While Jeremy Wagner was on hiatus from Broken Hope back in 2002 (before they got back together), he, along with Broken Hope drummer Mike Miczek, started Earthburner, named after a Broken Hope song from Grotesque Blessings, to pass the time. However, Broken Hope reformed and released some more albums, but Earthburner was always sort of lurking […]

I am new to the sounds of Sweden’s Carnosus.  They remind me of Denmark’s Crocell, before Crocell went black metal.  This is pretty high-quality melodic death metal, which has a good chunk of brutality to it. Wormtales is their third album, and I picked up their previous releases after receiving this promo.  I mean just […]

Vivé le France part deux? See I just finished a review for fellow countrymen Mercyless,  and their recent Those Who Reign Below album,  and who could probably arm wrestle Loudblast for the notoriety of the first French Death Metal band. However according to Metal Archives, Loudblast is the first, so I don’t fucking know and […]

I’ve not been shy about Molder being my favorite of these new school death metal bands. I have a vest with their Gremlins back patch, signed by the band. Frontman Aaren Pantke signed it with an “OUGH.” I swear I didn’t put him up to it, but if I had, that’s exactly what I would […]

Canada produces, on average, some of the finest, most killer Black Metal and Death Metal. It’s the home to Black Metal titans Blasphemy, Death Metal tricksters VHS, and hordes of other, equally deadly bands capable of crushing the listener into mulch. Enter Sedimentum. Suppuration morphogénésiaque was at the top of my year-end list that year, […]

I rather enjoyed the 2022 debut album, Depravity from these Belgian lads as it meshed At The Gates and The Black Dahlia Murder-styled razor-sharp melo-death, and threw in some orchestration/keyboards here and there, which as regular readers know, gives me a major boner. So here is a 6 song EP to follow up Depravity, and […]

Just check out this album cover from Finland’s Ashen Tomb!!  Anytime you’ve got a Kaiju-sized maggot-encrusted corpse sitting down saying:  “Wow! I’ve had a rough life, I’m gonna sit my ass down for a break and maybe order me up some cheeseburgers” – well I’m gonna be all over the album, let me tell you. […]

Symphony Of Heaven is a Christian melodic black/death metal band from Indiana, that used to be on Rottweiler Records. But with their 3rd album has forged out alone like… that one guy…. that went … out to the wilderness? In the bible maybe? I’m trying here, that theology isn’t really my jam. What IS my […]

I initially decided to take this review strictly based on the album title, Fuckyourface.  I could not stop laughing when I saw this debut album title from Fupa Goddess.  A goregrind/death metal band spread out in the Carolinas/Virginia. I dare you to go to metal-archives.com to type the band name in.  Watch that scroll bar […]

There sometimes comes a point in a band’s career when it becomes very clear they’re no longer fucking around. And I mean come on! Look at that gnarly friggin’ cover art! While it can never be questioned what Ensiferum‘s contribution to the world of Folk Metal has been, it’s also fair to look at the band’s […]

Vivè la France! After hosting the most controversial and Metal as fuck Olympics that saw countrymen Gojira performing next to a headless Marie Antoinette and a feast of mythological proportions; all in the opening ceremony. Mercyless are also from France, and although they play a significantly different style of Death Metal than Gojira, they bring […]

The debut album from Kings Never Die last year, All the Rats, was my favorite album for 2023. The hardcore and punk style fueled from this band, residing in parts NY, NJ, PA this 10 song 30, is still in constant rotation for me, still.  From the uplifting and in your face lyrics and vocals […]

Maul kicks some serious ass. I have no clue at this point how many times I have seen them, but it’s several. I am also going to see them soon in a few days. They’re an unrelenting force on record, as well as live. Seraphic Punishment, their debut, found a lot of love in metal […]

Back in 1986, I was just a fledgling Metalhead. I had cut my teeth on Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and KISS, but in 1986 three albums came out that changed my life: Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets and Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying? All of a sudden I wanted the fastest music I could […]

A Finnish supergroup of sorts (former and ex-members of …And Oceans, Black Beast, Rapture, Scorgrain), The Mist From the Mountains released a superb debut back in 2022, that made my year-end list with its excellent take on the classic, folky second wave black metal sound, culling heavily from the likes of Borknagar, the first Ulver […]

Long Running Florida death metal act, Massacre, seems to always have something going on.  Whether it’s the issues with the internet trolls or former members going on to form Inhuman Condition several years ago, rest assured, vocalist Kam Lee is sure to always comment.  I met him a few years back at MDF and he […]

Australia’s Abramelin comeback album in 2020, Never Enough Snuff,  was a really good death metal album, which I reviewed as well.  Refusing to rest on their laurels, this band was a free agent, and picked up by Hammerheart Records, and Sins of the Father is the band’s latest offering. An issue I had with the […]

Back in the early 2000s as I was still learning about Eastern European extreme metal I discovered a number of bands that may or may not have sketchy politics. Dub Buk, Nokturnal Mortum (their early days), Graveland and this Arkona from Poland. I was already familiar with the Russian folk band Arkona and wanted to […]

My bud Alex, the owner of Dolorem Records, has sent me a promo for one of his bands and this time it’s for Infern, a death metal band hailing from France.  The album cover is quite interesting with the Kaiju-sized crab.  When looking at this cover I had no idea WTF to expect.  Could this […]

The cover art on Obsidian Mantra‘s 3rd album, As We All Will, may not scream “DEATH METAL!!!!”, instead having more of an Opeth-ian progressive metal vibe. However fair reader, as the old saying goes, ‘never judge a book by its cover’. As We All Will is VERY much a death metal album. A death metal […]

I have reviewed my fair share of brutal death metal this year and overall the brutality of some of the releases such as: PeelingFlesh, Cephalotripsy, Werewolves, and Brodequin are top scores.  Also the old/new Extermination Dismemberment is creating havoc out there in the slam genre. Nothing really prepared me for a band I had never […]

“Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you […]

France’s Esoctrilihum returns with their 11th full-length album Döth-Derniàlh.  Last year’s Astraal Constellations of the Majickal Zodiac was the longest album I have ever reviewed.  An album broken up into 3 discs, running over 2+ hours.  Esoctrilihum are one of the most fascinating one-man band acts out there, however, I know when I review, I […]

This is cleaner than I expected. Drier than I’d like, too. I’m talking about the production on Undeath’s new album More Insane. I was expecting something dirtier, but that’s a bad characteristic most of the time. Regardless, one of death metal’s hottest bands is back. This new slab of death is loaded with bangers. Take […]

It’s finally Fall. The best of the seasons in my humble opinion, especially here in the Southwest where temperatures have been in the triple fucking digits. Granted there have been albums that lowered my mental temperature, but none have done what Mork has done with Seventh album Syv. From the press release: Syv was performed, […]