California’s Deathevokation released The Chalice of Ages, back in 2007. It has been finally repressed and comes with a bonus second disc containing their infamous 2005 Blood demo, their split eps (with Graveyard and Lie In Ruins) and some live songs. All of their music ever recorded is on here and I have to say when I […]

If you have ever sat around ad wondered “What the heck happened to Swedish band Crowpath? Those noisy fuckers were one of Willowtip’s best bands?”, your question has now been answered. While only two Crowpath members are in Tellusian, their influence is apparent, but not overwhelming as two other members of this exciting new act […]

After a bunch of splits, a couple demos and a debut (that honestly, I have not heard) and a live album (?) Sacrificial Blood release Souls for Sale. Man, I hope they didn’t sell theirs. I feel bad for saying that, but doing what I do is oftentimes that of the executioner’s blade and I […]

There is prolific and then there is Swedish musician ‘Revolting’ Rogga Johansson, who makes a mockery of the word. Currently listed in 13 active bands and has guested or appeared on numerous others over the years, the man is synonymous with old school Swedish death metal. Originally starting out with Paganizer, the guy has his finger in so many band’s it insame to think about. His most recent projects and releases includes Down Among the Dead Men, a project with former Benediction front man Dave Ingram and his fourth full length Ribspreader album, Meathymns.

Wow. 2014 is shaping up to be a banner year for technical death metal. You’ve got Unique Leader’s killer 2014 releases (Soreption, Beneath, Near Death Experience as well as upcoming Pillory and Inanimate Existence records) Willowtip chipping in with Abysmal Torment Cultivate the Apostate, Italy’s reliable masters Hour of Penance withRegicide, respectable US efforts from Rivers of Nihil, […]

If you were to introduce someone to extreme metal, and they hadn’t heard the genre or weren’t previously a fan, you could do little better than to throw on the new Aborted album. It’s all that is right and enjoyable about the metal genre, and on their 8th full length album these Belgians show absolutely […]

Greece is not a pretty place to be right now. Allochiria takes their album’s name, Omonoia, from a neighborhood of Athens that has undergone significant urban decay. They play a style of post-metal that exists in a middle ground between the meditative atmospherics of bands like Pelican and mid-era Isis, and heavier sludge band akin […]

Australia is a scary fucking place. Not only does the country have some of the most dangerous animals on the planet, but it also is home to some really vicious Black Metal ( Bestial Warlust and Destroyer 666 to name just a couple), Erebus Enthroned could very well have moved into that company with Temple […]

A fair amount of controversy has followed Chicago’s Lord Mantis upon the release of their third album, entitled Death Mask. The subject of art verses shock value has been debated at length, with frontman Charlie Fell in the firing line over the symbolic meaning of the disturbed image donning the cover art, created by Jef […]

I can’t tell you a whole lot about Ontario’s Thantifaxath other than that they are Canadian. No members are listed in the CD or on line anywhere, no Facebook page, no official website. But what I can tell you is that Dark Descent’s first real foray into black metal amid of the label’s excellent death metal […]

Hiss From The Moat is a pretty intense death metal band from Italy. Incorporating brutal blackened death metal, alongside a few corish sounds, similar to Whitechapel, but by and large this is ferocious evil death metal. Their debut 2013 album, Misanthropy is quite a brutal offering and there are a lot of brutal elements on the album. While there are plenty of blast beats and such the band does give the songs a chance to breathe. There are some incredible groove elements that are beyond heavy and just kicks ass.

