This one took a couple of listens to fully absorb and I honestly wasn’t too sure how I felt about it at first.  UK alley prowlers Morass of Molasses play a rough n’ tumble hand of stoner rock and hardcore with stylistic left turns into trippy psychedelia, sludge, doom and a Pantera/Kilgore/Pissing Razors’ hewn modern […]

What’s that you say? An epic, fantasy themed melodic death/black metal band featuring Ayloss  of Spectral Lore and drummer Hannes Grossman (ex Necrophagist)? Sign me the fuck up. Despite being a huge Spectral Lore fan, I had never heard of this project or  their 2010 self released, self titled debut, but this was an immediate listen […]

Fin actually play a rather original variation of black metal on the band’s second album, Arrows Of A Dying Age. The unique melodic sensibility of guitarist/vocalist M.K. , and perhaps the tuning itself, make for a triumphant, and almost life affirming form of black metal as opposed to inspiring the usually projected themes of hate, […]

Back in 2006, I saw Dismember, Grave, Vital Remains and Atlanta’s Withered at a hole in the wall venue in St. Louis, MO. Dismember and Grave were two Swedish death metal icons, Vital Remains were still basking in the afterglow of Dechristianize and new comers Withered had recently released Memento Mori, a solid Swedish styled death metal album with some black and sludge metal thrown in. It remains the best show that I have ever attended. After the show, I hung out with Withered front man Mike Thompson as I had recently interviewed him for Metal Maniacs. He was one of the nicest, most down to earth dudes I had ever met and we stayed in somewhat regular contact. Fast forward a decade.

After reigniting the Swedish death metal revival with 2 albums of Dark Descent Records, Entrails moved to Metal Blade and released Raging Death and Obliteration, the latter of which saw a line up change  as long time guitarist Mathias Nilsson left, replaced with youngster Penki Samuelsson and it showed with a solid but underwhelming effort. Well, World […]

Originally from my hometown in New York, Artificial Brain return with their follow-up to their monstrous debut, Labyrinth Constellation, from 2014.  I actually saw them live, when they toured with Pyrrhon and Gigan.  What a tour package, and Artificial Brain’s singer, Will gave me a nice shout-out and is a very cool dude.  Artificial Brain play a brand of death metal, which is non-linear in […]

Any band that uses the line, “Take a drink, before the drink takes you,” immediately scores a few points in my book.  That’s a damn good, witty line appearing in the title track that I wish I thought of.  UK’s crusty, hardcore sludgers Widows just checked my king and smashed the chessboard over my head.  […]

The suddenly very productive and quality laden Portuguese metal scene (Goldenpyre, Prayers of Sanity, An Ominous Circle, Switchtense, Primal Attack), has kicked out a dose of old school death metal with the debut from Pestifer, a no frills Deicide,  Altars of Madness era Morbid Angel influenced band. There’s not much else to say really, Execration Diatribes […]

“Have Mercy”…and I don’t mean “have mercy” like that faux rocker Uncle Jessie’s cheesy catch phrase from that horribly great sit-com I watched as a kid in the late ’80’s. I mean “have mercy”, as in the new Sacrificial Slaughter EP, Generation of Terror , is going  to rip your ears a new asshole (yeah, […]

2017 is turning into quite the year for veteran American  death metal acts; Suffocation, Immolation, Broken Hope and Origin have all released albums and later this year we even have Morbid Angel and Incantation releases. But elbowing their way through all of them is Dying Fetus and their eighth opus, and for lack of a better […]

I am new to the Diabolical Messiah camp.  The band hails from Chile and have been around for a whopping 18 years.  Their first album, Satan Tottendemon Victory!!! was definitely a good starting point and now 7 years later they plunk us over the head with their second long-player-Demonic Weapons Against the Sacred.  Not only […]

Listen. For me, vocals are an integral part of metal. Whether it’s death metal, black metal, power metal or even brutal death metal, vocals can make or break an album. And with the 4th album from France’s symphonic black metal act Akroma, they absolutely break it. I’m not sure I’ve ever listened to an album, […]

