I have no prior experience with progressive Netherlands symphonic, melodic death/black metal duo,  Shylmagoghnar ( a moniker the duo created), but their second album, Transience is one of the most wondrous albums of the year. Seriously, this is a really good album. It reminds me a little of  Disillusion and their progressive melodic death metal magnum opus […]

Revocation has carved out an impressive and prolific career since dropping their solid debut, Empire of the Obscene, a decade ago. The Boston purveyors of technically sparkling death-thrash have rarely put a foot wrong during a career marked by consistent high quality and dazzling musicianship, attached to energetic, aggressive and catchy songs. However, 2016’s Great […]

I dug the second album, The Undying Season, from this US based melodic death metal band, but for some reason never checked out the follow up, 2016s Neuronic Saw. Maybe  because it didn’t have the big name power of Oliver Pinnard (Neuraxis, Vengeful) or drumming royalty FLo Mournier or Dirk Verbueren like its its predecessors did, […]

France’s chosen children of hard rockin’, Maryland doom tinged grooves return with their 5th full-length album, Banlieue Triste, which is their overall umpteenth release to date in a sprawling discography full of driving melody riffs, lamenting crooned vocals, a locked on rhythm section and generally damn good songwriting.  Hangman’s Chair have managed to survive a […]

Getting to support and draw attention to new metal artists is one of the things I enjoy most about writing reviews.  When I get the chance to review bands from my home state of Minnesota it is especially special as our scene has had quite the burst of talent over the last few years.  This […]

Listen, I could try to force 1000 words into this review of the debut from Norway’s Ováte. i could try and dress it up and fill space, and get all sorts of creative with wordplay and shit but listen, all you really need to know that this is project is a duo spearheaded by guitarist /bassist  Aindiachaí […]

Ireland’s slam master, Connor Brown (Oncology, Putrefy), has finally released the debut album for his solo project-Debridement, with quite a lovely name for an album: Drowning in a Cesspool of Malform and Malady.  We get 10 songs of porno-grindish slamming death metal at right under 30 minutes. Opening with “Adrenochrome”.  I pick up on a […]

The first two albums from Belgian/UK act Pantheist (2002 O Solitude and 2005s Amartia), are in my opinion, two of the finest examples of funeral doom of the two decades. However, with 2009s Journey Through lands Unknown, founder  Kostas Panagiotou took the band’s sound away from the immense ‘church doom’ tones into more experimental and progressive […]

I wasn’t sure how this one would turn out but they’ve got an organ player.  As a big fan of The Doors, Iron Butterfly, Birth Control and the first 3 Deep Purple’s, I gave it a shot and I’m very pleasantly surprised.  On album #2, the Denmark based smooth groovers Grusom transplant Fall of the […]

Oakland California’s Barren Altar have built quite a buzz with their unique style of funeral doom tinged black metal.  Entrenched in the Faults of the Earth is their first full length effort and is quite a memorable one at that.  Opening up with “Nexus of Grief” which starts off with a solo guitar line that […]

After being one of the top, but second tier Swedish death metal bands on the 90s, Wombbath broke up, but almost 20 years later, lone original member Håkan Stuvemark and some scene vets and released Downfall Rising back in 2015, a solid reunion, fitting in with the rash of releases and rebirth of the genre. […]

Ah, Celtic Frost…Whether you love ’em, hate ’em, or are just meh about them, one thing is fact. Their influential impact on metal was, and still is, a huge and undeniable thing. Some have taken that Frost-y influence and built upon it with great success, i.e. Obituary, while others have more than just flirted with […]

With a name like Druglord, I expected doom and I got doom.  I’ve heard their handle circling online conversations but until getting busy with their second LP, New Day Dying, I hadn’t heard too much of the music.  They are on the sludgy tip for sure as I get a few whiffs of early Electric […]

Hang on to your seats people. This one is a doozy. Malta’s Abysmal Torment have returned with the fourth full length effort The Misanthrope.  Let’s get right into this okay, the title track “The Misanthrope” hits like a ball peen hammer right away. Max Vassallo is one of the sickest drummers I have heard in […]

The post Hoffman brothers era of Deicide has been an up and down affair. From the excellent (but divisive to some), more melodic Ralph Santolla led release The Stench of Redemption, to the crap fest of ‘Til Death Do Us Part, the blistering To Hell With God, then back to crap again with In The Minds Of […]

Warning: negative nancy review ahead!!!!! (it’s been a while)….. Here’s one of those reissues that has be scratching my head. There are plenty of albums that deserved  a reissue- for example Desecrator’s Subconscious Release a few years ago, or God Macabre‘s The Winterlong, or Gorement’s The Ending Quest. Hard to find albums that were overlooked, or […]

This four-piece Ohio band is comprised of Chris Krucker on drums, Billy Paxton on guitars/vocals, David Almendinger on guitars and my man Arn Argenio on bass.  Merciless Reign released their debut, Catharsis Through Chaos in 2014and it kind of went under the radar.  Now the band is releasing their second album, Haunting the Aftermath which […]

It’s getting to the point with Everlasting Spew Records that it gets harder and harder to keep up on all of the awesome releases that they are finding.  There is no exception here with Texas’ Infuriate with their debut record Infuriate. Featuring members of Sarcolytic, Sect Of Execration, Images of Violence, ID and Whore Of […]

Norway’s Krakow is a prolific quartet that has amassed quite an imposing discography since their inception in 2005.  Somehow I have remained accidentally ignorant to their music despite seeing rave reviews of them around underground metal webzines and getting a few lauded recommendations by friends that I trust.  The 6 tunes on this release are […]

The autumn should be here but it’s not because, hey, turns out climate change is fucking real. To enjoy all that drought, floods and other catastrophes, Teeth of the Divine teams up with Clawhammer PR and Angerot to giveaway one copy of Angerot’s latest album ‘The Splendid Iniquity’ in vinyl! That’s right. One lucky bastard, chosen at random, will walk out with the limited edition black/red splatter vinyl. It also comes with a 12-page comic book, 11×17″ poster and the bonus track “The Conquering” as a digital download. So come on in and participate, it’s easy!

Though the band’s debut’ Imperial Doom is regarded as a Floridian death metal classic  (“Horror Infinity” still gets regular airplay for me), in the grand scheme of things, Monstrosity were never quite as revered as brethren like Deicide, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation, or even similarly peripheral Brutality, being not quire as productive, unique or […]

Russian brutal slammers Aborted Fetus are back with album number 5 and it adds to a pretty good year not just for brutal slammy death metal (Organectomy, Ingested, Manhattan Lovestory), and the always reliable Comatose Music ( Kraanium, Abhorrent Deformity, Kraanium,  Kill Everything, Flesh Hoarder, Posthuman Abomination) also. I own all but the debut from these guys, […]

This Belgian band has been around since the late 80’s and The Weiliaon Wielder Quest came out in 1995.  Marquee Records, under the care of Armando Pereira, has brought this obscure album back into the light.  I never heard of this band and they have three other albums.  This is their debut and the music […]

From the double-dipped tab of wah overloaded guitars and sinew taut bass lines that die their way to slow-motion life during the intro of the title track, it’s obvious that Ohio brutes Weed Demon mean business on their first full-length altar sacrifice.  Riffs collapse with the space warping grace of dying stars, slowly ratcheting up […]

While Burial Invocation‘s Abiogenesis is getting the lion’s share of the attention in the realms of murky, Incantation-y death metal (and rightly so, it’s a killer release), the second album from Italy’s Eroded is just as good and certainly one of the best releases of the year in the now common place style. I have […]