I have been looking forward to reviewing this since reviewing last year’s reissue of their 2017 album Domain of the Wretched.   I was highly impressed with the meticulousness of these sick slamming death weirdos from Christchurch New Zealand.   Existential Disconnect does not disappoint and the bar has really been risen with their 2019 effort Existential […]

****We interrupt your regularly scheduled slate of death and black metal to bring you this female fronted symphonic/power metal review*****  I’m a very cyclic music listener and reviewer, I do a lot of my listening and reviewing in batches; a 4 or 5 death metal albums in a row, 4 or 5 black metal albums […]

Norway’s Darkthrone return with their 18th album and Old Star is ass-kicking from start to finish.  First a few things.  Outside of Bathory’s first 6 albums and the 2 Nordland albums, Darkthrone are my favorite black metal band of all time and this is coming from a person that only dabbles in the black metal genre and not full on into all the bands, as many know […]

There’s sure to be a lot of discussion at years end about what the ‘heaviest’  (a relative term of course) album of the year was. From what I’ve heard so far I and my exposure is limited due to the amount of stuff in all genres I review and what we are sent) in 2019 […]

It’s been 6 years since New Jersey’s Embludgeonment released their brutal debut album, Infinite Regress.  Now after the wait their follow-up, Barn Burner sees its release on the excellent Comatose Music label.  How about let’s bring in John Hartman from Mortal Decay to add that extra bit of brutal spice.  BAM!!!  9 songs in 33 […]

The thrash genre largely misfired in 2018 but for nostalgists and enthusiasts alike, 2019 has been far more fruitful in delivering solid thrash goods. Boasting a hard-hitting style and no-frills old school attitude, Ohio’s War Curse offer a familiar blast from the past with just enough modern sensibilities and crunch to avoid being another cog […]

Sühnopfer (German for ‘Atonement’) is a French, one man black metal project featuring Ardraos, who has been around a while and has surfaced in a number of well known and lesser known French bands like Peste Noire, Aorlhac, Veratyr, Endymion, Antrum Mortis and others. This project, while productive with 2 full lengths and various demos […]

After departing from Morbid Angel singer/drummer Mike Browning went on to form one of the most original death metal acts of it time,-Nocturnus  I was fortunate to see them on the Grindcrusher tour on Long Island in 1990, while they were supporting their debut album The Key and Godflesh and Napalm Death were also on […]

I don’t know what it is with England/the U.K., but that little island nation just cranks out fantastic metal, plain and simple. From originators to imitators, the amount of quality and varied material is quite astonishing, and while I wouldn’t put London’s Lvcifyre in the hallowed halls of British metaldom just yet, I would recommend […]

Last year I went through a pretty hardcore phase of melodic black metal where I was listening to classic like Dissection, Catamenia, Vinterland, and Sacramentum, as well as newer bands like Thormesis, Vindland, Wormwood and Störtregn. Somehow though, I completely overlooked Sweden’s Istapp (“icicle”) and their 2010 album, Blekinge and 2015 album, Frostbitten. But that has […]

I always smile a bit when I see the name Abnormality, as it takes me back to the time I fired up Rock Band 2 way back in the day, scrolled down to the impossible, you-can-only-play-these-if-you’re-13-years-old-and-can-practice-for-12-hours-a-day-songs, and going “WHAATTTT???!!!  They literally put a BRUTAL DEATH metal song in a Rock Band video game!!!”  That song […]

You’d think it was 1988 all over again, what with Opprobrium (then Incubus) releasing albums (also on High Roller Records), Jeff Becerra and Possessed roaming around after 37 years, and now another early death/thrash band, Protector has released a solid album also, though this band’s hiatus wasn’t as long, they went dark for a long […]

The untimely and quite sad passing of Deceased’s drummer, Dave “Scarface” Castillo (RIP), last year, even before the Deceased–Ghostly White album was released really shook the band members and underground scene.  I’ve met him briefly a few times, at live Deceased’s shows and he always was in a good mood.  Founding member, King Fowley, has […]

