Wait… what the hell is this? A brutal death metal band that actually has… a BASS GUITAR?!?  One that you can feel? And even the drums have a bit of pop to them? WTF?!?  Yes, I can honestly say I was pleasantly surprised when the new Coathanger Abortion (CA) had all of the above.  As […]

When James McBain the guitarist/vocalist of the excellent Rats of Reality isn’t breaking apart Pangaea with that band’s blackened, demonic d-beat, he’s at the helm of his solo project Hellripper.  He’s a veritable one man wrecking crew playing all of the instruments (aside from Mark Lerche’s lead on “Trial by Fire”) and the end result […]

Well, well, well, look who decided to reform??  New York’s Immortal Suffering putting out a brand new 7 song 22 minute ep, ready to rip your head off.  I could not think of a better cd to come back to sending in Teeth of the Divine some new reviews every once in a while.  I […]

Australia sure seems to do a wonderful job of producing unbelievably groovy and polished death metal, Ulcerate and Psycroptic to name two that come to mind.  Hailing from Perth, Western Australia comes Sanzu.  Sanzu’s Painless EP is a testament to experimentation and really well thought out song writing. “18 days of Rain”starts off with an extremely […]

I liked a few numetal bands. There, I said it. I once read an interview with Gene Hoglan where he indicated, very strongly, that we are lucky to live in an age where even the shitty metal acts are better than much of the dross he (and, as I am around his age, I) was […]

There was a time in the late 90s and early 00s where England’s Cradle of Filth were one of my very favorite bands, and whether you liked it or not, they were legitimate superstars in extreme metal. I enjoyed 2000s Midian, 2003’s Damnation and A Day, and really liked 2004’s Nymphetamine, but I never really loved […]

Even for well-seasoned metalheads, grindcore is a tough pill to swallow. It takes some very skilled manufacturers to produce grind that can walk the tightrope between borderline white noise extremity and a whiff of actual songcraft and something for listeners to latch onto. Personally my tolerance for grind has lessened in recent years, mostly due […]

I think most death heads will agree that there are a few immensely satisfying experiences when it comes to death metal; 1) a random new find that kicks ass and 2) that moment when death metal is done perfectly, achieving the immaculate balance of speed, power and brutality. Well, on their second album Italy’s new to me acts, Inverted […]

Doom blues don’t get any better than the church crushing abandon of Goatsnake.  ¾ of the original line-up return sans bassist Guy Pinhas (replaced by Scott Renner), and the boys haven’t lost a step.  Jesus Christ, Greg Anderson’s riffs make me want to get down on my knees and say the lord’s prayer, vocalist Pete […]

Okay, lets see what we have here. If you are familiar with former Angelcorpse guitarist Gene Palubicki in the slightest, you know he’s a dude that does his thing and does it well, regardless of what band moniker he’s currently doing business under; and Blasphemic Cruelty is no different. What we have is about 20 minutes of […]

Dissident Clone’s State of Dysphoria EP makes for an entertaining albeit quick listen at a combined running time of almost eleven minutes.  This Minnesota based two-piece combines a lot of different elements from death/grind/groove/crust and I think those are just the main ones that I can hear. The opening track “Waiting to Collapse” creates an […]

A long-standing pillar of sonic strength and consistency, High on Fire has built a body of work that demands your fucking respect, even if the album peaks have slightly varied along the way. The dependable quality of High on Fire’s music is increasingly rare to find in bands that remain active over such a lengthy […]

I have always been a death metal fan, from the moment I first heard it all them years ago – the textures, the percussiveness, the shear brutality. But I have been very slow and finicky about black metal. I was never taken in by the undergrounder-than-thou shit, which I found to have the same amount […]

It’s getting harder to be heavy AND original these days.  In the world of riffing it seems a template was created and thusly many are following along instead of attempting to pioneer something different.  I think I can say with certain sanctity that Palace in Thunderland are doing something different and succeeding.  These guys have been around for a long time (over a decade) and are a home to members of esteemed bands Black Pyramid, Blue Aside and Space Mushroom Fuzz.  They took a five year break, returning from the void with an exciting vision collecting together the best of 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s heavy rock.  There’s no aping, lifting, copycatting, etc.  The foursome simply calls upon their idols for inspiration, taking the asteroid handed down by the elders and crashing it into Earth.   I sit down at the edge of the universe for an interview meet n’ greet with these entheogenic lifeforms.

Hate, the 2012 second album from these Aussie deathcore mongers, was a solid slab of techy modern deathcore/death metal, that grew on me a little bit as time wore on. And now, three years later it appears the hopes of deathcore have been but on TAIM and Holy War as the genre seems to be in a […]

Virginian, dual axe demons Valkyrie are back with this phenom of an album, their 3rd full-length to date and first for Relapse.  I make no bones or excuses about loving these guys to death.  I’ve seen them live thrice and they deliver more signed n’ sealed explosives than the Unabomber did in his heyday.  Guitar […]

Downfall of Nur, both the band name and this album, are inspired in full by the Nuragic civilization that existed on the island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean from the middle Bronze age, until its dissolution in the early Iron age.  The arc of this civilization is represented across the five lengthy tracks.  Immediately I’m […]

For being a band in it’s infant stages of existence, Sweden’s Monolord certainly carries with it an air of age. I am only vaguely familiar with their previous release, Empress Rising, but they seem to convey a very agile & stable blend of doom with accents of the whole Palm Desert scene and an almost […]

Palinopsia are unsigned band from US,  Vermont specifically,  and they bring their take of doom to the metal table with this EP release. They describe their music has blackened doom sludge and that is exactly what you are getting. The black primarily in the vocals with some death vocals scattered thru the songs and the […]

Hailing from Ireland Malthusian’s Below the Hengiform is their debut EP released by Invictus Productions. Ireland has definitely been producing some extreme metal acts in recent years with artists like Primordial, Altar of Plagues (whose members are now in Malthusian) and Abaddon Incarnate to name a few. In listening to Malthusian’s first demo MMXIII it’s […]

The UK is notorious for killer crusty sludge/doom and 9 out of 10 times what you’re going to hear is top-notch.  Let’s face it, having the ultimate doom n’ gloom band Black Sabbath in the country’s history gives them an edge on the competition.  Ghold is following in those footsteps without guitar; a drum n’ […]

While Sweden is the birthplace and home of buzzing, midrange death metal, other countries have dipped into the sound and come up with impressive takes on the sound. The Czech Republic (Brutally Deceased), Poland (Ulcer, Hereza), Greece (Wreckage), France (Skelethal) and even the US (Fatalist, Unwilling Flesh). Well Finland has their own impressive addition in Mörbid Vomit, an eclectic collective of current and former dudes from Black Sun Aeon, Devilhorn, Kivimetsan Druidi and The Zombi.

Christ…… Just when I think I literally cannot hear anything fresh new and different in metal, along comes Maladie. This 9-person German collective is comprised of folks from various mid-level German Death metal acts like Tombthroat, Deadborn and Spheron, as well as Belgian post-rockers We All Die (Laughing). That totals up to 3 Guitarists, 2 vocalists, a saxophone player and […]

I think most metal/punk folks who have spent time kicking around the underground can agree that splits and compilations are a wholesome part of our musical diet.  My collection is full of them, and I have to say that many of them introduced me to multiple badass bands all in one fell swoop.  To support […]

Where were you the first time you heard death metal/grind? I was at work, listening to tapes I made of a local radio show that played punk/hardcore and a mix of reggae, rap, underground metal and the odd whatever else. They trotted things out in blocks – now bands that would eventually become Seattle grunge, […]