One thing that I enjoy about music is that it can take you on a journey. Similar to a good book, a band can place you in entire worlds, allowing your imagination to run free. The post-rock instrumental band from Akron, Ohio, If These Trees Could Talk, takes the listener on a journey though a […]

Other than Mithras, Sarpanitum, Trigger the Bloodshed, Fleshrot (RIP) and Detrimentum, I’m not very familiar with the better of the brutal/tech death metal scene coming out of the UK, but here is Hull based newcomer Parasitized and their impressive debut 6 song EP. Though released independently back in 2010, fledgling Canadian label Blast Head Records […]

The debut album Vitriol from the Italian band Evenoire is an interesting beast. They are firmly rooted in the goth and symphonic sub-genres of metal along with some tentative outgrowth into folk territory. Yet, for the goth and symphonic elements being so dominating, I feel that it is of their most uninspired moments. Vitriol is […]

I remember the first time I heard Katatonia and their doom masterpiece, Brave Murder Day. It was off the Century Black Firestarter compilation in 1997, and “Murder,” which was sandwiched between Borknagar and Arcturus, struck me as just completely miserable. It had a dry, dessicated sound, like something left to rot in a dim, airless […]

Is Manilla Road a cult heavy metal band? Who cares? You shouldn’t. What you should care about is the fact that this superb Wichita-based group has been raising the flag and saluting since 1977 in spite of a music scene that has been far too indifferent in the United States, at least outside of a rabid core fan base. As usual, Europe has been a different story for Manilla Road, a region in which the act has no trouble commanding a festival audience. It seems all Europe sees is a forward thinking band with lyrical themes that run deep and a style that is musically progressive, yet firmly based in classic heavy metal, rather than “cult.” All cynicism about America’s fickle attitudes aside, the fact is that Manilla Road is a celebrated, highly influential Heavy Metal institution with an impressive body of work that has been given a boost this century through CD and vinyl reissues by Shadow Kingdom Records in North America and High Roller Records in Europe. The last album, Playground of the Damn, was released last year and since then the band has brought in a great new German-based drummer in Andreas Neuderth and is planning to release a follow-up album before 2012 becomes a memory. In the interim the self-titled debut from Hellwell, the side project of guitarist/vocalist/composer and founding member Mark “The Shark” Shelton, will be released through Shadow Kingdom Records. All that and more awaits your prying eyes in this interview with the ever genial and always interesting Shelton. Read on and Up The Hammers!

I’ve always had a soft spot for Borknagar‘s brand of melodic, blackened, folky, progressive, epic metal. That’s not a genre, just a lot of well-deserved adjectives. Their self-titled debut set a blueprint for what was to come, and though they’ve improved their production quality and changed members over time, main man Øystein G. Brun has […]

Brutal blasting death grind, a fitting tag for this brutal death metal gem. That said gem is the new album by Filipino brutal death grind outfit Disastrous entitled Severe Suffering. Severe Suffering is an unrelenting slab of brutal putrid riffs, pregnant women bashing drum battery, and gnarly pus spewing gutturals. This is their second full […]

Almost four months into 2012 and I’ve finally found my first candidate for this year’s top 10. The band in question is Sydney, Australia’s Paradigm, who I’d never heard of before this – and chances are, from the meager exposure out there on the metal web, you haven’t either. However, If you’re a fan of […]

According the Crown‘s website, Crown is “two men, two guitars, a voice and machine, …an extraordinary duo, trio or man-machine, whose compositions clean, direct and catchy, used as raw material to further the noise limits”. And that’s pretty accurate as Crown are in fact a French duo with both members once serving in Hollow Corp, […]

With the current trend of metal re-issues, previously revered or sought after releases are now easier to find and more accessible than their first run. I mean if it were not for re-issues, I would have never got to hear Uncanny’s “Splenium for Nyktophobia”, God Macabre’s “The Winterlong” , Convulse’s Wrld Without God or Gorement’s The Ending Quest. But reissues can be a double edged sword. I mean did we really need a Morta Skuld re-issue. Or how many times can Earache milk their early Carcass releases? . Heck, Attack Attack! recently re-issued their 2010 album. Yeah, really. But there’s still some releases out there that have been ignored over the last 20 years or so,releases I feel need to be heard again, or simply dusted off, and re-mastered to enhance their original sound. So I put together a list of albums that I personally would like to get the re-issue or remaster treatment, either due to their rarity or that they sounded like ass the first time around. I fully acknowledge that some of these might have been reissued on some obscure Ukrainian or South American bootleg label, but I’m talking about a re-issue on a recognized, corporately legal label, that’s freely available to anyone who does not want to go on the Russian black market to get a copy. Of course these are my own personal preferences, so until you have your own second rate internet review site such as ours, feel free to add your own in the comments section.

