I think I’m about the last person to check out Atriarch’s Forever The End, an album that lit up many year-end lists in 2011… What can I say? There are a lot of records to keep up with. However after sampling their craft via this split album, I’ll be looking for that debut ASAP. But not before […]

Here’s a vinyl split LP with some amazing potential. Light Bearer‘s first LP, 2011’s Lapsus was one of the very best releases of last year while Wisconsin’s Northless have steadily improved over the two releases I have heard in 2010’s No Quarter for the Damaged and last year’s Clandestine Abuse LP. I’m not going to […]

Along with Dark Descent and Willowtip, Deepsend Records are one of my favorite independent US based labels, especially when it comes to pure death metal. They’ve had a solid spring summer releasing quality albums by the likes of Offending, Synapses, the always reliable Dawn of Demise and even got into the reissue game with reissues […]

The fact that I was born in 1984 means that I have missed out on a lot of metal history. Sure, it has been documented in the form of records and concert footage, but it’s not the same as actually being at a specific event, such as the early genesis of death metal with early […]

What’s swollen with Swedish pride, rife with heathenism and unabashedly oozing with heavy metal thunder?  Grand Magus‘ newest release, of course.  Sixth full-length The Hunt is a smorgasbord of fine riffs and rhythms that’s certain to please ears the world over.  So it may not be as doomy (okay, there’s really no comparison) as earlier […]

Teeth of the Divine’s battle worn assault squad is back to recollect the experiences and ordeals they went through on the second day of Tuska Open Air Metal Festival — held in Helsinki, Finland for the fifteenth time. Saturday not only saw heavy metal’s more empowering side, but its blackest as well. Thus, our report of epic proportions continues with the last day of June 2012. This is Saturday.

Italy has a surprisingly solid technical/brutal death metal scene.  Of course, there’s the more obvious  monsters like Fleshgod Apocalypse and Hour of Penance, but if you dig a little deeper and actually list bands like Antropofagus, Gory Blister, Illogicist, Vomit the Soul, Unconventional Disruption, Humangled, Psychofagist just to name a few, you start to realize […]

Throw some more incense on the fire, here comes another flaxen-haired acolyte come to join the coven of female-fronted, psychedelic and devil-worshipping hard rock. Last one of these I covered was Finland’s Jess and the Ancient Ones; here are their labelmates/countrymates in Seremonia. This variety of 70s proto-doom is shaggy like a forest nymph in […]

Easily one of the most over-looked albums of the last decade, Epoch of Aquarius will hopefully garner the sort of attention it lacked when it originally was presented to the world in 2006. For those who may not know, Munruthel is a band that fits somewhere inside the whole pagan/folk metal sub-genre but the music […]

Hailing from Texas and featuring The Faceless drummer Lyle Cooper, Absvrdist play a form of vicious modern grind/crust that would sit well on Southern Lord. It will appeal to fans of  Enabler and any other of Southern Lord’s crust/hardcore bands, and it’s got just a dash of black metal (though that might just be the […]

  Adult Swim’s Animated Aggressors to Release New Album in North America with CD/DVD Combo and Clean Version on October 16, 2012; Limited Edition Vinyl Follows on November 6 DETHKLOK returns this fall with Metalocalypse: Dethklok Dethalbum III, the highly-anticipated follow up album that fans of the animated band have been begging for. The stars […]

I really kind of wanted to like the debut from Vancouver’s Tribune a whole lot more. They seem like a fun loving group of guys that don’t take themselves too seriously, and the music contained on Elder Lore/Dark Arts is an eclectic mix of thrash, heavy metal, metalcore and melodic death metal. That is also the […]

Splits are always an enjoyable listen, regardless if one or more of the bands on the micro compilation are even halfway decent. It’s always been a terrific way to sample typically unknown bands in small doses and because the listener will usually be treated to multiple songs from each band, splits are almost always more […]

The fifteenth Tuska Festival was held for the second time at the Suvilahti-area, only a short distance away from the very center of Finland’s capital, Helsinki. The ever-changing and unpredictable weather saw almost fifty or so bands (including Ministry, Megadeth, Behemoth, Anaal Nathrakh, Sabaton, Trivium and Horna to name a few) play for around 28,000 metalheads during the final days of June (and first day of July) 2012. Teeth of the Divine’s task force was sent to investigate and muster up a report of epic proportions. This is Friday.

