The debut release from LA’s Exhausted Prayer was an ambitious, promising but convoluted affair of cross genre metal that melded black, ambient and progressive metal. And now the follow up is here and it looks like the band has mostly fulfilled the promise of Looks Down In the Gathering Shadow  ― with improved song writing and more […]

It has been nearly two weeks since returning home from Hellfest and I am still trying to wrap my mind around everything I experienced in just a few short days. Such an amazing whirlwind of music,places and most importantly, all the fantastic people we met from all over the globe! The combination of all these things made for a trip that we will never forget. For the majority of the planet, taking a seven hour plane ride, fifteen hour bus ride and venturing into a completely foreign world, where you speak absolutely zilch of the spoken language, may seem like a disaster in the making,but when you are crammed on said bus with fifty other stark-raving mad metal maniacs, it didn’t seem nearly as preposterous! Add to that the thoughts of the endless streams of the glorious music that awaited us in the remote town of Clisson, France and all in attendance were giggling like goons.

Originally self-released on CD by the band in 2008 (limited to 666 copies), Mitochondrion‘s Archaeaeon will see an official release in late August by Dark Descent Records. Archaeaeon has been remastered by Colin Martson and will be released with an eight-page layout printed on heavy matte card stock. Mitochondrion released follow up, Parasignosis on Profound […]

I was listening Leechmilk’s Starvation of Locusts a few months back and thought to myself “Whatever happened to these guys?” A quick trip to Metal Archives and, lo and behold, Dan Caycedo of Leechmilk infamy is in a new band called Sons of Tonatiuh and they just released their first record. While I initially hoped […]

Kauan’s Aava Tuulen Maa received (and will continue to do so) so many spins in my player that it’s borderline ridiculous. The album simply drilled a straight phone line—through my thick bashed skull—into my psyche. With that in mind, and it always is, it was hard to angle myself when I put the group’s latest […]

Canada’s gift to the metal omniverse, Devin Townsend, is back to finish off what he started back in 2008 when he shaved off his trademark skullet, threw out his dope pipe and formed yet another new band, namely the Devin Townsend Project. Feeling disconnected and dissatisfied with the role of being known as the madman […]

This is going to take some beating. Few albums this year in any genre have enraptured me as much as Foundation’s first proper full-length, When the Smoke Clears. I don’t know what’s in the water at Bridge 9 (because they certainly aint smoking anything), but since they started investing in the heavier side of hardcore, […]

Band Added To The 70000 Tons Of Metal Lineup Swedish black metallers, DARK FUNERAL, have officially announced a replacement for longtime vocalist, Emperor Magus Caligula. In an official statement from guitarist Lord Ahriman: “It surely was not an easy task to find a worthy replacement for Emperor Magus Caligula, who has been doing an amazing job for DARK […]

For you whippersnappers out there, the current  incarnation of General Surgery―the one that reformed in 2003 and has released  two full-length albums since―is a far cry from what the band was in 1991 when they unleashed their seven song debut EP Necrology. One of the early super groups, culling members of the then burgeoning Stockholm Death metal […]

The only thing here missing is the logo. Not that the dust had begun to settle on Wormwood―that will take many years―Marduk is back to keep themselves fresh in your mind. The band is cyclical. Many fans want bands to evolve, many do not. Marduk evolves by continually borrowing from their own past, birthing new […]

With the release of their third album, Scotland’s Alestorm have not only continued with the metallic shanties about all things Pirate-y, but they’ve upped the ante of their scope and grandiosity. As Black Sails at Midnight Improved upon Captain Morgan’s Revenge, so has Back Through Time also improved; bigger, more raucous fun and more metal, Back Through Time shows Alestorm as consistent as any folk act in the scene today. Oh and you want epic? How about Vikings battling Pirates (“Back Through Time”) and the return of the mighty Leviathan in an eight minute black metal styled track (“Death Throes of the Terror Squid”)? I visited with scallywag Chris Bowes to find out even more about one of my very favorite current bands and one of my favorite albums of 2011.

