound Studio with producer Chris Donaldson (Cryptopsy, The Last Felony, The Agonist). A major tour announcement is coming next […]

I can’t really explain why it’s taken me so long to review one of 2010’s most impressive and disturbing black metal albums. I listen to it regularly, mentally gushing over it, and writing the review in my head each time I listen. I actually wonder if some dark occult force is preventing me from putting […]

It’s this writer’s opinion that it’s time for more people to take notice of Florida’s The Absence. What we have here is an American band with a mostly Swedish sound (yeah, nothing new, I know), devoid of any “core” influence, that blows away nearly everyone, including the Swedes, and if I may be so bold, […]

  DOWN TO RELEASE ‘DIARY OF A MAD BAND’ 3 DISC (2 CD/1 DVD) SET ON OCTOBER 5TH 2010, MULTIPLE PRE-ORDER BUNDLES AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE NOW!  180 GRAM TRIPLE VINYL WITH BONUS DVD VERSION TO BE RELEASED ON OCTOBER 26TH, 2010  New Orleans, LA’s DOWN is pleased to announce three killer pre-order bundles, available for […]

I remember when I used to get excited about a new Blind Guardian release, but since their 1998 masterpiece Nightfall in Middle Earth, everything they’ve released has been somewhat disappointing. That, unfortunately, doesn’t change much with their latest, At the Edge of Time. For me, this record is often maddeningly frustrating as it offers short […]

Back in the symphonic black heyday of the mid to late 90s, Norway’s Limbonic Art released three albums in a highly pompous, gothic, orchestral style: Moon in the Scorpio, In Abhorrence Dementia and Epitome of Illusions. 1999’s Ad Noctum: Dynasty of Death and its follow-up, The Ultimate Death Worship, switched up the Limbonic Art sound […]

Epitomite Productions and Teeth of the Divine are are proud to team up for this mind blowing, ridiculous giveway. That’s why there’s a friggin’ nuclear explosion going on. We’ve got not one CD, not three CDs, not even five CDs… but NINE (9) CDs to give out! Count ’em! Nine CDs! And three T-shirts too!

For a brief period in the late 1990’s, Texas black metal band Of The Fallen set about terrorizing the territory. Along with Bloodstorm, Demonic Christ and Darkmoon, they helped make up what was becoming a deeply rooted USBM scene. Guitarist Scythe (aka Steve Perez), drummer Scott Palmer, vocalist/keyboardist Crom (aka Jon Quick) and bassist Ogre […]

Gamleby – the town in Sweden in which Demiurg hail from. Slakthus – slaughterhouse. An apt title for such a death metal juggernaut of an album. Their third, Slakthus Gamleby really knocked me on my ass. I couldn’t place it at first – why it reminded me so much of Edge of Sanity, one of […]

For those familiar with my musical tastes, it might come as a bit of a surprise that I was never a big fan of Accept. Oh, I’ve got a copy of Restless and Wild and Balls to the Wall, but for some reason I never really connected with the band. When it was announced that […]

Today, legendary black/death band IMPIETY reveal the title for their seventh full-length album: Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny. Following from last year’s critically acclaimed Terroreign, the highly anticipated Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny is currently being recorded in utter depravation and Satanic violence at Music City Studios in Treviso, Italy. The album will have seven blasphemies with a running time close […]

Like their label brethren, A Plea for Purging, Impending Doom are at that “difficult stage,” in their existence―namely that all important third album―which, as stressed in the APFP review, can be the first step to greatness or to decline. The progression on There will be Violence, is in ways similar to that of The Marriage […]

Drummer-extraordinaire Mike Portnoy has quit Dream Theater in a move that’s bound to make some prog metal fans go “What the fuck?” According to his own words, the drummer hasn’t been having as much fun with the band he’s been helming for some 25 years: “After having had such amazing experiences playing with Hail!, Transatlantic […]

LISTENABLE RECORDS is proud to announce the signing of French death/black metal band SVART CROWN! Following their first effort, 2008’s Ages of Decay,SVART CROWN is back with a work of absolute blackness. Spawned in France by guitarist/vocalist J.B Le bail, SVART CROWN was born in 2005 with the idea to push the boundaries of extreme […]

When Killswitch Engage vowed to kill off “Nu Metal,” eight years ago, it was what the masses wanted to hear, and kill it they did, annihilate it in fact; as the scores of terrible bands that had spawned from the late nineties to the beginning of this millennium were all bit exterminated (with exceptions). Although […]

Los Angeles, CA – Glenn Danzig today announced the highly anticipated return of his BLACKEST OF THE BLACK tour. In its latest reincarnation since 2008, the tour’s lineup will feature Danzig, legendary Bay Area hell-thrashers Possessed and Swedish black metal pioneers Marduk, who are making a rare & long awaited U.S. touring appearance. Toxic Holocaust […]

For heavy metal music, the 1980’s was a time when anything was possible. Bands from all corners of the world aimed for the target that bands like Ratt, Quiet Riot, Tesla and Dokken seemed to have hit, hoping for rock star success. Had the internet been a factor in those days, I’m sure we would […]

Residing on the same label that has or had the likes of xRepresentx, OnexChoice, xTyrantx on its roster, there’s no surprise in what Seattle’s Parasitic Skies―despite the lack of an x in their logo―play; tough as nails, straightedge metallic hardcore. No frills, no melodies, no trendiness. Just a beefy (no pun intended) vegan beat down […]

It’s probably not a good sign when your 3-year-old digs a metal album more than you do. But there he was, strapped in his car seat and still singing “Rockin’ and a Rollin’ Tonite!” after I’d skipped past the first track of Armour with a mix of impatience and disgust. Guess I don’t need to […]

I’d never been the biggest fan of Profanatica, although that had as much to do with my limited exposure to the act as any kind of outright distaste of the sonic pungency. While it’s not like I’m a loyalist now, the last couple of years gave me a new appreciation for Paul Ledney’s (Havohej, ex-Incantation, […]

It’s more than common knowledge that the third album is one of the pinnacle pressure points of a band’s existence. Getting the balance right is so important in avoiding to take that wrong turn to the inferno of decline and instead ascending to the heavens of greatness. The immortal list of the eponymous third album […]

The first time I heard Otargos was their blackened death metal waltz “Hexameron” that apropos of nothing turns into this stripper-friendly fuck-me groove featuring what sounds like a sampled philosophy lecture. Okay, fine. Maybe you’re just cooler than me. Maybe you’ve already been into and tired of the whole blackened death-metal, stripper-friendly, fuck-me groove/philosophy-lecture craze. […]

Similar to the intestinal parasite that must be removed from the punctured gut by being wound around a stick and sucked slowly from the wound, Humangled churn and slurp at the innards, and can only be removed forcibly. Admit it: you’re hungry now, aren’t you?! These sick Italian deathsters bring forth Fractal, their punishing 2010 release. Contact was made with founding members Andrew Goreds and Luke Scurb, who were eager to let TOTD pick their brains.

Bear with me here. Despite being a sworn in US citizen, adapting almost all American traditions (good and bad), there’s a few American-isms I just can’t get into. Chewing tobacco and Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The weird thing is that I love peanut butter and I love Jelly―it’s called Jam fer’ crying out loud―when […]