I rather enjoyed the 2017 debut, Flesh Hammer Prophecy, from this German Dismember-loving band. However, I somehow completely missed the 2019 follow-up, The Harvest, (which has since been rectified) where the band made the jump from FDA Records to Metal Blade, much like Entrails, and have now unleashed album number 3. From the opening strains of […]

This is not the same Solstice, who are from the UK and play incredible epic and heavy doom, no this is the death/thrashy bastids who originated from Florida in the 90’s.  About a decade ago I reviewed the excellent compilation Pray for the Sentencing which included their first 2 outstanding albums – I reviewed that […]

Thrash is off to a flyer in 2021. The classic metal genre has dished up numerous quality releases in the first chunk of the year, headlined by top notch releases from Enforced, Demoniac, Demiser and Cryptosis. Young guns rising to ensure it is not left to the old dogs and veteran warhorses to keep the […]

In May of last year, I review’s Skam’s Sounds of Disease – an album that perfectly encapsulated the times we were living in. A blistering, manic foray into a world of mental anguish and instability that just seemed more and more an appropriate soundtrack as the year went on. Nearly a year later, things on […]

“Impressive…most impressive.” These words from the dark Sith lord himself, Darth Vader, are what rang through my mind upon my initial experience with Bloodtide Rising, the sophomore full-length album from North Carolina’s Xael…okay, I’m full of shit. What I really thought was, “Fuck me, this is some kick ass shit!” And it is. I mean […]

Dipygus really hit the scene with their 2019 debut album Deathooze.  A crushing 7 song affair.  One of their songs on that album, “Deloy’s Ape”, was definitely a memorable one.  The intro is the official police call of when the lady got her face and body parts ripped off by that crazy ass chimpanzee, years […]

The Lion’s Daughter is likely a lioness. Unless the lion bred with another big cat, like a tiger, and the offspring was a liger. That’s objectively pretty neat. The Lion’s Daughter are also a progressive/sludge metal band from St. Louis, Missouri. We’re talking about the latter, and this is their new album (4th overall), sexily […]

I’m not gonna lie. I grabbed this debut album promo as it said it was current and former members of Allegaeon,  Unflesh (who recently released one of my favorite albums of the year so far) and Seven Spires, and I was really hoping it was vocalist Adrienne Cowan. However, it was not, but still it […]

I’m really enjoying what French label, Antiq Records is doing of late. I first discovered them with 2019s Par le sang versé from Véhémence, which made my 2019 year-end list. And now, here is 2021, they have a trio of excellent releases that could all end up on my year-end list from Hanteroz, Ascète, and […]

Back in 2016, New Hampshire’s Vattnet Viskar looked poised to break out in a BIG friggin’ way. While genre darlings Deafheaven were indeed the face and forefront of a blooming Blackgaze scene, the Granite Staters had made some giant strides to make a name for themselves in An increasingly packed field, leading up to 2015’s […]

Feculent is an Australian death metal band and The Grotesque Arena ep is their first release.  4 dudes who go by initials trying to make their mark in our over-congested death metal scene.  6 songs in 19 minutes on the ever expanding Caligari Records out of Florida. “The Grotesque Arena: Upon Splintered Bone” opens the […]

Remember the movie rule of 2? (i.e Armageddon vs Deep Impact) that so often applies in music? So I recently discovered two US symphonically laced, shreddy, tech death/deathcore/metalcore/melodic death metal /The Artisan Era core bands and the same time. First is Tempe, Arizona’s Dead World Reclamation, and their second album, Aura of Iniquity, and second, […]

So here is my second American symphonic metal album released this spring, the other being Dead World Reclamation‘s solid The Black Dahlia Murder with keyboards effort, Aura of Iniquity. I have no idea what or who a Wythersake is (google was no help), but on their debut album they offer up some solid if unspectacular […]

In folklore/mythology, a cambion is the unholy offspring of a Succubus or Incubus and a human sexing it up. In this case, for this particular Cambion, the Succubus is The Netherlands’ Centurian (yes, I made Centurian the female sex-demon in this scenario) and that human vessel is Pete Helmkamp of Angelcorpse/Abhomine fame as this Texas […]

I was a bit surprised to find that Spain’s Mistweaver were releasing a new album this year, mainly due to the fact that the band called it quits back in 2017. Unfortunately for us, Swansong, the band’s sixth and ultimately final album is exactly that, a swansong for the group, that founder/guitarist/vocalist Raúl Weaver saw […]

Bees are totally fuckin wild, man. Yes, I’m one of those “SAVE THE BEES!” guys. They’re really fucking important! Yeah, they’ve got the stingy bits and everyone in my generation was scarred by the end of “My Girl” and blah blah yadda yadda WHATEVER. Sure, some folks have potentially deadly reactions to be stings. That […]

For the newcomers out there Agent Steel are a speed metal band, from California and have gone on hiatuses several times in their close to 40 year existence.  Their 1985 debut Skeptics Apocalypse is still my favorite release by the band and their follow-up Unstoppable Force was also a personal favorite and still their best-selling […]

Listen, I’ll be quite upfront- Heralds of Strife is my most anticipated album of the year. Both the previous albums from this criminally underrated Indonesian black metal act, (2015s Homeward Path and 2018s Fortress of Primal Grace) were my top albums of the year respectively. So this review not going to be very objective, as […]

With Bodom After Midnight, I’ll be honest in saying it’s not easy tackling the topic of one of my favorite musicians passing away… and so young at that. I will admit I had been concerned for Alexi for quite some time as a fan before this occurred. Watching behind the scenes footage of drunken shenanigans […]

No frills, no fuss, lots of fuzz. In short, that’s basically what you’re getting from Morbid Breath’s new EP In the Hand of The Reaper. Simple, effective, thrashy Death Metal riffs and super fuzzy bass backbone, over simple, solid rhythms, and some raspy, growly vocals. Classic Swedish Death Metal 101. If this all seems like […]

The consistency of Everlasting Spew Records knows no bounds!  Imagine if you will putting Broken Hope, Monstrosity and Sinister in a blender.  Here is the thing though, you cannot add any lyrics.  Because they do not have any.  Now, this is a bit of a bold move here, but I think that these songs are […]

There are experts in Greek black metal.  I am not one of them.  But seeing In the Days of Whore pop up in promos I thought Zaratus could be a legitimate gateway into this corner of black metal, for myself and perhaps readers.  Zaratus is a great shortcut to entry because its two members are […]

Remember the doom/death metal band Sorrow from LI, New York?  I still have their demo when they were called Apparition, saw them live a few times, then they changed their name to Sorrow and put out an ep and album.  Some of my favorite music.  I became friends with the drummer, Mike, who then had me do guest vocals on […]

As I made clear in my review of 2018s Nyárutó, Hungary’s Dalriada is one of my new favorite discoveries of the last few years. Their infectious brand of bouncy but still crunchy, ethnic folk metal is just fun as heck even after 10 albums. And album number 11 is no different. Continuing the seasonal/month named […]

Dyskinesia is a brand new brutal death metal band featuring the majority of Sanguisugabogg.  Cedrik Davis guitars/bass, Cody Davidson guitars/bass/drums and Devin Swank on vocals.  This 3 song little ditty of an ep has been picked up by New Standard Elite and the band has aspirations to record a full-length too.  And even though Sanguisugabogg […]