I’m a trad metal fan. It is, hands-down, my favorite metal genre. As much as I try to shake things up with a bit of prog or power metal, my well-worn copy of Mercyful Fate‘s Don’t Break the Oath never strays too far out of my reach. So, with a metal palette like mine, I […]

It does not take a genius to figure out the style of metal played by Melbourne, Australia’s Whoretopsy; look at the moniker, the cover, the album title and song titles like “Cardiac Defecation”, “Potty Mouth”, “Necrobordello” and “Intimate Disgust”. What we have here brutal, ultra misogynistic death metal of the slammiest variety. I’m pretty sure […]

It’s another word for anti-intellectualism. People are stupid, ignorant and seem to be proud of it. This is a disturbing trend.”  So says Adam Laszlo about the meaning behind the name of the project he helms all by himself – Sophicide.  Perdition of the Sublime is an absolute scorcher, made even more impressive by the […]

You know those anti-meth PSA posters where they show a normal person and their progression each month as they become addicted to meth? Well, one listen to Drug Honkey‘s fourth album might result in the same, tooth rotting, skin itching, hair losing, gaunt results. In fact, Drug Honkey might be onto a new sub genre of […]

It is said that great art has the power to take us outside of ourselves and bring us closer to ourselves simultaneously. Few bands have accomplished this rare feat on a more profound and consistent basis than NEUROSIS. For nearly three decades, their music has touched the hearts and minds of young men and women […]

The ever busy and resolutely dedicated warrior of Heavy Metal Chris Black is a talented songwriter and versatile musician, as one can hear with clarity in his work with bands like Superchrist, Dawnbringer, High Spirits, and Pharaoh. He’s also one hell of a nice guy and a true supporter of Metal on multiple levels, not the least of which includes his past work as journalist Professor Black for the [now defunct] Metal Maniacs and as owner/operator of Planet Metal Records. But the primary topic at hand warranting exploration and selective dissection concerns Dawnbringer and new Profound Lore album Into the Lair of the Sun God, the follow up to the equally spectacular Nucleus. As pigeonholing is for the birds, we’ll just call the Dawnbringer style well written, heartfelt, and dynamic Heavy Metal. This time around Black took on the ambitious task of writing a bona fide concept album into which we shall delve in short order. We’ll also be shedding some light on the new Superchrist album, which is titled Holy Shit and can be obtained for a paltry sum via Hells Headbangers Records. It is a grand example of no frills, catchy Metal, which deserves some virtual ink and your hard earned trinkets. Dawnbringer headlined this year’s Alehorn of Power Fest VI at Reggie’s in Chicago and as I can attest personally, the faces melted were many and the reverberations from the decibels dealt can still be felt. Incidentally, this interview was conducted the week prior to the show, as you’ll soon realize. In any case, allow us to bring it so that you may consider it brought upon completion of this full meal of the written word.

This year-old Chicago outfit is going out this fall on Obituary’s Carnival of Death tour, which is packed with old-school death (the reformed Broken Hope, plus Jungle Rot), and technical death (Decrepit Birth). Yet the press notes described Encrust as similar to Mastodon, Clutch or Kvelertak, so that seemed an odd addition to the bill. Then I sampled the first track, “Predatory Skin,” and […]

Once again, Halo of Flies Records ensures that I keep a record player in my possession by releasing an impressive 2 track split 12″ from California sludge doom act Amarok and Polish doom band Enth. Both bands are new to me, but I’ll be certainly looking out for releases from both in the future. I’ll […]

Laster, from Utrecht, in the Netherlands, have a classic ’90s atmospheric black metal sound – some might label this as DSBM (depressive/suicidal black metal), a term that gained popularity around the time of Leviathan and Xasthur, but Burzum’s spare and vicious nocturnes needed no such moniker back in the day. Others might also tag this […]

I just reviewed The Netherlands’ Laster, and now here’s Sweden’s Lustre. Laster, meet Lustre. Lustre, Laster. Both are atmospheric black metal from the genre equivalent of House Stark, but Lustre is more ambient and stripped-down. Good for late-night reverie, bad for driving. The four long, highly repetitive tracks on They Awoke the Scent of Spring remind […]

One would desperately hope that a metal album inspired by the events of Chernobyl would be littered with hints of occultism, cloaked in sulphuric blackened nuances, and evoking creepy Silent Hill-ish moments.  Agruss‘s Morok has a little bit of this, but it’s not as effective as it could be.  The genre used to convey the […]