Slice it and dice it any you’d like, but The Underground Resistance is Darkthrone doing what Darkthrone does best: that being whatever the Darkthrone wants to do. What that has meant on the last few albums especially (and back even further when you really think about it) is that Fenriz and Nocturno have immersed themselves […]

Place of no Pity is the fourth full-length album from Ruins, the Australian black metal crew featuring drumming extraordinaire Dave Haley (Psycroptic) in their ranks.  Although this is my first extended experience with the band, by all accounts it appears to follow-through with a similar formula to previous releases.  The band play a steroid-fuelled black/death […]

Distractions were a-plenty as we huddled with four members of Ancient VVisdom for our scheduled chat in the main backstage area of Mr. Smalls Theatre in Pittsburgh. Royal Thunder vocal queen Mlyn Parsonz stood a few feet behind us, trying to freshen up after their set. Various members of Enslaved’s crew shuttled in and out, oftentimes yelling loudly (in Norwegian, of course) to each other. To top it all off, emerging funeral doom crew Pallbearer was on stage, no doubt lambasting the crowd with maximum levels of distortion and deafening chugs. Yet, somehow, the interview went off without a hitch, as singer Nathan Opposition, guitarist Ribs, lead guitarist Mike, and bassist TA, proved to be some of the nicest dudes around while we huddled together.

This scribe thought Ancient VVisdom would be the next breakout band from the swelling devil rock field; the sidebar act to Ghost’s carnival appearance and The Devil’s Blood straight-faced, no frills approach. They certainly had the album to do it in the form of last year’s A Godlike Inferno, which married mysterious acoustic rock with […]

So as we start to get a little further into 2013, a lot of reviews are going to be late entries from 2012, and I’m trying to limit them to ones worth your while or ones that grabbed my ear. And I was surprised to find that one such release is the self released debut […]

My only prior experience with this Aussie trio – now a four-piece – was a few tracks (in all honesty, I probably only made it through one) from their 2010 ear grater, Devil’s Poison, that I remember sounding like a drunken early Venom rehearsal. I guess that was the point, but it was lost on […]

With only 3 full lengths in almost 15 years of existence, Devourment has still managed to foster an almost obsessive, cult-like following.  Their brand of brutal, slamming death metal is almost notoriously hailed as the pinnacle of the niche genre.  On this latest output, and their first on Relapse, the same crew is back from […]

“We continue to storm forward with no real sense of direction or purpose. We repeat ourselves, retell the same lies and never change. We all have become stagnant and entitled.. We know better, but we do it anyway. We are greedy, lazy and tired. We are destroying everything we’ve worked to preserve and shitting in […]

Dark Descent records deliver another punishing blast of nasty death metal in the form of the full-length debut from Finnish band, Vorum.   The label has made quite a name for themselves over the past couple of years through a string of high quality releases and commitment to old school values and the uglier side of […]

If you love your death metal dark, acrid, and Finnish, then look no further than the two-headed beast that is Desecresy. Exploding (or maybe “oozing at a medium pace” would be more fitting) onto the scene with Xtreem Music release Arches of Entropy and topping it up with last year’s The Doom Skeptron, the DM dirge of Desecresy is among the best I’ve heard, even in consideration of a Finnish scene rife with some of the world’s finest bottom-fed Chuggers of DM Darkness. Multi-instrumentalist/composer Tommy Gronqvist and catacombs-dwelling belch-bellower Jarno make one Hell of a team. Tommy offers this Demonstration of Death at no charge to the reader. Rejoice!

