Named after a faction from the popular Elder Scrolls video game series which I’m not very familiar with, English doom overloads Morag Tong follow-up their EP debut Through Clouded Time by dropping a lysergic, wandering slab of doom with hazy tones, psychedelic melody and a plummeting sludgy aggression seeping into their unholy pounding.  Faint whiffs […]

Cripes- I have not reviewed an Unleashed album since 2006s Midvinterblot, and frankly due to a really awkward interview with founder Jonny Hedlund after I ripped 2002s Hells Unleashed, haven’t really given the band too much attention, despite an apparent solid run of albums since then in Hammer Battalion, As Yggdrasil Trembles, Odalheim, Dawn of the Nine. So, […]

It’s been a fair while since a ‘real’ ( I use that term due to the crossover between death metal and deathcore in bands like Ingested, Fit For For an Autopsy, Lorna Shore and Organectomy and such) deathcore record tickle my fancy, probably something in 2017 or early 2018 (maybe Lorna Shore‘s Flesh Coffin?). But here is the late […]

I’ve had my eye on Outer Heaven for a bit as the band hails from my home state PA and a friend of mine introduced me to a pair of their singles.  “Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay” and “Into Hellfire” are the songs that made me take notice and convinced me that Outer Heaven was […]

Germany’s now defunct Deathrow would have been classified as the second-tier thrash wave when their brand of thrash metal erupted in the mid-80’s.  Their debut album Riders of Doom was first released as Satan’s Gift and eventually as Riders of Doom that same year.  Two different album covers, however most would agree the Riders of […]

Germany’s Demonbreed hit the heavy home run on their 2016 debut album, Where Gods Come to Die.  Bludgeoning Swedish inspired death metal heaviness and a well-written album through and through.  So while the underground waits with bated breath for album #2, Demonbreed provides a little taste with an ep in the form of Hunting Heretics. […]

As we plunge into 2019, the often patchy January release schedule provides ample opportunity to delve into the overlooked gems of 2018, particularly those that dropped during December, generally a month of slim returns. However, Sulphur Aeon and Beaten to Death headed the bands bucking the trend of end of year mediocrity. Another band of […]

I’m hearing tons of sick underground music from India lately which is often brought to my attention from the fellas at Qabar PR (cheers Hassan and Zoheb) as well the madman Kunal from Transcending Obscurity’s main HQ.  All I can say is keep ‘em coming guys because I’m getting turned onto a metric fuckton of […]

For me, the best Anthrax album is Among the Living from 1987.  However, Anthrax wasted little time with getting their fourth full-length released with the 1988, State of Euphoria record.  Anthrax had already firmly established themselves with their patented NY stylized crunch thrash metal guitar tone and were already touring worldwide.  The airing of the […]

An absolutely devastating split from India’s experimental crust grinders False Flag (a perennial favorite in the Snyder household) and Nepal’s doom-burnt thrash punks Neck Deep in Filth that gives you 5 tracks of pain when all’s said and done, without any filler getting in the way.  Anyone that was around for the heyday of freaked […]

Good lord- talk about an obscure blast from the past. I vaguely remember purchasing this Swdish band’s debut EP Alienor back in 1993 as a blind purchase, and kind digging it. It was a more progressive slightly different take on death metal back then, but 2 albums later in 1994 and 1996 the band disappeared […]

Ever since I met these, then kids back in 2008 at a Summer Slaughter (or maybe Sounds of the Underground?) show, I’ve enjoyed watching them stick out the genre saturation of proggy deathcore djent whatever ever core that blew up in the mid 00s (“Abstract Art” from the debut The New Reign is still cool as fuck over […]

I’ve heard of Lividity, veterans of the Chicago/Illinois brutal death metal scene since the mid 90s, but have not really heard them or owned any of their albums. Ive seen them lumped in with the likes of Gorgasm to Cannibal Corpse and of course Deaden and Broken Hope, and after hearing the band’s 6th album, Perveseverance, […]

Hot damn! I like surprises (at least good ones) just as much as the next guy or gal, but I have to say that some of my most favorite surprises are when I find out a band I really like has released a new album right under my nose without me knowing anything about it. […]

Pummeling old school hardcore meets punk straight from the genre’s birthzone (Long Island, NY) is what The Great Lie offers up on their debut EP, All Roads Lead to Where You Stand.  Featuring the exclamatory holler of John Wilkes Booth’s main set of pipes Kerry Merkle, a thick rhythm section and a nasty twin guitar […]

To me, the career path of Australia’s Psycroptic has somewhat mirrored Poland’s Decapitated: 7 albums in, early career highlighted by a couple of critically acclaimed technical death metal albums, then both had a divisive vocalist change with Psycroptic moving to the Jason Pepiatt  and Decapitated moving from Sauron to Cowan then a slight style shift into less tech death metal realms. Those familiar […]

Creating anything is hard, even if you’re a master of your craft. I don’t care if you’re Spielberg, Scorsese, Pixar, or Stephen King. You still need to take your raw, half-formed idea, and then use all of your skill, experience, judgment, and persistence to shape it into something that measures up to or surpasses your […]

Earlier this year I regrettably slept on the sophomore LP from Denver outfit Necropanther. Now the impressive young band has recently dropped the first of a planned series of EP’s, each written exclusively by an individual band member, beginning with Oppression, a three song effort penned by bassist Marcus Corich. I also thought it would […]

Plowing their way through England’s Midlands since ’05, The Atrocity Exhibit provides a drippy, gooey take on punk-riddled sludge-grind that feels distinctly, well, English.  There’s a scuzzy take on this genre here that could only come from the UK and it’s a sound purveyed by killer fairly recent bands like Among the Missing, Mistress and […]

With the 7th full-length album, Ghostly White, from long-time running act, Deceased you know what you’re going to get-or do you…? I’ve followed the band for close to 3 decades now and have been a fan since the beginning. The brilliant mixture of death/thrash metal with classic metal and some NWOBHM, for me is insanely […]