After classic Swedish death metal, my second favorite style is the burly, blasting, but measured, commanding death metal that’s a step below tech death, that the early Floridian (Monstrosity, Deicide, etc.), New York (Suffocation, Dying Fetus) and Polish scene (Behemoth, Vader, Hate, etc.) did so well, and was encapsulated perfectly last year by the likes of Abysmal […]

So if a member of Decrepit Birth (Chase Frasier) decided to go off and have some fun with a side project, take a guess what it would sound like?  And what if he recruited the guitarist from Arkaik (Ivan Mungia)?  If you guessed it would be a head-churning, riff-filled, 200 mph tech-death punch to the throat, […]

“And on their skins, as on the bark of trees, Have with my knife carved in Roman letters ‘Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.’ Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things As willingly as one would kill a fly; And nothing grieves me heartily indeed But that I cannot do ten […]

Industrial metal has had a tough time maintaining its integrity as a genre over the years. It entered the ‘90s pissed and oppressive, but left them skipping and holding hands with nu metal. Remember Pitchshifter? Their career was basically like a microcosm of the genre as a whole. A few experimental black metal acts like […]

Hailing from Quebec, this duo take their name from Siberia’s most desolate, northernmost city, and of course it’s home to a ….metal foundry. And while you’d expect doom considering the moniker and label, this isn’t the huge, lumbering, funeral doom, Evoken/Ahab sort of crawl the name and label imbue, as it’s much more varied. These […]

According to my research a “Lachrimatory” is a vase that stores cried tears.  If my findings don’t clue you in on what kind of band Brazil’s Lachrimatory are then you are probably beyond my help.  This is mournful, gothic death/doom that will have you reaching for the tissues and a shoulder to weep on.  Originally […]

I love this band.  One of the few current death metal acts that actually tries to assemble riffs and varying moods, death metal as a whole needs this band.  Many have felt that their When Landscapes Bled Backwards record was their crowning achievement, and as fine an album as that was, I’m more prone to […]

The fine Canucks up in Canada’s Blast Head Records are in a giving mood as summer is right around the corner… probably because they never see the sun, right? Anyways to celebrate the upcoming warmth, the label is giving away 10 CDs, yep, ten CDs. And here is the great thing: YOU (or whomever wins) gets to HAND PICK the CDs from Blast Head Records’ releases!!! No questions, no judgement, no getting CDs you might not be interested in. Just 5 CDs each to two randomly picked lucky winners.

So Canada’s Blast Head Records has thrown their hat into the retro Swedish death metal movement, and what an entry it is, digging up up Mörbid Vomit from the depths of Finland and compiling the bands 2012 demo and 2013’s self-released I Breathe Hell EP into one festering compilation. But you’d swear they were from the bowels of […]

This is some ferocious shit with an impressive resume.  Come Back From The Dead features some of the violence mongers from Machetazo, Nashgul, Asedio, Cenotaph and many others.  Their music centers on a sandblasted, scum-bathed crust/doom/thrash/death metal hybrid that calls to mind very early Entombed, Discharge, Autopsy, Venom, Dismember, Celtic Frost and Motörhead…throw all of […]

Based on the artwork and logo, I was fully expecting either unadulterated,, guttural Comatose/Unique Leader styled assaulted of tech death or a burly typically Belgian chug fest (Dehuman hails from Brussels), I braced for the impending assault. However, I was graced with a modern style of death metal that mixed a little of everything from Floridian death […]

Just when you think a band has thought of all the ways to use the word gor(e), along comes yet another new iteration that will surprise you, this one by way of the band Gorgatron and their late 2014 second album, Inner Supremacy. Now at first I thought it was a long lost member of […]

It’s hard to believe that 10 years have passed since the Busse Woods stranglers, Acid King have released any new music.  They put out their fuzzed-out, blown amp masterpiece III on Smallstone and there hasn’t been a recording since…until now!  Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere is their first album in a decade.  My fanship […]

I owe Shroud of Despondency’s Rory Heikkila an apology. Not only was I extremely tardy in my reviews of the band’s albums—Pine and Tied to an Dying Animal—this interview was supposed to occur months ago. Quite frankly the band slipped through the cracks of my massive backlog of metal to review, emails to answer and interview requests. I guess my situation sort of mirrors the band’s trials and tribulations as they have slipped through the cracks of even metal’s most independent labels during the band’s 15 years of existence (and 18 or so releases)…

So I’m sure by now all of you know about Gruesome, the classic Death homage act fronted by Matt Harvey of Exhumed and joined by members of Possessed, Malevolent Creation and Derketa. What you don’t know, if you have not heard the album by now, is exactly how fucking spot on Savage Land is in it’s recreation […]

For those not already in the loop, Aelter is the solo project of Blake Green, half of the terrifying violin-infused doom duo, Wolvserpent. Their last release, Perigaea Antahkarana was one of the great underground releases of 2013, and firmly cemented their place as one of the most exciting new extreme metal bands out there. While […]

I really wish  Germany’s Weak Aside had chosen another name to replace their former moniker of Spearhead, as everything else about the band’s solid sophomore effort is high quality and pretty awesome, deserving of a more awe inspiring, war mongering death metal name. Other than the name everything about The Next Offensive is pretty damned good. […]

From Mumbai, India hails Biopsy, a chunky, galaxy swallowing death metal three piece with plenty to offer the world.  In a shocking turn of events the band is comprised of vocals, guitar and drums.  That’s right folks, no bass.  To compensate for the lack of low-end, guitarist Akshay Verma turns his amps to the hogslop […]

For a decade now, Slovenia’s Dekadent have toiled in the underground with little fanfare or recognition, only exalted by those few in the know about this superb band. Maybe it’s the band’s geographical location. Or the band’s chosen style of un-traditional black metal that focuses on cinematic atmospheric and uplifting harmonies. But for whatever reason the band never seemed to get the recognition it deserved with their three prior albums, notably 2011s sumptuous Venera : Trial & Tribulation, my first exposure to the band.

Do you remember the first time you heard City by Strapping Young Lad? Can you also remember trying to describe it to your friends? You’re going to have the same problem with London. But, you won’t be able to say it sounds like City, because for the most part, it doesn’t. So, why am I […]

To the untrained ear, death metal is simply death metal.  Those that have been fans of the genre over the years know better.  There’s the ripped-circuit board tech craziness, the burly chested guttural variety, the sloppy gore madness, the pleasingly melodic, the groove-oriented…  I could go on and on.  Belarus’ long-running bashers, Veld fall into […]

Wolfheart is the solo project of one Tuomas Saukkonen, who you might recognize as the brainchild behind such acts as Before the Dawn and Black Sun Aeon. Winterborn is the first project under this moniker after disbanding all his other projects, and though it was originally self released back in 2013, Spinefarm is now making this […]

Enslaved that has really impressed me over the years has been their ability to craft albums that have a completely identity of their own but can only be albums written by Enslaved. I was first introduced to them with the album Isa. It was actually the title track and it’s music video that caught my […]

Writing a review for an album is fairly easy, despite what my output would lead you to believe.  In metal there are only so many (accepted) routes you can take, and even the most off-the-wall shit is endured for at most an hour in most cases and according to the inspiration of the artist in […]

A few years ago North Carolina’s Daylight Dies were the darling of the US death doom scene, picking up the mantle of the likes of Morgion and invoking the Finnish greats like Rapture and such. But 4 only albums in 10 years saw the band sort of fall from the genre’s pinnacle. But you know a band has left a positive legacy when a band starts to mimic you and your sound to a tee. And that’s what fellow North Carolinians Atten Ash have done.