Huntress, huh. Semi-cool name, female vocals not descended from heaven on angel wings. Worth a shot. Interestingly enough, the music player has labeled Starbound Beast as Blues. This is clearly incorrect…though hoping this album would be interesting and then listening to it has caused a case of the blues. The lowdown: Starbound Beast is essentially […]

Profane is my first exposure the France’s Svart Crown, despite it being their 3rd full-length album, but considering the brilliance of French black metal that has crossed my path in that time frame, it’s not surprising that these guys slipped under my radar. And while this is more of a blackened death metal record as […]

There aren’t too many styles so well suited for each other as metal and symphonic music. While heavy metal may have had its first roots in blues, many later acts owe just as much of their inspiration from classical tradition. With this having been said, it’s no wonder that so many metal bands have worked […]

Swiss grind metallers Mumakil are a band I’ve been following for a while. From their little known debut LP Customized Warfare, to follow up Behold the Failure, these guys have been blasting through the underground with a style of grind they call “blastcore” (because yeah that’s all we need is yet another sub-genre). But categories […]

Hailing from the Netherlands, The New Dominion is a exciting and talented multifaceted act that features drummer Yuma Van Eekelen, who drummed on Pestilence‘s 2011 effort, Doctrine. And while that once great band’s lackluster return and that particular album might not lure you into listening to this loosely affiliated band, be aware that The New […]

Relapse Records is extremely proud to announce the North American signing of Oslo, Norway’s death metal warriors Obliteration!  Formed in 2001, Obliteration (Sindre Solem – guitar / vocals, Arlid Myren Torp – guitar, Didrik Telle- bass, Kristian Valbo – drums) have released one EP (Total Fucking Obliteration – 2005) and two full-lengths (Perpetual Decay – […]

While I am far from the highest authority when it comes to ultra-kvlt, super underground, cassette only, no website Black Metal, it is not frequent that I come across a release from a band, or in this case two, that have been around for nearly half a decade or more, that I have never even […]

To get a pulse on what’s been happening in Oakland’s underground metal culture, we spent a day in the lives of 6-year bay area veteran ZH, who has straddled the line of punk, thrash, and metal, to eventually define their own sound with the release of their most recent album: Entitled to Enlightenment.

When it comes to Swedish melodic metal excellence, Darkane are an underappreciated force with a top-notch track record. Formed in the late ‘90s, the band has never been anything less than solid. Their exceptional debut, Rusted Angel, is something of a minor classic, and their 2005 release, Layers of Lies, was another fist-pumping gem, displaying […]

Sidious is the side project from some of the members of UK doom act Eye of Solitude, and while I generally don’t dig EPs (musical cock teasers), Ascension to the Throne Ov Self is a fucking killer little 4-song release, and I very much look forward to a full-length. Sidious is a complete 180 from […]

They say good things come to those who wait. Well, in the case of the debut from Germany’s Sulphur Aeon, that is most certainly true. Originally released at the beginning of the year/late 2012 on Imperium Productions then licensed via FDA Rekotz, I finally ordered the album after months of waiting, forgetting, and looking on […]

The whole of Anarchic finds Skagos focusing upon their atmospherics and expanding further on the sounds found on the Split with Panopticon (whose tracks form one half of his brilliant On The Subject Of Mortality). This is a complicated record that is “lyrically complex, focusing on the death of the Earth and the renewal inherent […]

Kylesa are, along with such other psychedelic sludgy metal counterparts as Mastodon, Baroness, Black Tusk and Zoroaster are part of the Georgian scene, which at this rate could at some point go down as legendary as the early ’80s Bay Area thrash or the late ’80s Floridian death metal scene. Like their contemporaries Mastodon and […]

Zealotry is a project that features Roman Temin, a former metal journalist for blistering.com, Unchallenged Hate, as well as a couple of other skilled veterans of death and experimental metal. While Temin plays rhythm guitars and does lead vocals, he has plenty of veteran and skilled assistance by way of Philippe Tougas of Chthe’ilist and […]

After a year long hiatus, Tampere’s Sauna Open Air festival returned again in 2013 for a weekend that consisted of mainly Northern European acts like Nightwish, Children of Bodom, Opeth, Volbeat and Sabaton — with the only US visitor going by the name of Hatebreed. The festival also saw other changes. Instead of being ushered into a park setting, the party was held in a sports stadium and rather than doing three full days, there were only two. And we were there.

Oh, good old My Dying Bride, we go back a long way. You commiserated with me during my depressing teen years and helped me feel something whenever life would turn mundane. I’ll admit to skipping over your then-infamous (not so much now) 34.788%… Complete only to discover it’s quirky gloom a few years later, and […]

For those unfamiliar with All Pigs Must Die, they’re essentially a supergroup comprised of members, both currently and formerly, from acts such as The Hope Conspiracy, Converge, The Red Chord, and Blood Horse. Two surprises come out of this musical juggernaut’s output: firstly their sound is not what you’d expect, and secondly this group is […]

It’s not often these days that my mind is completely blown away by a musical album, but the latest output, Coal, from Norwegian progressive metallers Leprous did just that. Not once, not twice, but goddamn, the album rolls throughout the entire 60-minutes. I first caught a glimpse of the band at this year’s Tuska Open […]

It’s kind of hard to be a death metal band in the 21st century. You know you want to play something that is heavy, brutal and has growling in it. The question is, how brutal do you want to be? How technical should you play? Should you be more experimental and throw in some saxophone? […]

“This should not be seen as a gathering of two humans playing music, for it doesn’t simply stand for “music” but a real Communication between an incarnated being and vibrations coming from a non-manifested paradigma where the Essence of what has suffered thousands of incarnations and names wanders eternally through the halls of it’s last […]

So here is a 9 song, 23 minute EP or short LP from France’s Years of Tyrants, and one thing is incredibly clear, these guys really like Beneath the Massacre. So much so, that when a track started playing, I had a hard time telling who they were seeing as I still have Beneath the […]

California death metal outfit CARNIFEX has announced a new deal with heavy-metal institution Nuclear Blast, home to legends such as DIMMU BORGIR, MESHUGGAH and CHILDREN OF BODOM. “Signing with Nuclear Blast is a career defining moment for CARNIFEX,” commented frontman Scott Lewis. “To be aligned with the largest metal label on earth is a true […]

As the big name bands continue to put out disappointing albums (looking at you most recently Blood Red Throne… I mean wtf?!?), it has allowed the underground to show where the action’s at. You can be forgiven if you’ve never heard of these Ohio broot-brewers, as it’s been almost 10 years since their last full […]

As I Lay Dying vocalist Tim Lambesis has spoken out for the first time since his arrest in may of 2013 for soliciting a hit man to murder his estranged wife, Megan Lambesis. Via his official tumblr account, Lambesis made the following statement: “I’ve come across many comments, both private and public, asking me to […]

In this day and age of super speed, mega brutality and throwbacks there is something to be said for just riffs. Simple, catchy, driving riffs. And on their second effort of largely mid paced black ‘n’ roll styled metal, Germany’s Sonic Reign deliver them in spades. Those who hated Satyricon‘s last couple of outings, Now […]