One could argue that all of the iconic, old school death metal bands that took time off, or broke up then came back (Grave, Morbid Angel, Pestilence, Obituary, Fear Factory etc) , Autopsy has had the most successful return of all without a single hiccup or misstep in their comeback. . Three albums in after […]

Convulse return from the grave with their long over due 3rd album, Evil Prevails.  I had never heard the band before until recently until a friend recommended I get up off my rear and get the reissue of their 1991 debut, World Without God and I love the album.  I heard their second album, Reflections […]

When Killswitch Engage very publically parted ways with lead singer Howard Jones, I was worried about how the new KSE album would sound.  Well last year’s Disarm the Descent was to me a massive disappointment, even with the return of original vocalist Jesse Leach.  The vocals were easily the biggest letdown on that album, and I […]

Hailing from Iceland, Beneath is a tech death metal band who share two ex members with the only other death metal band from Iceland I have ever heard,the pretty damn solid  Ophidian I, who released their debut back in 2012 on Soulflesh Collector Records. The Barren Throne is the band’s second album, and it’s no surprise […]

Wow. Fucking wow. Aleph Null, a Germanic trio of sludge-like proportions, mix the best of everything you remember best about grunge combined with a whole lot of sludge, 70’s rock freewheelin’ experimentalism, and just enough catchiness to give Torche a run for their money in the “we’re sludgy-yet-grungy-yet-catchy” department. This album is equal parts fuzz, […]

Gamma Ray have been pumping out quality Power Metal for almost twenty years with a workman-like attitude that only Germany could produce. So at this point in their career they don’t have much, if anything to prove, and Empire of the Undead is the perfect album to show that fact. Gamma Ray wasted no time […]

Back in 2009, Spain’s Teitanblood erupted onto the scene with their debut full length album, Seven Chalices, and gave everyone nightmares with a disturbingly filthy take on bestial black/death metal. Well now they have returned with the simply and aptly titled Death, and while it isn’t as nauseatingly ritualistic  as Seven Chalices, it is far […]

Genre defining technical death metal giants, ORIGIN, will release Omnipresent on July 8, 2014 in North America via Nuclear Blast (and on Agonia Records on July 4th in Europe). Omnipresent was recorded with longtime producer/engineer Robert Rebeck at Chapman Recording in Lenexa, KS. The album was mixed and mastered atMenegroth – The Thousand Caves with Colin Marston, and features artwork once again by Colin Marks (NEVERMORE, KATAKLYSM, EXODUS). Regarding the artwork, vocalist Jason […]

Cognitive is an up and coming young band from New Jersey, playing death metal that is of the brutal variety with a strong emphasis on technicality.  Their self released 2012 ep, The Horrid Swarm is an incredible piece of Tri-State area brutality.  They have finally secured a record deal with Spanish label, Pathologically Explicit Recordings; […]

No longer in their rebellious youth, Fog of War is evolving from a traditional thrash party act into a politically charged, free-thinking evangelist machine. What inspired the band to redefine their tried-and-true, crush-your-face-in-the-mosh-pit riffs into funky, cross-genre musicianship? With Fog of War deliberating on their latest album, which promises an evolved sound and powerful message, everyone has been curious about the new direction of this 10-year-old thrash act. We recently sat down to for an exclusive interview with them to find out more about these exciting new changes.

One of the more impressive retro/Swedish death metal releases of the last few years was from the Czech Republic’s Grave-ly named Brutally Deceased, Dead Lover’s Guide, released in 2010 on Lavadome Productions. Well a long four years later with the scene potentially a little saturated and on another home country based label, the band has […]

Spring and summer bring blooming flowers and whatnot, but Kaunis Kuolematon (‘Beautiful Immortal’) manages to slip in a bit of gloomy darkness just before everything turns to green and people forget their rotten misery and empty lives. Not surprisingly, the Finnish group skips picking up dandelions and instead throws in a melodic death/doom mix with […]

“Bled White” Pre-Orders Available Now! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New York, NY (April 30, 2014) – Cited as one of the earliest death/doom metal bands to come out of the US, Chicago’s Novembers Doom will release their ninth studio album titled – Bled White on July 15, 2014 via The End Records. The follow up to the group’s critically […]

Unique Leader Records is on a definite upswing. Dating back to last year’s Rings of Saturn,  Pyrexia, Deeds of Flesh and Deprecated releases and opening up 2014 with Soreption’s killer  Engineering the Void (one of my contenders for album of the year), Alterbeast, and Iceland’s Beneath (review coming soon)  and this, the third album (though the first I have heard) from […]