While about 75-80 percent of this ‘job’ is reviewing known or established bands in the same few genres and simply quantifying what most readers already feel, there’s often something that comes along that’s completely, new unexpected and rewarding. Such is the case with Chicago’s Beak. Some research shows that the band features members of a […]

Y’know, I’ve been debating on whether do review the new Asphyx album for a while now, but a few things weighed heavy on my mind; first, Century  Media never sent any sort of promo, digital, physical or otherwise, showing arrogance and confidence in the fact they don’t need press coverage, which considering the band is […]

After six long years, Spawn of Possession are back to toss their hat into the tech-death ring with their third full-length – Incurso. The band has gone through a lineup change since the last album, with drummer Dennis Rondum trading in his sticks for a microphone, and Obscura’s Christian Munzner taking over on guitars. Right […]

I’ll say this for Three Thirteen. They know how to appeal to me. The packaging of their last album, Full Tilt, caught my interest as much as the music. While their latest, Devil Music, a set of covers to hold fans over until the next record, arrived in a slip case, it came with lots […]

Century Media Records is proud to announce a worldwide deal with Florida Death Metal icons MASSACRE. The band is resurrected with two of the original band members: band founders Rick Rozz (guitar) and Terry Butler (bass, also in OBITUARY). The line-up is completed with Ed Webb (ex-DIABOLIC, also in DESTINED TO RUIN and GENERICHRIST) on […]

Warning: there’s gonna be cursing in this review, because an album like this warrants it, so please check your delicate sensibilities at the door. It’s been quite a while since anything of this ilk has crossed my desk for review, and in preparation I dug out some Morbid Saint and Noia to get me in […]

All you really need to know about Blood Label to figure out how they sound are three things ; They are from Denmark, Existence Expires was recorded at Tue Madsen’s Antfarm Studio (Hatesphere, Illdisposed, The Haunted, etc) and the vocals were recorded at the studio of former Hateshphere/Allhelluya and current The Kandidate front-man Jacob Bredahl. […]

Some bands wear their heart and their influences on their sleeve, and none more so than the current crop of retro, old school Swedish death worshiping acts. For instance you’ve got the font and ‘tomb’ references of Entrails, Funeral Whore,  who named a demo after a Grave song, Brutally Deceased is named after a Grave […]

There’s an old adage that states ‘never judge a book by its cover’, and that applies aptly in the case of the debut album from Columbia’s King. Based on the Dark Funeral reject cover art, song titles like “Non laughter – Zero Fucking Happiness” and “Kill the Posers Like Fucking Christians” as well as the […]

If you’re choice of metal falls squarely into the Brutal Death Metal camp, then surely you are familiar with North Carolina based Comatose Music and its Chairman, CEO, and Overlord Steve Green. Steve is certifiably workaholic and selective about releasing only those albums in which he personally believes and to which he can provide the proper support/promotion. Having personally ordered from www.comatosemusic.com (including distro items), as well as reviewing Comatose titles (Thirst of Revenge, Bloodsoaked, Face of Oblivion, and others), I can state without equivocation that Mr. Green runs a tight ship and offers quality products at great prices. He also deals in decibels as guitarist in his own bands Atrocious Abnormality (current) and Lust of Decay (on hiatus). Steve’s story is one of dedication, determination, attention to detail, and above all else customer service. Read the interview and for the love of all that is brutal and unholy order something from Comatose Music!

It’s amazing to me that the band that left me relatively unimpressed with their debut EP Razor to Oblivion, then fired back with one of 2010s most critically acclaimed albums, Heavy Breathing and now followed that up with one of 2012s best releases, Sentenced to Life. Not only that, the band seemed to have really […]

Tort is yet another success from Spain’s blossoming doom scene. Spawned from the same fetid breeding ground that produced Eight Hands for Kali, Graveyard, and Warchetype, and featuring ex-members of Lords of Bukkake and Cuerno, Tort was formed out of a desire to play something other than “sad and slow doom”. Their debut for Totalrust […]

Poland’s Centurion have been around for a while, but this is only the band’s second effort since their 2002 debut, Conquer & Rule, which I have not heard. Stylistically the band play typically competent Polish death metal with a solid Floridian (Morbid Angel/Deicide) influence and in fact, the band covered Morbid Angel‘s “Day of Suffering” […]

Despite the retro thrash moniker and 1985 artwork, Massive Assault is actually a killer throwback Swedish styled death metal band who hail from the Netherlands. And whereas Denmark’s Funeral Whore were easily linked to Grave, Massive Assault are equally as easily linked to Dismember and fellow Dutchmen, Hail of Bullets (musically when they slow down, […]

I’m a sucker for a good Southern-flavored groove. It’s where I come from. I heard just as much Waylon Jennings, Hank Jr. and Lynyrd Skynyrd as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest growing up, and though I abandoned my Southern roots in music for a while in my teens and early 20s, I’ve grown to appreciate […]