KHNVM ( pronounced as kha-nooom) is a multinational Magdeburg /Bangladeshi duo comprised on ‘Obliterator’ on guitar,bass and vocals and hes aided by drummer Krzysztof Klingbein (Aggressor,  Resurrection and Thunderwar), and while a solid, furious death metal offering, the the first offering from Testimony Records that hasn’t truly blown me away like say Demonbreed, Sentient Horror […]

I first heard about Usurper, via Metal Maniacs magazine, roughly about twenty years ago. The band had released their second LP, Skeletal Season, in 1999 and were due to follow it up with their third full-length, Necronemisis, in 2000. As it always does, extreme metal was once again going through stylistic changes and Chicago’s Usurper […]

For the Fallen, the 2017 post Bolt Thrower debut of Memoriam, featuring long time Bolt Thrower members Karl Willets and Andrew Whale (joined by current and former Benediction dudes Frank Healy and Scott Fairfax) was a solid homage to fallen Bolt Thrower comrade  Martin “Kiddie” Kearns (RIP), and was as expected, a Bolt thrower/Benediction sounding […]

I’ve enjoyed Denmark’s Dawn of Demise for 12 years, 4 albums and 1 EP now, despite absolutely nothing changing in the band’s sound since 2006s Hate Takes its Form, to 2016s The Suffering. Simple, chugging, groovy death metal. However, with the band’s fifth album, an increased sense of melody has upped the ante a little, […]

After a seething introductory EP (Vol. 1), sick and slithering Arizona sludgelords Gale called it quits in 2017 but as a favor to all devoted riff-heads they’ve decided to release their debut full-length follow up this past January (of 2019) before disappearing into the void for good.  It’s a damn nice thing of them because […]

The fourth album from Germany’s Thormesis, Freier Wille – Freier Geist, was my first exposure to this band, but that album was on and off my year end list for 2015, though it ultimately didn’t make the cut. The follow up, 2017s Trümmerfarben, didn’t strike me as positively for some reason and I didn’t even review […]

Skulls? Czech. Wild corpse paint? Czech. Black attire? Czech. Hooded/cloaked member? Czech. Spiked wrist band(s) and/or gauntlets? Czech. Finger claw ring thingy? Czech. Satan as the bands frontman? Czech. Wait…What? That’s right friends, Hnus Umirajici’s frontman/vocalist is apparently the Prince of Darkness himself, or at least according to the band’s press bio. In fact, the […]

A few years ago Vltimas formed and many did not feel this “supergroup” would ever record an album.  The band consists of David Vincent of Morbid Angel fame on vocals, Flo Mounier from Cryptopsy blasting the crap out of the drums and Rune Eriksen, of Mayhem fame on guitars.  Well Something Wicked Marches In is […]

Though Maryland is often most known for its legendary punk/hardcore and doom scenes, there’s just about every kind of kick ass music imaginable coming from its fertile creative soil.  Mutated sludgy crust/grinders Musket Hawk are a prime example of the variance emanating from the state with their 3rd and most vicious full-length yet, Upside of […]

Last month marked the 20th anniversary of Metallica’s S&M show with the San Francisco symphony. I was at that show, and it was a grand and sonic spectacle, as the band jammed out on stage with a phalanx of tuxedoed musicians and film composer Michael Kamen wielding the conductor’s baton. For most of the metal […]

Sometimes as a reviewer social networking helps.  A YouTube link from a record label might pop across your timeline and give you the choice to listen to or not.   Thus was the case with Atlanta’s Paladin and their video for their tune, “Shoot for the Sun”.  First off, the riffing is so over the top […]

Though I enjoyed every release from Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse, going back to 2009s Oracles, I’ve enjoyed some, like 2011s Agony (My album of the year) and 2016s  King, more than others (2013s Labyrinth), but King, really saw the band create the perfect balance between the tech death chaos and the sweeping orchestral majesty that is […]