This is a tricky one. Stillife‘s Requiem leaves a bit to be desired initially, but upon further listening, its appeal starts to break through. The Michigan group known as Stillife has its own unique approach to heavy metal, one that won’t willingly be confined to genres. They sample progressive, traditional, doom, modern and then some […]

Highgate’s follow up to their 2008 debut is like a really interesting movie you end up feeling ambivalent about. A picture projecting sickly foreboding, a sense of dread and imminent mental and physical collapse but the plot meanders and at the end you’re left intrigued with no desire to watch it again. You’re left searching […]

I’ve never really considered myself anything but a relatively casual fan of The Black Dahlia Murder, despite their rather large status in the realms of modern metal. With a sound that’s been cloned more times than Jenna Jameson has had cocks in her, their appeal loses even more luster as I blame them for the […]

Upon hearing In Flames’ Sounds of a Playground Fading, one of our other esteemed writers here at Teeth of the Divine dubbed it Sounds of a Career Failing. I’m sure many fans will feel the same, but being the contrarian that I am, I’ve got a slightly different take. I’ll say off the top that […]

Two years after their dizzying third album Process of a New Decline, French tech-death sorcerers Gorod return with this 5-track EP of inspired remakes and re-imaginings, plus one epic of a closer. First off is “Earth Pus,” a new recording of a track from their 2005 release Neurotripsicks. It’s a blustery, groovy beast, all spidery […]

Extreme metal has many sub-genres. Some would say too many. One that has always seemed to be kind of an anomaly is the sludge metal genre. It’s a genre that’s not tossed around too often, and it seems that one really has to be in the mood for it to really enjoy it. But if […]

As I’ve mentioned in other Dark Descent Records’ reviews, I really like the fact they are balancing out some awesome reissues (Uncanny, Utumno, etc.) with some new acts like Adversarial, Miasmal, Corpsessed, Gorephilia and Washington DC’s sickly heavy, crusty d-beat blackened doom act, Ilsa. While essentially lying in the same murky sludgy and heavy territory […]

Talk about a breath of fresh air. With so much deathcore aping, tech-metal trying to out-tech itself and post-ironic hipster dabbles in the world of heaviness, it’s relief to accidentally come across a record in 2011 that is visceral and extreme without any novelty kitsch. The adventitious record I’m referring to is The Oculus from […]

Whether you’ve been a fan since Paradise Lost or The Damnation Game, you know at least this one truth of Symphony X: everything they release is top notch. The winning combination of stunning technical prowess and flawless songwriting has yet to fail the Jersey boys, and they keep getting better with age. Iconoclast showcases this, […]

What the hell is this? Melody and diversity in an Origin album? More than just skull-pummeling fury and seething insanity? Oh wait, they started that with Antithesis. So the thing you may be wondering about Entity, with its decidedly more varied structure and properties, a huge step in a new direction for Origin — does […]

I’ve been sitting on my review of this simply stunning double LP for a while now for a couple of reasons. First, it’s such a monolithic, emotionally draining and fantastic album that putting it into words is nigh impossible. Second, I just want to listen to and absorb this record over and over again and […]

Despite my relative familiarity with old school Swedish metal, old and new, as well as most of Rogga Johanssen’s many current and former Stockholm-styled projects (Paganizer, Ribspreader, Bone Gnawer, etc.) I actually had never heard of Revolting. It’s even more surprising that their newest effort was released on FDA Rekotz, the label responsible for my […]

Roger “Rogga” Johansson (Bone Gnawer, Demiurg, The Grotesquery, Ribspreader, Paganizer, etc) is at it again! The multi-instrumentalist, composer, death metal warrior, and affable Swede, is pleased as punch with In Grisly Rapture, the excellent new album of catchy, horror-choked death metal from the Revolting trio. And he damn well should be! Everything from the music to the lyrics to the artwork is first rate and will surely end up one of my favorite death metal albums of 2011. Rogga breaks it down for us.

I love the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day. Being stuck on repeat, so to speak, is an entertaining premise. The film really works, however, because within that framework of repetition, the main character finds a way to vary the program. So, each day, much as it’s similar to the one before, is different enough to […]