Like all the previous albums from Winterfylleth, The Threnody of Triumph takes some time getting adjusted to. The listener simply won’t be able to uncover all that is glorious about this UK black metal band’s newest release in just a single listen or two; this needs to be given the proper number of spins to […]

Sometimes you just need to stop all the obsessing over wheel reinvention and just play the music that you love, regardless of originality. That’s exactly what Belfast’s Rex Shachath did on debut EP Sepulchral Torment. Said EP is nothing more than well played and memorable death metal of the traditional sort inspired by the original masters. When a band references the likes of Morbid Angel, Vader, Immolation, and Cannibal Corpse in discussing its music (as Rex Shachath guitarist Andrew Pennington does in the discussion that follows), rare is the death metal fan that wouldn’t be paying attention. Mr. Pennington gives us the down ‘n dirty of the nitty and the gritty of Rex Shachath.

Death metal has become so crowded with genre-splitters, tech freaks, and old school imitators that we sometimes forget the taste of the meat and potatoes stuff. It takes a band from Northern Ireland called Rex Shachath to serve that traditional meal up right. You know that whole thing about not over-thinking everything and just going […]

For those that are unfamiliar with The Forsaken – the first and foremost thing you have to know, before throwing this one on, is that they’re very traditionally Swedish in sound. They’re the melodic death metal band rather than the technical and grindy godzilla. That being said, they sure as hell know how to jampack […]

Much like The Great Old Ones‘ release, Al Azif, Sentinel the third release from Greece’s Spectral Lore is an awesome black metal surprise that mixes a multitude of recognized black metal styles and tropes, notably Memoria Vestusta II era Blut Aus Nord, Krallice and other more ambient, experimental and otherwordly black metal. Even with a […]

Bow is a project spawned from the mind of Chris van der Linden, a guy likely better known for his work under the title Fourteen Twentysix. Although Fourteen Twentysix has been called ‘progressive rock’, it may have been more fitting to call it a mix between ambient music and alternative rock; a combination that worked […]

How do I love thee Grave? Let me count the ways. It is the heart and soul of demonic growler, guitarist, and sole original member Ola Lindgren and the way he keeps the machine running in such a well-oiled manner. It is the rottenness and sheer weight of those riffs, the ugly enormousness of the […]

Cryptopsy’s 2008 album,The Unspoken King, was a polarizing album at best, an absolute abomination at worst.  Right or wrong, that output earned the band the dreaded deathcore tag, and the clean vocals of new frontman Matt McGachy (3 Mile Scream) went over like a turd in a punchbowl.  Fans expecting the brutal death metal that […]

Eastern Europe has produced some excellent pagan black metal bands over the last decade or more, the most well-known being Drudkh, Negura Bunget and Nokturnal Mortum. Yet there are undoubtedly dozens of other quality, uniquely Eastern acts still sheltered by those untravelled hills and forests. Ukraine’s Khors is one of those treasures. Wisdom of Centuries is their […]

And the retro Swedish death metal hits keep coming with a second wave of bands like Malfeitor, Mass Burial, Corrosive Carcass, Unconsecrated, Bombs of Hades, Eroded and such continuing the quality laid down by bands like Entrails, Demonical, Bloodbath, Fatalist, Hail of Bullets and others. And while some may tire of the genre’s imminent saturation, […]

About ten years back, I was just starting to test the waters of extreme metal. Shadows Fall was one of the very first bands that was decidedly outside of my norm. I think what drew me to them the most was the thrashiness of the riffs and music, as I had already been a long […]

Melbourne’s Be’lakor have gone from unknown, unsigned band to one of the scene’s most respected and consistent bands. Having just released their third critically acclaimed album in Of Breath and Bone, the band is now entering pastures that find the tiny dependent Australian band playing doomy, melodic death metal mentioned in the same breath as the like of Insomnium, Opeth and other European luminaries. And I’ve watched and listened the whole time, seeing the band grow and become one of metal’s elite acts. All the while I’ve stayed in pretty consistent contact with the band’s founder and keyboardist Steve Merry who was once again, more than willing to answer a few questions about Be’lakor, the new album and what the future holds for Be’lakor…

