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 […]

Greece’s Hail Spirit Noir is one of the most experimental bands out there.  Their last album, Mannequins, from 2021 I reviewed on here and I still really enjoy it.  This was their most audacious piece of work because it was made up of more synth/wave, 80’s horror movie instrumentals and sounds.  Only a handful of […]

I was going to make an intro joke about Forgotten Tomb being, you know, forgotten, but I realized I did that for their last album. So, there goes my opener. I’m going to move on and pretend for now that my wit has evolved. Hopefully Forgotten Tomb has as well. Nightfloating is the band’s 11th […]

18 years, 12 albums, 9 labels, 8 vocalists. You have to hand it to the lone remaining founding member/ drummer Dave Astor; he is certainly persistent and keeps shuffling lineups and releasing albums on multiple labels, even with all the above he’s seemingly settled on a somewhat stable lineup for a few albums now (Obie […]

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 […]

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 […]

Around since the early 90s, main man Ares and his band Aeternus delivered some pretty classic, folky black metal albums early on in their career with Beyond the Wandering Moon and ….And So The Night Became. They were also one of the first bands to blend death and black metal and have the term ‘blackened […]

I love Black Metal, the rawer the better, and the more tortured and vile the better. The raw hate of the Black Legions in France, True Norwegian Black Metal, the fact is that every country has it’s own vital scene, using their traditional influences to carve their own niche and get that legendary status that […]

Is this déjà vu?  I think it may.  Six years ago Hammerheart Records reissued these Pestilence albums in deluxe 2 cd slipcases.  The bonus content was fabulous and not only did I buy all of these, I purchased an album cover shirt for each of them.  I even did some reviews on Teeth of the […]

Look, I am, by my own admission, a long-winded individual. Especially so when talking about heavy metal, but with The Garden, the eighth full-length album from Finnish “Beauty &/vs the Beast” deathly doomsters, Hanging Garden, I simply don’t need to be. The straight up truth is that when it comes to The Garden, I’m just […]

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. […]

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 […]

The undisputed heirs to Dismember‘s throne (here’s hoping for a reunion after the 2022 Maryland Deathfest), Demonical is back with album number 7, and as expected, there are absolutely zero surprises or curveballs from a band that features former members of Centinex and Grave.   They can pretty much do this in their sleep. Essentially delivering […]

Greece’s Hail Spirit Noir are one of the most original and weirdest bands out there.  Really out of the box, non-linear type of music.  I have enjoyed their different types of albums, and while they started out as some avant-garde black metal band and their musical influences continued to expand and morph into some Twilight […]

I was fortunate to review the first 4 Pestilence albums when they were reissued through Hammerheart Records, as well as the last Pestilence album – Hadeon, which was also released on Hammerheart Records.  I went into this review as objective as I could possibly get.  I say this because I love all the Pestilence albums […]

Poland’s Azarath return with their 7th full length album, Saint Desecration.   Founded by Inferno, drummer of the mighty Behemoth.  Azarath play a fun style of black death similar to the likes of Krisiun, Immolation, and also country mates Hate.   Things open up with “Death, At Will” which starts with a nice clean guitar part before […]

There are two veteran, bigger, supergroup -ish acts vying for this autumn’s top, high profile Swedish death metal release; the second effort from LIK (featuring Niklas Sundin of Katatonia)  and the sixth album from Demonical, featuring current and former members of Centinex, Grave and others). And the clear winner is Demonical. I really enjoyed 2018s […]

All hail Hail Spirit Noir who hail from Greece. These gentlemen caught my ears and eyes when they released Oi Strigoi all the way back in the “before times” in 2014. I was, and remain a big fan of that album, so I was excited when they released Mayhem in Blue in 2016. While I […]

Oh, Forgotten Tomb. I’ve never forgotten you. How could I, baby? You gave me 2015’s Hurt Yourself and the Ones You Love. I purchased it on a whim in a record store that sadly no longer exists simply because the cover grabbed my attention. When gazing at the cover, one could easily dismiss it, call […]

In Mourning strike me as the type of band that know what they’re good at, and stick to that formula. Much like bands like The Black Dahlia Murder, or Cannibal Corpse, they’ve found their sound and don’t really ever deviate from it. This approach can be a double edged sword. While their newest album, 2019s […]

I reviewed Baltimore’s brutal death metal band, Visceral Disgorge’s sophomore album, Slithering Evisceration, recently and stated how much I loved the album and how they are one of my favorite brutal death metal bands.  I interviewed singer Travis Werner some years back and I was and still am a tremendous fan of their 2011 debut […]

Baltimore’s brutal death metal band, Visceral Disgorge, burst onto the scene in 2011 with their scorching debut album-Ingesting Putridity.  I was an instant believer and reviewed the album, gave it high marks and interviewed the singer Travis Werner.   After meeting Travis at a local show and witnessing their brutal live performance we struck up […]

When you deliver an debut album that arguably reinvigorated melodic death metal in 2004s A Celebration Guilt, expectations tend to pile on and pile up, and despite a Children of Bodom like trajectory, founder and brainchild James Malone has largely responded well with subsequent albums, maybe with the exception of 2010s more rock based Starve for the […]

I’m always excited to see local metal bands from here in Missouri get some recognition or sign to a decent label. St Louis’s Cast the Stone were formed in 2002 and I crossed paths with bassist Derek Engemann at a few Sounds of the  Underground/Summer Slaughter/Harkonin (another great St Louis act) shows in St  Louis  at […]

When Centinex split up in 2006 (but since got back together), members went on to form and help out with two intertwined acts, Interment and Demonical. Both have delivered solid efforts of Swedish death metal with Demonical having released 4 albums and Interment, two. Centinex and Demonical founder Martin Schulman has revamped the lineup since 2011s Death […]