For metal mastermind Andy Marshall, Saor has been a means of immersing listeners in his beloved Scottish history and heritage through a sprawling, intoxicating mix of incredibly atmospheric black and folk metal, dubbed colloquially by Marshall himself as “Caledonian Metal.” For all intents and purposes, while each of his previous albums certainly had some characteristics […]

Virginia’s crossover/thrash lunatics Municipal Waste return with their seventh album. I remember when this entire genre resurged like around 2000 and MW were the new kids on the block. Now it’s over 20 years later they’ve been around and are veterans. I was really happy when drummer Dave Witte joined in 2005. He’s a great […]

California’s Inanimate Existence has been releasing quality albums for a few years now, but never seems to quite break into the discussion of absolute top-tier tech death with say, First Fragment, Gorod, Obscura, and such. Even when they had Riley McShane (Continuum, Alleageaon) in their ranks back in 2014, they were juuuuuust on that cusp. […]

The first time I heard Indiana’s Demiricous was their debut One (Hellbound). I remember thinking that if the Bay Area bands had an orgy; Demiricous would be the outcome of that unholy union. They are undeniably heavy, with razor sharp riffs and often soaring solos, some impressive drum work makes it a total package that’ll […]

Hate über alles is the 15th album from German thrashers Kreator. IMO they are the best German thrash band, ever. Seen them live so many times and other than 2 meh albums, Outcast and Endorama their discography destroys. Kreator are not reinventing the wheel but maybe the new bassist Frederic Leclercq (Loudblast) said let’s up the ante a little more. “Sergio Corbucci […]

Thronehammer’s vocalist Kat Shevil Gillham sings and drums on the debut EP, from UK’s Enshroudment.  I’m really an old school doom death fan. I do enjoy new bands in this genre but bands like Morgion, Anathema, Paradise Lost, Dream Death– all their earliest releases, as well as My Dying Bride, all hold a special place in my heart. This 3 song […]

So a handful of excellent blackened/symphonic deathcore (or whatever you want to call it) releases have come out in 2022 to basically keep fans satiated until Lorna Shore drop Pain Remains later this year; Shadow of Intent, Hurakan, Downfall of Mankind, Worm Shepherd (who will somehow be releasing a second album later this year…) to […]

Here is yet another project from the mind of Matthew Schott (listed here as ‘Repulsive Dirtnap Casket Crusher’) with the help of some other mysteriously unknown figures (Filth Esophagus Vacuum: vocals, SixSixSix Chambers of Rotten Mold: guitars/leads,  Four Filthy Shelves of Putrid Decay: bass), to go along with Valdur, Oreamnos and Sxuperion. And what we […]

Kansas’s technical death metal powerhouse Origin return with their eighth full length record Chaosmos. Paul Ryan, Mikey Torres, Jason Keyser, and John Longstreth waste zero time pummeling the listener with the opening track “Ecophagy.”  The track starts off with a strong hook and then proceeded to get progressively more technical as the track goes on. […]

OK, so look. I’ve made my love for the whole old school Blackened Thrash thing very well-apparent to this point. Give me a group of dudes wailing away on some nasty riffs, tortured vocals about demons and Satan and shit, package it up with some more raw, stripped-down production, and you’ve basically got me hook, […]

First off, hats off to Alestorm for the whole Iron Maiden, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son homage/parody for their very own seventh album. Well played lads. Second, this is an Alestorm album, so by now, you know what you are getting, especially as the band has really locked into a sort of pirate/party metal […]

The last time I heard Alabama’s Writhing Shadows, its was when I reviewed a group of cassettes from then fledgling label, Gurgling Gore, that included featured Wharflurch and Seep. Well, both the label and band has been productive since then with numerous cassette releases, with Writhing Shadows having released a split, an EP, a single, […]

I’ve reviewed the last several releases from Misery Index and knowing singer/bassist Jason Netherton all these years from my Internal Bleeding time and his stint in Dying Fetus- well those were some legendary shows folks. Time flies and Complete Control is the bands seventh full length album. If you were expecting anything less than their […]

I had never heard of these guys prior to this release, full disclosure; I didn’t know they existed. They’ve been around since 1999, and since demo Opus I of that year, they’ve been extremely busy putting out a veritable shit load of music including 3 Eps, 4 split albums, 2 live albums and 6 full […]

Italy’s premier Dwarven-themed power metallers are back with album number 5, and although I only discovered them after 2017s Stonehymn, (where they truly leaned into the Dwarven imagery and themes), they have been one of my favorite power metal bands since. 2019s Wintersaga brought us the youtube hit and earworm “Diggy Hole”, (sitting at 34 […]

I’m not quite sure that to make of Bellgrave’s Back As King. The internet tells me this German veteran act started as a doom/death band back in the early 00s and then turned onto a sort of hard rock death/doom band with some still sort of gravelly semi death metal vocals (courtesy of Danny Hoff, […]

It seems like forever ago when Sweden’s Soreption was a contender for my 2014 album of the year with Engineering the Void. The perfect blend of stuttering Meshuggah syncopation and tech death wizardry as well as sudden bursts of orchestral elements just hit m perfectly. However, the 2018 follow up, Monument of the End, didn’t […]

UK’s NWOBHM band, Satan, have been around since the late 70’s. During their long career they changed their name a few times (Blind Fury, Pariah) which may have hurt their long-term popularity. Under the Satan name they have released, 5 albums and Earth Infernal their 6th. In 1986 I picked up their new ep on vinyl Into the Future, bypassing their […]

As someone who has never been about taking any form of metal too seriously, Sacred Son’s Dane Cross has become somewhat of a folk hero of mine. As curmudgeonly as the elite Black Metal crowd can be, it’s still pretty dang impressive just how much hate Cross has stirred up for just living his life. […]

There’s a new Jungle Rot album on the way, okay? At this point, let’s be honest with ourselves. You know what they bring to the table. You either like it or you don’t. This album is not likely to change your mind, so the real question is; Is this a good Jungle Rot album? Yeah. […]

I don’t think there is any doubt that the first three albums from Entrails,  2010s Tales From the Morgue, 20011s The Tomb Awaits, and possibly the band’s 2013 Metal Blade debut, Raging Death are the pinnacle of the Swedish death metal revival. However, subsequent albums Obliteration, World Inferno and Rise of the Reaper didn’t quite […]

Finally; my longtime friend in stoolism and brutality Tim King returns to death metal. Tim played bass and sang with the Chicago 90s brutal/tech death band Oppressor and we became fast friends in the 90’s playing shows together. I remember one Internal Bleeding show with them and Symphony of Grief was like at a bowling alley or some shit. We […]

Portugal’s Analepsy return with their second full length album Quiescence. Having been five years since their last release it is quite immediate that the production values and song writing have both stepped and slammed up. Opening things up with “Locus of Dawning” the guitars fade in with some cool layering and harmony. I can hear […]

“Everyone’s Doing Shitty” says my home state’s own Mutilatred in the opening track to their new album Determined to Rot. I concur. Everyone except for the band, it seems as the hype with their new release is somewhat strong. This is another one of those bands like Sanguisugabogg and Undeath, who gets a lot of […]

For reasons I can’t quite begin to understand, the American Midwest has become a veritable hotbed for super evil, no-holds-barred, Satan-loving metal for metal’s sake. Something about all those hotdishes and passive-aggressive politeness come together to manifest the likes of NunSlaughter and Midnite and Nachtmystium and scores of other bands dedicated to high-octane, heretical carnage. […]