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 […]

4 years ago I reviewed the debut album, Decay from Glasgow’s Necrocracy and it was a rough and ready, solid release of no-frills, burly black metal. And then out of the blue, the band emails me and tells me about their new digital and cassette-only release they are dropping. So apparently the material on Predestiny […]

Fun fact: This is the third intro I’ve written for my review of this album, all on different devices. I wasn’t satisfied, which is probably the story of my life and my exes’. I’m just going to mostly skip that part and go into the first track on Replicant’s new one, called “Acid Mirror.” Sharing […]

The first time I heard Steve Moore was the soundtracks for Mayhem and The Mind’s Eye (2017 and 2016 respectively). Zombi is a collaboration between Moore and A.E. Paterra and I have taken a deep dive into their music since getting the promo for Direct Inject. Since their inception in 2001 they’ve released six studio […]

Remember bands like Nails, All Pigs Must Die, Trap Them and other Southern Lord bands of the mid 00s? That grimy, downturned, feedback laced Swedish death metal-meets hardcore and grind/d-beat sound that Gatecreeper , Fuming Mouth and such expanded on more recently? Well, the UKS Mastiff is here to take you back to that with […]

Despite being around the scene for a bit now, I don’t have any real experience with Wristmeetsrazor, and I’ll be the first to admit a good part of that comes right down to the fact that the word I’d heard most often associated with the band when they first crossed my radar, how ever many […]

I love a good mystery. One of the most used introductions “it was a dark and stormy night” always set the mood for some sort of dark mischief. So, today is not dark and stormy, yet I have a mystery on my hands. It concerns this band that El Jefe sent me called Lvme and […]

When it looked like Germany’s Chapel of Disease was calling it a day a few years after their 2018, third album – the very wordy,   …and As We Have Seen the Storm, We Have Embraced the Eye my buddy Graham (Deepsend Records) and I commiserated that this was not fun news.  I have followed the […]

The Netherlands Houwitser returns with their sixth album Sentinel Beast. If you are not familiar with Houwitser it is a project of former Sinister vocalist Mike Van Mastrigt. I was excited to hear that these guys were still active. If you have not, check out Mike’s other side band Neocaesar if you are a fan […]

So album number 14 (or 15, depending on how you view 2011s Evinta) from England’s long-running Godfathers of Doom sees the band continue down the path of the last album, 2020s The Ghost of Orion, and the subsequent Macabre Cabaret EP both releases I was a bit ambivalent on. Since the band’s 1999 transitional effort […]

Cleveland is a death metal town. I’m much closer to Pittsburgh but do make the journey to Cleveland somewhat regularly. My friend who books shows in Pittsburgh told me about a show he was considering but was on the fence. It happens to be my favorite band from this old-school death metal revival of which […]

Looking back to 1992. I was living in England at the time due to my dad being stationed there with the Air Force. I spent many hours in the base record store, I discovered so many bands while living over there and Atrophy was one of them. It was a track on a compilation called […]

Norway’s Deception returns with their second full-length album Daenacteh. I have been a fan of Deception since their last record The Mire (2019). I was also pleased earlier in the year to find out that their guitarist vocalist Sindre Wathne Johnsen is now the new vocalist for Blood Red Throne. For those not familiar with […]

I am a tremendous Manilla Road fan.  Unfortunately, they are one of the few bands I never had a chance to see live, prior to the passing of founder/vocalist/guitarist Mark Shelton – a true metal genius.  RIP Metal Brother.  From the ashes, we will rise and what we have here is 50% Manilla Road and […]

In 2022 UK deathcore/slam titans  Ingested dropped Ashes Lie Still, a more experimental and tempered album that showed the band’s more introspective side as frontman Jason Evans dealt with the loss of his father. The band also clearly saw some of the success Whitechapel had with their duo of The Valley and Kin, as more […]