So like, as a dude inching closer and closer to 40, I’ve been finding myself doing a fair amount of self-reflecting and fighting through existential crises and all that fun shit. I often end up wondering what the hell is wrong with me because I remember being in my teens and 20s and having a […]

To coincide with their current US tour, pirate rockers Alestorm have dropped a 5 song EP following up 2022s excellent Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum album. You know exactly what you are getting with Alestorm at this point in their prolifically fun discography while and that does not change with the short little EP, […]

Well, I used a flaming tree limb as an air guitar for the first time today (I should mention that I was pretending it was driftwood from some sunken wreck) so… that’s something new. But I couldn’t help it, something was possessing me and moving me forward to this lava black beach. Yeah, that’s right, […]

Oh, Aborted. We share a little in common. When my parents talk about me, Aborted is brought up. It’s usually at the end of a sentence beginning with “you should have been,” but whatever. As for other things we have in common, there aren’t any. Their new album Vault of Horrors is indeed a new […]

Shattered Earth Records is a relatively new label with ties to the excellent Dragoncorpse and has awesome bands like Hanging the Nihilist, Spitpool, Obscure Mantra, Loathsome and The Pelennor Field Tragedgy (yes, epic Tolkien-themed deathcore) on their roster. So when they sent me the new release from Memento Mori, I had to check it out….eventually […]

In Demonology, Malphas is a demonic grand president of hell and is second in command to Satan. He commands 40 legions of demons and he appears as a crow to any summoners. It’s also a melodic death metal band from Philadelphia that uses its demonic namesake as the basis for all its lyrics, songs, and […]

Hideous Divinity is back with their fifth full-length album, Unextinct.  The band opted to go the longest length of time in their career without ever releasing an album, as Simulacrum was released a year prior to COVID.  The band was patient not to release a COVID album because they knew there would be no touring […]

I reviewed Exhorder’s comeback album, Mourn the Southern Skies, in 2019 on TOTD.  While I enjoyed the album, and as a comeback album it was good, but still left some meat on the bone, so to speak.  There were aggressive songs, however, I felt, much of the album was marred by sludgy slow songs, that […]

There’s a stunning level of consistency between this Italian orchestral death metal band’s 2021 debut, Apotheosis, and their latest EP, Veils Of Transcendence, despite the label change from Germany’s Rising Nemesis Records to homegrown label, Dusktone (who have been more on my radar recently for their reissues of Stormlord and Spite Extreme Wing albums). It’s […]

I’ve been on a bit of a black metal kick of late, and one band that has scratched that particular itch is German trio Stiriah and their third album, Portal, released back in February. Lying squarely in the 90s second wave, with a semi-melodic and symphonic sound (there are keyboards here and there but it’s […]

Brat may very well become the new “it” band. Oddly enough, I recently saw them with Escuela Grind (for the 7th or 8th time), Bonginator, and Take Offense. A gentleman slightly older than I called Escuela the new “it” band and it was hard to argue. After he saw them for the first time, he […]

I went blindly into the promo for this release, as I have been in an ‘atmospheric black metal’ mood of late. But then I dug into the project more and was even more excited as it’s a multinational trio comprised of Jacob Buczarski of Mare Cognitum on drums, an Argentine dude named Dany Tee on […]

35 years. Existence and longevity come from quality and excellence. Releasing album after album with diabolical precision has been the Rotting Christ ethic throughout their career, since 1988 when they were a Grindcore band and then transitioning to Black Metal in the early 90s with 1993’s Thy Mighty Contract, they have forged and put together […]

Three years ago I reviewed the second album Bushmeat from Dipygus.  The band waited until after COVID to release their third album, Dipygus, a self-titled affair.  This Californian sludgy death metal act has returned with their longest album, complete with their longest song, “Sacral Brain”, at over 11 minutes and the heaviness is just as […]

The idea that I, some dumb schmuck from the fuck-all dregs of nowhere, could actually offer anything that might change your opinion of Midnight or indeed this, their latest offering of dick-swinging, occult-obsessed Blackened Speed and Punk, is goddamn laughable. In fact, I’ll just come right out and say this right from the get-go (because the […]

I have been waiting patiently for the first full-length from these sickos from Chicago patiently since their 2019 Light Eater EP debut. So, here we are, nine-track debut album. The opening track “Of Ruin” sets the tempo for the whole album. Kicking things off with a two-minute instrumental is a bold choice but it works […]

Did you know Darkest Hour was still together? I didn’t. I mean the last thing I reviewed by them was 2009s The Eternal Return. They have released 2 albums since then with 2014s self-titled effort and 2017s Godless Prophets & the Migrant Flora, I own apparently but lord knows I could not tell you when […]

Good Lord, it’s been 21 years since I heard this Greek blackened-sludge band’s debut, …and Voices, Words, Faces, Complete the Dream way back in 2003. It was, and still is one of the more caustic, brittle, and downright nasty albums I have ever covered, especially vocally. I guess the band has dropped 2 other albums […]

There’s a saying in my part of the good ol’ USA. “Raise hell, praise Dale!” I’m certain it’s used countrywide, but I believe my area, particularly a couple hours away from where I was born, probably has a trademark on it. I’m certain there’s no question it’s regarding Dale Earnhardt, or “The Intimidator.” Decals on […]

What’s the heaviest band you’ve ever heard? Sunn O)))? Black Sabbath? Electric Wizard? I’m talking about music that is slower than a Sloth crossing a road. Dooooom! But where Mudshow is concerned… they mix into their music spoken word poetry from Arthur Rimbaud’s ‘A Season in Hell’ which [successfully] creates a foreboding atmosphere. This is […]

I don’t pretend to know much about the Cuban metal scene. Let alone the Cuban Symphonic Black Metal scene. But when I saw this promo for Symphonic Black Metal pop-up, I checked it out, and it has turned into one of those ‘buy everything the band has released’ affairs. This is the band’s debut from […]

So here is a reunion I’m not sure anyone was really clamoring for. Fall of Serenity came up with fellow Germans Heaven Shall Burn, releasing their first material on a split with HSB in 1999. They released four albums between 2001-2007 that all delivered the same sort of metalcore/hardcore/melo death sound (although their debut was […]

Judas Priest will go down as one of the greatest Heavy Metal bands of all time – without a shadow of a doubt.  This is the first time for me reviewing a Priest album and I am excited to do so.  I will say this….sometimes I get overly excited reviewing some of my favorite bands.  […]

After a solid career that saw TLTSOL emerge as a solid upper-tier US deathcore act with 6 albums, guitarist Wyatt McLaughlin saw his band gutted back in 2022. He rebuilt TLTSOL and delivered a solid EP, The Disquisition of an Execution in 2023 to get the new lineup greased up and ready for what was to […]

Lutharo: A timeline, Tarantino style. Rewind to November of 2023 and I happened to see Paladin was to play at one of my favorite venues, Westside Bowl in Youngstown, OH. I gazed upon the digital flyer and saw Lutharo would be headlining. I remembered the band name, thinking someone at this site had reviewed them […]