Sometimes when reading reviews of more unusual, angular “sludge” records, I swear the only two bands people have heard and can use as points of reference are Baroness and Mastodon (High on Fire a close but distant third).  Hey, call a spade a spade if that’s what you hear but sometimes I feel that writers […]

Cut from the same moldy, dank doom/death cloth as Ciande and Desecresy, Portugal’s Goldenpyre deliver a fine debut of simple, riff based chugging , slightly ritualistic doom/death  metal that hints at finer things to come. Not as nauseating or atonal as country mates The Ominous Circle, Goldenpyre have a distinct old school Chicago/Midwest, steady, death […]

I’ve been an Iced Earth fan for awhile now. Twenty years exactly, at the time of this review, as it was the band’s compilation/re-worked/best of album, Days of Purgatory, that introduced me to their take on thrash, power, and traditional metal. At the time I thought of myself as a latecomer, as the band had […]

All of a sudden, I have got a glut of thrash/groove releases (Treyharsh, Murkocet, Malkavian, Voice of Ruin) hearkening to the late 90s tones of Machine Head, Daath, Devildriver, Chimaira and Skinlab. And while it’s a sound I’m only a bit lukewarm on, sometimes a production can make a release much more impressive. Such is the […]

Well this was a pleasant surprise.  To be quite honest I had never heard of this group prior to delving into massive quantities of new 2017 releases.  Sweden’s Below have been around since 2012 and Upon a Pale Horse is their second full length release.  Opening up with “The Plague Within”. The beginning of this […]

After a pretty long dryspell for deathcore, I get 2 releases from Swiss label Tenacity Music- first, the impressive  Swiss bruisers Conjonctive and their female fronted down tuned assault of In the Mouth of the Devil, and this, the second full length album from France’s oddly named Hybrid Sheep, a band I have never heard of […]

If you’re a fan of the brutal death scene, you’ve likely heard of Aborted Fetus.  These Russians have been honing their craft since 2000, and have always seemed to hover just on the outer edge of the genre trying to really break out as one of the better known of the bunch.  Brutal death has […]

Admittedly, with the album name, the more Fallujah ish cover, yet more turnover (veterans Guy Marchais and Kevin Talley have left replaced by young guns Charlie Errigo and Eric Morotti respectively) and the first single “Your Last Breaths” not impressing me very much, I had pretty low expectations for this album. But for album number 8, mainstays Frank […]

Since Aversion’s Crown‘s Xenocide back in January no ‘real’ deathcore has really grabbed me. I know the genre is on the downswing and cross contaminating with other styles, but sometimes I crave a simple, downtuned beatdown, and Switzerland’s sextet Conjonctive is just what the doctor ordered. Conjonctive are a six piece because they have two vocalists, […]

Though labeled simply as “doom/stoner” metal, Texan duo Cursus deliver an album that plays out more akin to an expansive, ever-changing soundtrack as opposed to a collection of headbanging riff-y groove assaults.  Those looking for instant gratification might not make it past the first track but those hunting for an explorative exercise in atmosphere (that […]

So it appears that some HM Boss pedals have finally found their way all the way down under. They have surfaced all over Europe (Greece, France, Czech Republic, Poland etc) and the USA (Fatalist, Sentient Horror, etc), but now Australia can get in on the mid range action. However, Perth’s Earth Rot are not a […]

California’s Rude, put out a pretty killer debut 3 years ago, Soul Recall.  The follow-up, again on F.D.A. Records, Remnants… continues along the same path.  Rude play a death metal style rooted in early 90’s death metal, rooted in the Floridian Morrisound Recording style.  So think of the sounds of Brutality, Pestilence, Death, Disincarnate and […]

As I continue dip my plated sabatons into power metal, a genre I have ignored for many years, amid the older, expected suspects I am enjoying like Blind Guardian, Thy Majestie, Orden Ogan, Freedom Call, Rhapsody and Sabaton, some relative new comers have caught my ear such as Twilight Force, Pathfinder, Grimgotts, Lör, Brothers of Metal and my […]