I’ve been saying it recently how Scott Magrath’s Maggot Stomp Records seems to be the label Century Media Records are looking into and poaching bands from that roster after the bands have released at least an ep or debut album.  The bands are hungry, writing kick ass death metal and want to tour.  Smart decision […]

I’m not a huge thrash metal guy. Other than some that were my gateway bands into death metal like Slayer, Possessed, Metallica, and Holy War (and for some reason never heard or purchased a Megadeth album). However, in the late 80s, I did have a soft spot for thrash from my homeland of England mainly […]

Well this is a pleasant, somewhat of a surprise EP release from North Dakota’s Gorgatron. While I am admittedly only moderately familiar with the band and their craft of death metal that seems to reside somewhere between the brutal stylings of Hate Eternal and Gorgasm (what is it with these “Gor-” bands and their knack […]

The putrid, unholy sickness that is today’s Blackened Speed/Thrash Metal movement (I mean that in the most sincerely loving way) has managed to infect a pretty large portion of the world at this point. To be honest, it seems like they’re popping out everything. Pretty much where there’s air to breathe, there’s a group of […]

Germany’s Pagan/Black Metal act, Firtan return with their third full-length album – Marter.  I am new to the sounds of Firtan and the Pagan/Black Metal influences are something I am starting to enjoy, the more I hear bands playing this style of music. This review is for the 8 song album, but the physical copy […]

If you’re like me, and for your sake I hope not, you’ve been looking forward to a follow up to The Offering’s stunning 2019 debut Home. Its mix of power, trad, and metalcore would have placed well on my AOTY list, but I wasn’t writing for the site yet. It was thoroughly enjoyable and remains. […]

Way back in the late 90s/early 2000s, The End Records were arguably the best independent record label around that wasn’t one of the ‘big’ four- Nuclear Blast, Century Media, Relapse and Metal Blade- when it came to underground metal.

With releases from bands like Agalloch, Ulver, Arcturus, Anathema, November’s Doom, Crisis, Love History, Sculptured, Scholomance, Unexpect, Virgin Black and others, the label was diverse, ambitious and often genre bending.

But for me personally, one of the band’s early flag ship US bands that was able to compete with their European brethren was Tennessee’s black metal act Epoch of Unlight.

I heard a couple of great Summoning inspired bands back in 2021; Norway’s Urdôl Ur and their debut, Seven Portals To The Arcane Realms and  Withered Land‘s The Endless Journey. But nothing so far in 2022. Enter Hungary’s duo WitcheR, Lélekharang (‘Soul Bell’) which is unfortunately not based on the Andrzej Sapkowski books or Henry Cavil […]

Death/doom is my wheelhouse. This year at MDF, I was finally able to see one of my favorite bands, November’s Doom. During the middle of the day, no less. That was a bucket list item. So, when a band of which I have never heard lists them as influenced by, or for fans of, well, […]

Formed in 2004 Aldaaron are legends of the French Black Metal scene. In fact, it’s hard for me to talk about the likes of Deathspell Omega, Anorexia Nervosa or Ad Hominem without mentioning these Grenoble, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes based titans. With their initial full-length Nous Reviendrons Immortels (2010) and follow up Suprême Silence (2012) then nothing for […]

At Teeth of the Divine, we all have our own individual tastes and personal preferences when it comes to metal – a point which has, unfortunately, led to some words we wish we hadn’t said and no shortage of blood left on each of our hands. Literally. We’ve made some… mistakes… ANYWAY, one thing that […]

In my continuing efforts to ween myself off Lorna Shore and actually listen to other music, I randomly stumbled across the second album from Columbian death metal band  Casket Grinder, and holy hell does it kick all sorts of ass. The album consists of the band’s split, ep, and demo material recorded prior to their […]

Last year I reviewed the reissue of the classic debut Hammers of Misfortune album – The Bastard.  I have enjoyed their progressive brand of metal that is quite eclectic, mixing in styles ranging from Manilla Road, Fates Warning, Omen, 70’s prog rock metal to more extreme forms of death and thrash metal.  Somehow their conglomeration […]

Ok, here’s another one of those promos I get, where the ‘FFO/For Fans Of” is just too good to be true – like someone was in my head when they wrote it. In the case of Depravity, the debut album from Belgian newcomer Slaughter the Giant, where bands like The Black Dahlia Murder, At The […]

Let’s be honest, any deathcore records released in 2022 are going to be compared to Lorna Shore‘s Pain Remains, and releasing the same month as Pain Remains is a ballsy move. But Unique Leader pulled off two successful competitors with A Wake in Providence and Bonecarver. Let’s see how Nuclear Blast’s entry, the debut from […]

What’s the fucking point? Seriously, what’s the point of deathcore anymore? When Lorna Shore raised the bar so high, yet A Wake in Providence and Angelmaker came very close to clearing it with their releases early in the year, I just wonder why any band would even try. That’s the thing about deathcore, though. It […]

Both my family and TeethoftheDivine staff recently had an intervention for me. They were worried that my obsession with symphonic/blackened deathcore was harming my relationships and causing psychological and mental damage that I might not recover from. It was suggested I take a break from the new Lorna Shore album and listen to something else… […]

Canadian record label – Profound Lore Records really likes to have Canadian bands on their label.  I think it’s pretty cool and the label roster is pretty staggering, in terms of the quality of their bands-truly excellent.  Canada’s black metal act Gevurah have been slinging their brutal take on the genre for a little over […]

There’s an old adage “You can have too much of a good thing”. And for me, that “good thing” is blackened/symphonic deathcore, and I can have as much of it as I fucking want. And Spain’s Bonecarver has delivered yet another killer addition to the genre to go with the 2022 onslaught of releases from […]

I struggle to think of another band revered with such legendary status as Candlemass has within the pantheons of Heavy Metal, with as strange and unorthodox a journey as theirs over their almost 40 year career. The breakups, reformations and seemingly endless string of cryptic hints at retirement, the rotating lineup of ex-members entering and […]

One of the great things about being somewhat close to two scenes is that you just might see the same band in two different places. This is the case with small/death metal newcomers Mulciber, having seen them in Pittsburgh once opening for Castrator, but eating pizza and unable to take videos or photos. Then, not […]

Back in the mid 80’s a demo band labeled as the new brutal thrash hardcore band to end all bands kept creeping into the ‘zines I would buy.  Cryptic Slaughter were that band and their 1986 debut, Convicted was a no brainer first day vinyl purchase for me.  Since that time the band has remained […]

2022 has been quite the year for  Hoaxed. While maybe not a meteoric rise, per se, the virtually unknown Portland duo – armed with only a 4 song self-titled EP to their name – landed a surprise rotation on tour earlier this year with Amorphis, Uada and Sylvaine which, when you hear the band for the first […]

I’ve long extolled the virtues of Germany’s Disillusion on these very pages. From their breathtaking, classic debut, Back to Times of Splendor, to the divisive follow-up Gloria to the band’s comeback after a 13-year layoff in 2019s The Liberation. Well thankfully, we don’t have a long wait for them to follow up The Liberation, as […]

There have been some great Swedish /HM2 style death metal releases in 2022; Necrom, Entrails, Demonical, Katakomba, Sentient Horror, and Ripped to Shreds Disfuneral, have all released killer albums so far this year. But this autumn, a few more releases will drop and compete for your hard-earned cash. Back in September, Tampa Bay’s Carnal Ruin […]