Formerly Italian, currently US based band EPHEL DUATH, known as a modern mixture of avant-garde metal and progressive rock with jazz-fusion and hardcore punk elements, has inked a worldwide deal with Agonia Records for the release of an EP and two full-length albums. Under the leading role of talented guitarist and songwriter Davide Tiso, the […]

As death metal legends Incantation are currently writing new material to be released next year, drummer Kyle Severn wanted to pass this on to fans as something to look forward to. “The new material we have been writing with new members Alex (Bouks also of Goreaphobia) and Chuck (Sherwood also of Bloodstorm) is beyond brutal, […]

Taake needs no introduction based upon the three hundred potential friends Last.fm has lined up for me based on Taake in common. Noregs Vaapen features appearances from Nocturno Culto, Attila Csihar, and Demonaz. I’ll leave it to your explorations to find their contributions, for exploring this album is a task well taken up. The album […]

If there is one label that’s almost on par with Dark Descent Records as far as old school Swedish death metal worship, its Pulverized Records. With the likes of Crucifyre, Morbius Chron, Interment, Tribulation and Desultory‘s comeback, they have created their own nice little stable of retro Swedish death metal acts. Well, add Sweden’s awesome […]

Having the utmost respect for what guitarist, keyboardist, and composer Nicolas van Dyk has done with Redemption since debuting with 2003’s self-titled album (followed by knocking one out of the prog metal park with 2005’s The Fullness of Time) and deep gratitude for what the music has meant to me personally, it was with great sadness that I heard the news of his cancer diagnoses a few years ago. At the time, the rare from form of blood cancer with which Nick had been diagnosed was said to be incurable. Fast forward to 2011 and Nick is a man renewed, having faced down his disease and for all intents and purposes conquered it with the help of a doctor in Bart Barlogie that took conventional wisdom and flushed it down the toilet. Van Dyk took the experience of that fierce, emotionally-draining fight and channeled it into his most powerful set of lyrics to go with what may be Redemption’s most aggressive and deeply emotional musical effort to date in This Mortal Coil. At once metaphorical and introspective, This Mortal Coil is musically complex and undeniably heavy, yet as melodically accessible as anything the group has ever released.

When initially approached with the prospect of reviewing this album I was a bit leery. A Montreal band calling them selves ‘trombone core’, named after a Shakespeare character and with a masked trombone player called ‘the hitman’ in their ranks. It all seemed to have the potential to add up to a giant pile of […]

I wasn’t overly impressed with the nu grind, caustic, programmed drum based output of Harpoon‘s last release, Double Gnarly/Triple Suicide, so when this showed up in my mail box I was hardly overly enthused. However, it appears, even with a drum machine still present, the trio of guitarist Tony Costello, bassist DJ Baracca (Lair of […]

The Netherlands’ FOURTEEN TWENTYSIX has announced that they will release their new album In Halflight Our Soul Glows in January 2012. Featuring 16 songs, the new album sees the ‘solo act’ develop in a complete band; Jeroen Dirrix, Jelle Goossens, Tom van Nuenen and Martijn Jorissen have joined originator Chris van der Linden in the […]

With bands like Krisiun, Blood Red Throne, Decapitated and other top-level death metal bands putting out new releases this year, I had high hopes for Vile’s new one – Metamorphosis. With six years between full lengths you would expect somewhat of a style change, and their flashy new artwork definitely hinted at these guys going […]

In their four album transition from typical Finnish doom death outfit to a melancholic melodic (melocholic?) death metal, Insomnium have done no wrong. Each album being better than the last. And album number 5 is no different as the band manages to take slivers of recognizable influences like Rapture, Amorphis, In Flames, Paradise Lost, My […]

For four albums now I’ve viewed California’s Carnifex as a solid second tier deathcore act. Not quite up there with Whitechapel, Oceano, I Declare War or All Shall Perish (my opinion of course) but mired in the vast, faceless but quality  rabble with the likes of Chelsea Grin, Molotov Solution, Betray the Martyrs, Rose Funeral, […]