Right out the gate, I expected to be floored by this new release of Omium Gatherum‘s, and I’ll suppose the hype was at *least* partly right on the money. I can’t say I absorbed everything on the whole ordeal without cringing a single time, or that I drank it up like it’s the finest lager […]

I wanted to like the debut from Pittsburgh’s Abysme so much more.  It’s got the founding member of Funerus, Brad Heiple in its ranks and it’s a dusty old school Swedish styled  death metal record with a classic Nihilist guitar tone and loose sloppy Autopsy influenced riffs. However, the song writing never quite matches the level […]

I probably don’t have to expand on the style of this album assuming you can see the cover art, see the band moniker and the label and song titles like “Lithographies of Recurrent Splatter”, “Impudent Dissection of the Perfidious Idol” and “Fermentation of Prosthetic Remains” . Power metal this is not. Infected Flesh were a […]

Kongh hit a bit of a sophomore slump on their last album. Enjoyable as Shadows of the Shapeless was, it was hurt by some monotonous riffing and a one dimensional atmosphere. Certainly nowhere close to bad, but it didn’t exactly have me craving a follow up. Now it’s four years on and a lot has […]

“Do it yourself.” Does anyone in metal or music as a whole really “do it yourself?” And if someone really did (and excuse the improper tense) “do it yourself,” then they wouldn’t need the help of labels, press, and basically everyone else involved with getting an album off the ground. So, doing it yourself is […]

Kansas City’s Torn the Fuck Apart (hitherto known as TTFA) don’t like religion, particularly Christianity and all things Christ related. One look at the cover art, the album title and song titles like “Bashed in Prophets”, “Decapitated Disciples”, “Father of Filth” as well as the numerous samples from movies and TV (Louis CK, George Carlin […]

  Swedish Death Metallers ENTRAILS finish recordings on new album and announce album title and release date! Swedish death act, ENTRAILS, have completed the recordings for their much anticipated upcoming third album, Raging Death! The album was recorded in different studios: the drum recordings took place at the Racetrack studios while the basis recordings were […]

To the outside observer, the 2012 departure of long-time Suffocation drummer Mike Smith came as a surprise. It was Smith’s drumming, of course, that was usually the catalyst for the band’s legendary brutal death metal attack, one that spawned such gems like 1991 Effigy of the Forgotten and 1993’s Breeding the Spawn. Without Smith, some figured, Suffocation couldn’t survive. Needless to say, they were wrong, as evidenced by their new, domineering Pinnacle of Bedlam.

Definition of PINNACLE  ;  the highest point of development or achievement Definition of BEDLAM; A place or situation of noisy uproar and confusion. So, basically the highest achievement in a noisy uproar and confusion? Yup, Id say that about covers it. Four albums into their comeback from a 6 year hiatus and some pretty legendary […]

Moghul is a new band hailing from Birmingham, England and plying their trade in the sludge/doom metal scene.  Dead Empires is the first release from the quartet and over a mere 2 tracks, but a weighty 23-minutes, the band makes an exciting impression through their sprawling, downcast mode of murky doom.   Their sound contains echoes […]

Think back four decades; just try it. You may recall that Al Atkins fronted Judas Priest during those ancient times and even penned one of the band’s all-time classic songs: “Victim of Changes.” Not bad, eh? Though his stint with one of Birmingham’s finest heavy metal units is more than notable achievement to include on […]

Candlelight Records today confirms the worldwide signing of PESTILENCE. The celebrated eastern Netherlands-based band is currently preparing to enter the studio to begin work on their seventh studio album, titled Obsideo. The album is expected to be produced by vocalist/guitarist Patrick Mameli and set to feature ten new songs. No release date is set as […]

Ok, will someone please explain to me how this isn’t an Asphyx record? It’s the trio that released the legendary The Rack (Eric Daniels, Martin Van Drunen and Bob Bagchus) two of which went on to form the post Asphyx band Soulburn, as well as a  current member of the the new Asphyx (Alwin Zuur) […]

Not to be confused with the more popular Zyklon from Norway (featuring Samoth and Trym of Emperor fame), Zaklon hails from Minsk, Belarus and is all about sweeping, atmospheric black metal. Each song on Chornae Lis’ce, which loosely translates to Whisper of Black Foliage, is drenched in eerie undertones and soaked with despair. What that […]

What happens if you take the devastating, brown note heft of The Acacia Strain and mix with Christian ideals? You get Pittsburgh’s Those Who Fear, that’s fucking what. So now let me continue and  tell the three of you that will actually read this even more. Ive said for a few reviews now that Facedown […]