I last heard this Swiss band back in 2014, with their debut Morning Wood. It was a solid if forgetful stab at 00s American metalcore/ groove metal with songs like “Big Dick”, “Sex For Free”, Cock n Bulls”, and “Welcome to the Stud Farm”, it all seemed a bit tongue in cheek. Well the band […]

At the end of every calendar year, metal journalists spend months trying to put together the dreaded year end list. It’s a long, stressful and ever-evolving process that keeps us up at night as we order and reorder albums several times, fret over stuff we have too high on the list or stuff that got bumped off the bottom. We try to make the lists as extensive and inclusive as possible, but inevitably, stuff gets missed. Maybe an album was too obscure, got overlooked in the crowd, we didn’t hear it until too late, or simply never made it into our inbox. So some of the staff here decided to give you guys a late Christmas present and let you know about some releases that you need to hear in case you also missed it or like us, simply overlooked it or it just didn’t get coverage here. These are the mulligans that, in hindsight, deserve your attention and probably would have made our staff’s year-end lists if we weren’t so lazy and rushed by a tireless dictator. So rise, brush, floss and repeat as we drill you with our cavities and fillings from 2012:

I’ve always felt that when you can be recognized by your guitar sound alone, you’ve got a good thing going.  Much like a lead vocalist, a unique guitar sound can instantly set you apart from your peers.  Meshuggah has done it (while sparking legions of copycats).  Slayer has done it.  And so have Rotten Sound.  […]

For the most part 2012 was not exactly a mind-blowing year for fans of the tried and true sub-genre of thrash metal.   Sure several of the veterans fired off solid albums, such as Testament and Kreator, while young guns Nekromantheon released a cut-throat, testosterone-fuelled ripper, but otherwise it was a fairly lean year.  One album […]

There are a few misleading factors surrounding this album that left me feeling a little duped. First off, the colorful, painterly cover art looks like something you would see for sale on a coffee shop checkout counter (well, except for the figure’s bare breasts and tentacled pubes). Secondly, the label describes the music as a […]

AZURE EMOTE (featuring members of DEATH, FEAR FACTORY, MONSTROSITY,TRISTANIA, RUMPELSTILTSKIN GRINDER and more) announces the completion of their 2nd studio album “The Gravity Of Impermanence” which will be released through SELFMADEGOD RECORDS April 3rd 2013. “The Gravity Of Impermanence” is an original mix of Avant-garde Death Metal featuring pummeling blast beats, haunting female vocals, violins, […]

The floundering economy and end of the world hoopla must have had a lot of people feeling down in 2012 because it sure was a great year for all things doomy. Long-running acts, Paradise Lost, Asphyx, and Evoken released what was arguably some of the best material of their over two-decade careers while relative newcomers, […]

Released the same time as Engulfed‘s EP, Through the Eternal Damnation, Through the Ages is the debut from Greece’s war mongering quartet War Possession, and while Engulfed seems to have dropped the Bolt Thrower influence from their Burial Invocation days, War Possession is happy to carry on the mantle and deliver 4 tracks and 21 […]

This is a tidy little package from a young band out of Belgium.  On their short and punchy debut EP Alpha Matter executes an aggressive hybrid of modern metal featuring elements of death metal, melodeath, thrash and metalcore; all of which is refreshingly released for free via their website. Self-released EP’s from unknown bands don’t […]

Aoria was a side project of sorts when it was created several years ago by a trio of supremely talented Swedes: Erik Nisson (A Swarm of the Sun, Kausal), Niklas Sandin (Katatonia) and Robin Bergh (October Tide). For various reasons, the band was put on hold and enjoyed a loyal, underground cult following. Finally in […]

With standouts such as Between the Buried and Me, God Forbid, Darkest Hour and Jungle Rot, it’s safe to say that Victory Records is one of the top labels when it comes to metal/extreme music.  In addition to the above bands they are also quite well known for the large number of metalcore/deathcore bands on […]

I usually prefer some memorable riffs in my death metal, but sometimes ample atmosphere and heaviness is enough. And, that’s where this 4-song demo succeeds. You won’t be humming any part of it afterward, but you might be haunted by it. It begins with an ambient piece that sounds like dark energy echoing from the […]

Today, Teeth of the Divine will be represented by a noob who goes by the name of Averatu. That would be me. Although I’m new here, I’ve done my share of reviews and interviews for another site no one’s ever heard about, Global Domination. But enough about me, let me proceed to do what I enjoy most, which is chewing cud with metal musos.