Candlelight Records today confirms November 6 as the North American release date for Vanitas, the new album from England’s ANAAL NATHRAKH. Produced by Mick Kenney (Bleeding Through, Ingested), the album carries the band’s signature and regarded union of black metal and grindcore. There is no other band that creates music as frightening as the Birmingham-based […]

Whores’ debut EP Ruiner can be summarized with two words: “Fuckin’ riffs”. In fact, that would probably be my review if submitting it wouldn’t make me feel terribly lazy, as well as piss off my Teeth of the Divine overlords. Monstrous, grimy riffs. Riffs that eat bricks and shit lead. Riffs so big, so heavy, […]

Progressive metal may be a something of a stagnant genre nowadays, but there’s still great quality to be found. Metaphysics is an Italian group that have been together since 2005, and though their sound is but a sliver away from the prog metal giants that so clearly influence them, they have created a memorable first […]

Hailing from Minnesota, Lungs are a sludgy, down tempo, post rock/doom band that would fit nicely on Halo of Flies Records, next to a band like Northless , even  more so considering their vinyl based output here. This self titled 10″ release consists of two songs, the 7 minute “The  Pith” and  the 8 minute […]

Xibalba, the 5-piece from southern California, not to be confused with the other half dozen or so bands who share the same name, had already shown potential on their debut, Madre Mia Gracias Por Los Dias, which we reviewed last year, but their sophomore album, Hasta La Muerta, makes good on their stylistic growth in […]

Though many have thought melodic death metal dead for a few years now (thanks, In Flames), a few releases here in late 2011/2012 by the likes of Vale of Pnath, Pictured, December Flower, Darkness By Oath, Allegaeon and Karnak Seti have shown there’s a bit of life in the genre yet. And here is Italy’s […]

Teeth of the Divine’s battle-worn assault squad is back for the last time to recollect the experiences and ordeals they went through on the last day of Tuska Open Air Metal Festival — held in Helsinki, Finland for the fifteenth time. Sunday provided quite possibly the festival’s brightest highlights with Overkill storming the stage and Huoratron blinding everyone with their over-the-top strobo-lights. This is Sunday and the end of our epic three-part quest to TUSKA OPEN AIR 2012.

It’s been four years since the release of The Faceless’ ambitious last album, Planetary Duality. That’s plenty of time for some kind of musical or sonic metamorphosis (and plenty of band member change-ups as well), and on their new concept album Autotheism, the band truly spreads its mutant wings. I was impressed with Akeldama, their […]

About damned time! Four years for a new Testament album is just too long. After waiting 9 years on previous album The Formation of Damnation (which admittedly, in retrospect, is/was kind of a disappointment – certainly not bad but not one of their best), I had thought these extended breaks between albums were over. Apparently […]

As you all are well aware, there has been a growing trend for a few years now with this whole “Cascadian black metal” thing and it’s just about reached its breaking point. Obviously Wolves in the Throne Room are the supposed pioneers of this subgenre and, like every other nook or cranny of metal,a million […]

Deepsend Records is proud to announce the signing of Australia’s ETERNAL REST. The label will release the band’s debut album, Prophetic, in early 2013. The album was recorded and mixed by Joe Haley (Psycroptic). Eternal Rest hail from Brisbane, Australia. The band’s powerful energy can be heard on Prophetic, but must be experienced in a live […]

If my memory doesn’t fail me, I was a pretty damned vocal fan of King of Asgard‘s even before they signed on to Metal Blade. They made an extremely impactful entrance in the industry with their first record, and were quick to establish themselves as one of the modern driving forces of the Viking metal […]

Hailing from my old college stomping grounds in Kansas City, Missouri, Solace and Stable are a group of young tech metallers cut from the same cloth as bands like Between the Buried and Me, Woe of Tyrants, The Demonstration, Conducting from the Grave, With Passion and such; they play a form of shred filled, melodic […]