I’ve been a huge fan of Swedish sludge butchers Pyramido since their debut full-length Sand came out on Totalrust Music in 2009.  The follow-up Salt was even heavier and saw the band stretching their songs, riffs and viciousness into a technologically advanced weapons platform that was far deeper and more desiccated than any number of […]

Swedes In Mourning have made a solid impression over the past five or six years. Their brand of melodic death has matured greatly in the past three albums that they’ve released, and with The Weight of Oceans (2012) the band were being lauded as possible heirs to Opeths death metal throne. Rightfully so, because Afterglow […]

After more grindcore beginnings, one could argue that the modern deathcore movement peaked with either 2005s The Healing Process or The Ills of Modern Man, this Canadian act’s third full length album, in 2007. My vote is for the latter. But after 2009s Day of Mourning, the band split up as deathcore began to fade and wane under […]

I’m not a big ‘thrash guy’. Not since the classics of the 80s/90s has a thrash band captured my attention unless injected with a little more grit or death metal like Dew Scented. So here is the third album from long running, nu metal named, thrash band from Portugal, hardly the thrash or metal mecca or […]

With this, the latest album from Finnish black metal band Behexen,  they bring us their next offering of 2nd wave orthodox tinged blackness. Those that know, they have been around for quite a while and are a staple in the black Finnish metal scene. They began in a much more raw and chaotic vein with […]

Finland’s Gloria Morti, despite having been around since 2001 and have 4 previous albums are new to me. But being on Willowtip and having members in its ranks with ties to Wolfheart/Black Sun Aeon/Before the Dawn, Swallow the Sun, Morbid Vomit and Gorephillia, was enough to make me check them out. And I  glad I did. […]

Here’s an interesting one. A self financed and released effort from a Swiss band playing Egyptian/ Middle East themed deathcore. No there is no punchline I’m afraid, and this is actually pretty decent stuff, even though deathcore haters will still fume. Actually despite sticking rigidly to modern deathcore paradigms (pick whomever), the band’s little Egyptian […]

From the label that brought us techno and flamenco inspired nu metal/deathcore in Bolu2death, comes a more easy to pigeonhole release in Eel from this long running Spanish black metal/crust group Absenta (Absinthe). It’s my first exposure to the band but I immediately thought of bands like Deluge, Celeste and Regarde les  Hommes Tomber. Not necessarily […]

What’s this you say? a female fronted tech death metal/ djenty/modern death metal supergroup featuring former members of Animosity ( a must have from the early 00s deathcore scene), Animals as Leaders (Navene Koperweis) and The Faceless (Evan Brewer)? Well, color me interested…. While certainly The Faceless and Animosity influences ( as well as many modern bands like Textures, Veil of […]

Around twenty or so years ago I was fortunate enough to purchase a black metal compilation called Blackened Vol 1.  Of all the bands on this compilation that made a distinct impression on me was a group from Norway called Ved Buens Ende. Ved Buens Ende at that time played a unique style of avant […]

I’m not familiar with the back catalog from Canada’a Forteresse other than they seem pretty well respected in the scene and I had seen them mentioned in the same breath as Neige et Noirceur, (early) Alcest. They have delivered a few albums varying between raw, minimalist black metal and more folky black metal and the songs are in […]

Here’s a very cool little 3 song, 30 minute EP out of Southampton England from a female fronted blackgaze/atmospheric black metal act that really hits on all notes for the genre and adds a little of its own angelic character to the mix. The clear, ignorant comparison is Myrkur, as this is female fronted black metal with […]

Here is something that is a little out of my wheelhouse, but considering my interest in keyboard drenched metal and the plethora of releases I’ve covered recently with said keyboards, this is an intriguing release that captures my interest here and there. Elvaron hail from France and have 4 prior albums under their belts dating […]

Hatebreed’s last album, The Divinity of Purpose, was a very hit or miss output for me (with more misses than hits), that made it the only one of their albums that I did not purchase.  Still wary from that last full length I came into their new one a bit apprehensive to say the least, […]

India’s Transcending Obscurity is becoming a pretty reliable source for simple, no frills death metal of late, (Primitiv, Third Sovereign, Affliction Gate, etc), and the duo comprising Indian newcomers Strangulate is no exception. Using old school American Death metal as a template, the Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation influence is immediate and obvious, but these guys do […]

Over the course of three excellent albums, Australia’s Be’lakor rose to the forefront of the melodic death metal scene. Now some four years since their Of Breath and Bone album dropped, the lads return with their anticipated fourth offering, entitled Vessels. On something of a continuous hot streak and particularly in the context of the […]

While Killswitch Engage desperately tried to revive the ol’ metalcore corpse earlier this year, I have stumbled across a late 2015 release that just showed up in my mail box that deserves as much attention as Incarnate. And truthfully, I’m enjoying Justice is… a hell of a lot more than I did Incarnate. Confidently straddling the line between […]

I am at the time of this review a junior studying zoology at a smallish university. It was a toss-up between that, physics and chemistry, but I suck at math…so not really a toss-up. Point being I like the scientific method. A lot. So I decided, upon receiving this album for review, to do an […]

The second effort from the UKs The Infernal Sea got my attention for the exact same reasons as The King is Blind and their impressive debut, Our Father. It’s one of the first releases from the newly reactivated Cacophonous Records ( though this was independently released last year on a limited  cassette run)- one of the […]

After the band’s impressive 2008/9 EP, and a pretty well received full length debut, The Prodigal Empire in 2011, a lot of folks were hailing this Denver act as the new Arsis meets The Black Dahlia Murder of the scene, mixing shredding black/death metal with melodic death metal . But the band went a bit dark […]

When the almost 10 year old Sauna Open Air went bankrupt in 2013, the old punk capital of Finland, Tampere was to go without a hard rock/metal festival. A different organizer came in and scooped up the slot, and thus the South Park Festival was born — named after Eteläpuisto, the park it’s held in, and not the television show (though that would be an entertaining event as well!) So, third year in, how did the festival go this time around?

You could regard me in many ways. I assume the standard way is that I am a boring ugly fat idiot. But you could also regard me as lucky. I tend to take “time off” from peering into the corners of the metalverse while I try to get my ugly fat idiotic life in order. […]

It was a forgone conclusion that Forteresse’s impending Thèmes pour la rébellion, was going to be an easy shoo in for my favorite black metal album of 2016. Then along comes upstart Black Lion Productions, who already impressed with Hyperion’s Seraphical Euphony, and deliver a physical release ( it was an independent digital release last year) one […]

The early to mid ’90s produced a seemingly endless supply of excellent death/doom demos and EPs from bands that quickly disappeared or mellowed out. Anyone who was turned off by Sweet X-Rated Nothings, ever ended up on a not-so-user-friendly website looking for a clip of “Frozen Feeling,” or longs for a Garden of Silence reunion […]

The Three headed Finnish Death Doom Monster have returned with their second full-length record Verenvalaja. Verenvalaja translates into Blood Caster – the twisted one derailing the flow of life to stream towards his own creation. For those not familiar with Vainaja’s 2014 debut Kadotetut,  Vainaja play a style of concept death doom that is rooted […]