Vex are from Texas, and if you say that to fast you could get Vex Mex. When I first received my copy of their new album Memorious, I thought “Oh-no, not another Amon Amarth clone band”. But I kept listening, and I discovered an album with a lot of depth and textures, from blasting battle anthems to fireside ballads. I predict this album will without a doubt be on my end of year top 10 list for 2013.

Eoghan ‘Owen’ McClosky is the drummer with the impressive beat separation that could make any rhythm section sound like a jackhammer, and I got to pick his brains.

The obvious way to kick start this beast of a review is blatant as all heck, but since I won’t go outta my way to repeat the info all across the board, and I intend on treating the analysis the same way I always do with any kind of a band, be it a super […]

From the label  who in 2012 alone was responsible for the likes of Resurgency, Ectovoid, Flagellated Seraph, Malfeitor and Decaying comes yet more very tasty old school death metal by way of two EPs from Turkey’s Engulfed and Greece’s War Possession. Formed by two members of the now defunct Burial Invocation, who themselves released a […]

Portugal’s A Tree of Signs offer yet another entry into the increasingly crowded style of 70’s-inspired, occult doom rock.  Drawing influences from Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony, Witch Mountain and of course Black Sabbath, A Tree of Signs offer just enough of their own quirks to avoid sounding like a blatant rip-off of their influences.  The […]

Hailing from Sweden and with a name like Fetus Stench, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the debut full length album from this death metal act was of the old school, Stockholm-y kind. However, rather than dust off some old Entombed riffs and go for the obvious sound, Fetus Stench go for a different influence […]

Twelve songs in 22 minutes. And two of the songs are a combined 9 minutes of play time. You do the math and this equals grind. Ferocious, venomous grind. North Carolina’s Torch Runner are devastating, and on their debut album, Committed To The Ground, these guys waste no precious seconds in letting the listener attempt to […]

Neurot knows how to pick ‘em. After releasing two monolithic slabs of brain frying doom from Ufomammut this year, they once again reach across the Atlantic to release the latest from sludgy Belgian doomsayers Amenra. Mass V marks the band’s fourth full-length  and first release for Neurot Recordings. It’s got the same panoply of sludge, […]

Those of you who enjoyed releases from Canada’s Cephalectomy including their sophomore effort Eclipsing the Dawn and their final release- the free download- An  Epitaph for Tranquility take note. Barra Xul is basically the same band and sound by two of Cephalectomy‘s main guys, founder/guitarist/vocalist  Cory Andrews (also of Select and Dismember) and bassist Scott […]

Back in the early ’90s, Australia’s Armoured Angel seemed poised for greatness. After garnering a cult following throughout the ’80s with their energetic brand of speed/thrash, the Australian three piece — consisting of twin brothers, Joel (drums, vocals) and Matt Green (guitar), and founding member, Glen “Lucy” Luck (bass) — had evolved into something much […]

UPDATE-CONGRATULATIONS TO PALLBEARER, WHO BY A SERIES OF COMPLEX FORMULAS AND CALCULATIONS WON THE TOTD STAFF ALBUM OF THE YEAR WITH ‘SORROW AND EXTINCTION’. ANAAL NATHRAKH’S ‘VANITAS’ TOOK SECOND PLACE, WITH DYING FETUS TAKING THIRD WITH ‘REIGN SUPREME’.

. Another year, another winter spent threatening physical violence upon the staff here to get their year-end picks in. Now that the dust has settled, here are the results – the definitive list of critical picks of 2012’s best and worst releases. It’s all here: top albums, top EPs, top songs, biggest letdowns and the woulda shoulda coulda’s, as hand-picked by the TOTD staff. Feel free to comment, critique and tell us your own favorites for 2012. Thanks to all you guys for reading our little site in 2012 and here’s to another epic year of metal in 2013. Salut!

Remember when Mastodon were a good underground metal band rather than the commercialized, major label  juggernaut they have become? Remember Remission and Leviathan? Philadelphia’s Swarm of Arrows remember, and with The Great Seekers of Lesser Life they have delivered a slightly burlier, gruffer take on Mastodon-ish rumbling, tumbling metal. First off, all four members deliver […]

Darkest Origins is a Split release between two primitive, raw black metal bands- California’s one man act Hæresiarchs of Dis, who has three full length albums under their belt, the last two being on Moribund Records, and the international (US, Croatia and the Netherlands) act Ophidian Forest who have 2 self released albums to their […]

I’ll be honest, the French (Canadian) spelling of the word ‘nuclear’ is about as threatening as George W. Bush’s ‘nucular’. Also, when you title your album Unrelenting Fucking Hatred, that sets all kinds of warning signs that this is not going to be particularly original. However, given that this project was started by Lord Worm […]