German traditional death metal machine LIFELESS has recently signed with FDA Rekotz for the release of the as-of-yet-untitled follow up to Beyond The Threshold of Death, which was released in 2010 on Ibex Moon Records. The album is currently slated for a spring 2012 release. Imagine the Swedish mother named Dismember begets a child with […]

Released the same time as the killer debut from label mates Obsiquiae, the third album from Maine’s Falls of Rauros was a bit overshadowed, which is a shame as it adds yet another quality album to the genre of woodsy, misty, organic black metal or ‘grey’ metal as I like to call it. The cover […]

After the awesome old school Grave worship of Lavadome’s first release, Brutally Deceased‘s Dead Lovers Guide, I was excited to see yet another Lavadome release in my mail box, this time from Perversity, a relatively long running Slovakian death metal band. And while I was a little disappointed that this wasn’t more old school Swedish […]

There has been a fair bit of buzz about the debut from England’s Vallenfyre, and rightfully so. It’s a super group of sorts featuring Gregor Mackintosh of Paradise Lost, Hamish Glencross of My Dying Bride as well as mercenary drummer Adrian Erlandsson (Cradle of Filth, At the Gates, The Haunted to name a few) , […]

Thanks largely in part to Liturgy, there’s been somewhat of a backlash to USBM — mostly the post-rock, shoegaze -influenced kind. I mean even former darling Krallice has fallen victim to some of the criticism of the genre with their largely unheralded and unlauded 3rd album. So, are the genre’s oft worshiped apex band now open to […]

I honestly don’t know where to start here. I have vague recollections of Ebonylake from the late ’90s due to them being British and residing on Cacophonous Records, but never actually heard their sole 1999 release, On the Even of the Grimly Inventive. So when I got this CD from new French label–this is only […]

Here’s the debut full-length from Louisiana’s Excommunicated, the new band formed by Chad Kelly of Catholicon (and UW Records founder). He’s joined by two cohorts from Suture and Despondency (Jonathan Joubert and Jason McIntyre respectively). The end result is a varied, enjoyable death/thrash record with an expected Southern-hue that deals with the extremely bloody and […]

At this point, Skeletonwitch is near unstoppable. They keep elevating their game to a new level without sacrificing (to the slaughtergod) an iota of what makes them the ‘witch – the galloping rhythms, shredtastic solos and riffing, ear-catching melodies and scathing vocals are all still very much intact, just wrapped up in even tighter packaging. […]

Adorned with some of the more striking album art I have seen in a while, Bluostar is the debut full-length album from one man black metal maestro Fyrnd–and as far as one man black metal goes–Fyrnask has to be one of the more elite acts I’ve heard as of late. Though France has a large […]

Skinny Puppy is an institution. Let’s just get that out of the way right out of the gate. Even if you’ve never heard them, you’ve heard of them. What’s tricky about reviewing a new album from the industrial/electronic pioneers is the question: do you cater to the potential new listeners who haven’t taken the plunge, […]

When it comes down to the new Megadeth album TH1RT3EN, there’s one thing people can agree on: At least it’s not ‘Lulu’. Click on to read our review of Mega Dave’s latest opus.

Landmine Marathon is a band I’ve always loved on paper. Stylistically, the world needs a band like them. That is to say, a younger band to take on the no-frills metal battery style that Nihilist, Bolt Thrower (and many other early Earache Records bands) helped pioneer close to 20 years ago, balancing groove with grind, […]

This takes me back to the good ol’ days in the 90s when Relapse Records was also Release Entertainment and put out albums by cold industrialists like Dead World and Malformed Earthborn. Harsh, bludgeoning and mechanistic, Eyeswithoutaface’s Monotoneoteny is a raging piece of industrial sludge. It’s heavy and it’s abrasive, even as it is quiet […]

Wino is back. After Shrinebuilder, Wino teamed up with longtime friend and guitarist Jim Karow, drummer Matthew Clark and former Meatjack bassist Brian Daniloski to bring the stoned heavy in a new band, Premonition 13. Now, if the name Wino means anything to you, you can go ahead and skip the review because this is […]