Blood. Guts. Rotting eyeballs. Spewing bile and bodily fluids, forced to drink vomit… have you heard of McCamey Manor? You probably have, it’s in the public consciousness as a nasty place where you get $20,000 if you make it through and you have to sign a waiver; basically saying the “actors” can do anything to […]

Although one of the USA’s early purveyors of European symphonic black metal in the late 90s and early 00s along with Dragonlord, Scholomance, Dreamscapes of the Perverse, Epicurean, Venificum, Santus, and such, Austin TX’s Vesperian Sorrow and most of those listed) never quite garnered a ton of attention. The Europeans just did it better with […]

Canada keeps kicking out sick releases in 2024. Quebec’s From Dying Suns return with their first LP Calamity. This band features members of: Augury, Killotorious and Aeternam. Matthew Dhani, the vocalist of Killotorious is also the live vocalist for First Fragment. It is also worth noting that Christian Donaldson of Cryptopsy mixed this. Calamity is […]

Kentucky’s melodic black metal act, Volcandra, have benefitted from continuity and it helps when your line-up stays intact.  Formed in 2018 Mike Hargrave (Drums), River Jordan/Jamie DeMar (Guitars) and Dave Palenske on cocals have stayed together since their 2020 impressive debut, Into the Azure.  The album was released independently and it was not until getting […]

Grindcore is one of those genres that’s pretty hard to fuck up. It’s pretty safe to say that Napalm Death are the creators and innovators of the genre and since their inception, countless numbers of Grindcore bands popped up in almost every country, Wormrot in Japan, Nasum from Sweden and Brutal Truth in the States […]

Hailing from California The Dread Crew of Oddwood, still falls into the metal category, although they play a combination of Celtic and Folk music, all interwoven into the Heavy Metal universe, however, they do it without electric guitars/bass.  Instrumentation ranges from the stand-up bass, mandolin, tin whistle, drums, and accordion, just to name a few […]

“It’s not the worst thing ever,” says the custodian as he scrapes all the dried cum from in and around the glory hole. I didn’t wish for him to elaborate, but by instinct, I said “Wouldn’t it be easier just to do it when it’s fresh?” He scowled and I received no answer. Foolishly, I […]

Non Stop Ruthless Crushing …..what???? I feel like there’s another word that was forgotten here. Anxiety? Diarrhea? Parental disappointment? I keed,  I keed What we have here is a re-release of a 2023 effort from this Texas act formed by Jason Ramsey (notably from Baton Rouge’s Suture, who released solid albums on Deepsend Records, Unmatched […]

Synestia is a new symphonic deathcore duo consisting of Minnesota’s Sam Melchior (all instruments, writing) and Finland’s Ville Hokkanen (vocals). In 2022 they released their fantastic debut album, Malificium, but it was digital only and got kind of bulldozed by that year’s slew of stellar releases in the genre from Shadow of Intent,  Worm Shepherd, […]

This certainly came out of nowhere. It’s an EP, not a new full-length, but new Necropanther is all I, and hopefully by extension, you need to know. Before really getting into the meat (dead panther meat, I guess) of the EP, this is exactly what I want from this medium. I’ve always thought of them […]

Sweden’s Sarcasm returns with their fifth album Mourninghoul. Sarcasm plays a unique throwback style of classic Swedish Sound (Unanimated, Dawn, Early Gates of Ishtar, Early Desultory) mixed with moments of modern heaviness by bands like Morbid Angel. “As Northern Gates Opens” opens the album and I was hooked right away by the coldness of the […]

By now it’s not a secret that Finland spews out some incredible Black Metal. I could sit here and name check every band and that would be boring as fuck. I’m guilty of it, and since I realize that I’m excluded from persecution and it’s usually in my introduction where I pull that shit anyway. […]

Three years ago I reviewed the self-titled, debut album from California’s epic doom metal band Stygian Crown and really loved it.  I was happy to see my friend, Rhett Davis, drumming on it, a legendary drummer from Crimson Relic, Morgion and Gravehill, and many other bands, both past and present.  The original line-up with guitarists […]

Hailing from the Mid-Atlantic United States, Desolus formed prior to the beginning of the pandemic.   I’ve known bass/vocalist Vivek Rangarajan for a number of years now seeing him at a number of shows in and around the MD/DC Metro area.  I actually was able to see Desolus live last year and they tore it up […]

Listen, I was Korpiklaani fanboy for many years loving the band’s boozy folk metal anthems like “Beer, Beer” and “Happy Little Boozer”, but somewhere around 2008s Korven Kuningas up to 2015s Noita I started losing interest in the band and their albums. The band seemed to get a bit of a hangover, lose their fun […]

Atrae Bilis is a Canadian technical death metal band not involving Phillip Tougas. Technical death metal has a place in my heart, but it’s one of those genres that’s hit or miss. My standard bearer has been Obscura for several years. The band and the 1998 Gorguts album. The reason is because of excellent songs. […]

The Greek mythology and the pantheon of gods has always fascinated me. From as long as I was able to read at a decent level I’ve loved the stories of Achilles, and after reading the Iliad I was hooked. So it’s no surprise that I have a soft spot for Greek Black Metal and the […]

I was a fan of Grey Sky Fallen’s last album, from 2020, Cold Dead Lands.  I enjoyed their take on doom-death metal, alongside some progressive influences.  I did not realize at the time the band had four prior albums, a plethora of EPs, and had been around since the 90’s. Molded by Broken Hands is […]

At first glance, album number 13 from one of death metal’s true institutions Deicide, appears to be yet another by-the-numbers Deicide album that Bentons (yes I used it as a verb), blasphemes and blasts its way through another effort of Christ-hating death metal. And to some extent it does. It is most certainly a Deicide […]

A new Witch Vomit offering is almost a holiday ‘round these parts. It wasn’t a question of IF it would be covered, but more of a question of who would be; Myself or Steve K. Surprisingly, he put up no fight. I’m glad for once we didn’t come to blows (not that kind you dirty […]

During the total eclipse of the sun earlier this year, I wasn’t as stupid as most of the population seems to have been by looking at the sun, I admit to taking pictures of it. It was a bit magical, I had a bonfire going, and through no consequence at all I ended up listening […]

Italian Technical Death Metallers Hour of Penance return with their ninth full-length record Devotion. I have been a fan of Hour of Penance since hearing their second full-length record Pageantry for Martyrs. Devotion gets kicked off with “Devotion of Tyranny” which reminds me a lot of their third album The Vile Conception. The guitar work […]

This spring, two US-based, keyboard-heavy, melodic death metal bands will be releasing their second albums respectively. One, Philadelphia’s Malphas with Portal (via M-Theory Audio), and this album from Seattle’s more old-school influenced Veriteras. And it’s not even close to who the winner is as The Dark Horizon is absolutely stunning.  Part of my enjoyment of […]

I have reviewed quite a lot of Pestilence albums on this site, as well as reviewing their various reissues multiple times and over the years I would consider main axe grinder/vocalist, Patrick Mameli, as a friend, with our various interactions.  I respect his musical work and songwriting skills and many of the Pestilence albums I […]

This Finnish power metal band has been around since the 90’s and I have seen their logo and ads for decades, however, I have never heard them until now, with Clear Cold Beyond which is their 14th album – holy smokes!  After listening to their back catalog in order to compare this to their prior […]