The cries of heresy and treachery will go on for months, if not years, concerning the aural molestation administered by Morbid Angel’s latest abomination (not intended as a positive pun). Revisiting their back catalogue will go some way to easing the pain, but for me at least, it’s not enough, and something has to fill […]

This is going to take some beating. Few albums this year in any genre have enraptured me as much as Foundation’s first proper full-length, When the Smoke Clears. I don’t know what’s in the water at Bridge 9 (because they certainly aint smoking anything), but since they started investing in the heavier side of hardcore, […]

Soulflesh Collector’s ongoing quest to rule in the death metal underworld continues, and again, they’ve enlisted more talent from outside their homeland (Russia) to aid in their endeavor. Hailing not too far from label mates Human Parasite, this five man Belgian killing machine specializes in an altogether more sinister strain of brutal death metal than […]

One of the most fascinating aspects of human beings is how they progress as they grow. Some would believe that growth equals regression rather than progression and that is certainly a fact in some instances. When it comes to the development of a group of musicians, particularly one within the confines of a genre such […]

As astutely observed by Erik in his review of Fitcage’s Pighumanity, Soulflesh Collector Records from Russia is definitely pushing to match Unique Leader/Unmatched Brutality/Sevared/Comatose etc in Europe as a top tier label for brutal death metal and the more eclectic strains of grind. Over the past eighteen months they have been clawing their way up the […]

The UK has a lot to answer for with its mainstream rock/metal talent, but then again, the UK has a lot to answer for with regards to many other things. The long list of reprobates include the likes of Amy Winehouse, footballers and their unexplainable wage demands and politicians expensing everything from their second homes […]

Like their label brethren, A Plea for Purging, Impending Doom are at that “difficult stage,” in their existence―namely that all important third album―which, as stressed in the APFP review, can be the first step to greatness or to decline. The progression on There will be Violence, is in ways similar to that of The Marriage […]

When Killswitch Engage vowed to kill off “Nu Metal,” eight years ago, it was what the masses wanted to hear, and kill it they did, annihilate it in fact; as the scores of terrible bands that had spawned from the late nineties to the beginning of this millennium were all bit exterminated (with exceptions). Although […]

It’s more than common knowledge that the third album is one of the pinnacle pressure points of a band’s existence. Getting the balance right is so important in avoiding to take that wrong turn to the inferno of decline and instead ascending to the heavens of greatness. The immortal list of the eponymous third album […]

Ten years ago, it was fashionable to break up. After all, it’s better to leave a good looking corpse then become a bloated shadow of your former self. In the past few years though, innovators from 90s hardcore (all strains of it), some of which imploded before their time, have decided that perhaps they weren’t […]

What you have is 50% hardcore, and 50% death metal, with two members from the heavy as hell Eyes to the Sky, and then two from Jungle Rot/Cyanosis (drummer and guitarist were in both bands respectively). Whilst none of those bands are what you would deem spectacular, they are stout solid and have good songs, […]

Let’s not beat around the corpse. Waking the Cadaver is a death metal band, even if their debut had detractors screaming otherwise. Believing or even promoting otherwise is absurd, and maintaining the perception that they are anything but death metal is a weak argument. However, determining how good their gore slamming racket is, and determining […]

After many, many years stuck in the wilderness, the UK is finally getting back into the Death Metal arena with legions and legions of quality bands. Despite the intricate nuances of these new minions, they all comfortably sit under the encompassing banner of “Death Metal,” be it the blitzkrieg insanity of Infected Disarray, the guttural perfection of Embryonic Depravity or the freakishly bizarre Crepitation and Amputated, these bands are Death Metal to the bone. Ingested, produced one of my favourite (and most played) albums of 2009, they are another cast iron example that extreme music is healthy and vibrant on these shores. Ingested first came to my attention as the standout band of the North-West Slam Fest 3 way split extravaganza that was released in 2007. The potential demonstrated on that juicy entrée was mouth watering, and they satisfyingly outdid themselves on their full length. I spoke with drummer Lynn Jeffs, on whom the band’s guttural insanity is pivoted, he had plenty to say on the scene, his tenure in Annotations of an Autopsy, and the future plans for Ingested.

Unlike their label mates Call for Blood, Life As War only have one working gimmick for them, that being they are also of Swiss origin. However, the results on this EP are more succulent but, much too brief. Whereas Call for Blood focus on girth and bludgeoning you to death, Life as War are more […]

This came out of nowhere. I had no idea that Jesse Leach (the original Killswitch Engage vocalist) was still making music after Seemless, and it seems like the man has been at it hard because Awaken is a beast, and to be frank it puts the Killswitch effort this year in the shade. Even after […]

Shall we get the gimmicks out the way? Call for Blood are a beatdown mob from Switzerland, and they have a girl singing, I know it’s unusual, but there you go, now down to business. Their self titled debut  EP for Conatus (who formerly released records by Unholy Matrimony and Weeping Birth) is blunt and […]

No, you’re wrong; it’s not deathcore, well, not quite. Despite the artwork, the elaborate band name, the slightly sarcastic song titles (“Cradle Your Filth?” oh Drowningman, this is what you created with your genius back catalog) and the fact that CM has gone all gooey for deathcore makes it all the more surprising that this […]

This backs up my statement from the Death before Dishonor review, this year has been an absolute landslide in terms of quality releases for metallic hardcore, and what’s more, all kinds of different styled bands have been forging genius works each with their own distinct flavors and traits. Steel Nation is very much the antithesis […]

Like death metal, if you’re into metallic hardcore, you’ve been pretty spoiled this year, what with various amazing comebacks (Earth Crisis, Kickback, Merauder), the underground churning out a plentiful amount of high quality releases (a lot you will probably not know) and even the genre’s principal mainstream standard bearer (yes, Hatebreed) coming back with a […]

Century Media must be stock piled with cash, absolute mountains of it I reckon. The question that keeps popping in my brain is how this has come to be? Is it thanks to their massive back catalog bringing in the bacon, or something more sinister ala a takeover by a middle eastern monolith or some […]

I’ll come clean. I love Converge. Ever since discovering them when The Poacher Diaries came out, I became a manic obsessive, drooling over Petitioning the Empty Sky, and When Forever Comes Crashing, frequently and almost to a point, lovingly. Now, since Jane Doe, came out, my interest hasn’t waned in the band. Far from it, […]

I wrote this at the same time as Ingested for 2 reasons, the first being that its slamming death metal also but also for balance because whilst it is of that ilk it is a decidedly different beast. VTS is for all the people who don’t like Ingested or for that fact, all the deathcore […]

It took its sweet time, but finally, the UK is finally churning out quality, quality metal. Granted, there’s not the level of innovation that graced this island in the 80s and early to mid 90s but, there is a high volume of quality but more importantly, diversity. What’s more, it’s not just simply hordes of […]

For those not in the know, I hate to break it to you but Trapped Under Ice is not another throwback thrash band. Far, far, far from it in fact, rather, this is some of the meanest, tuffest hardcore you’ll hear this year, probably next year too and the year after that. What’s more Trapped Under […]

For me, Merauder was a lost, lost band for a number of years. 2003s Bluetality was a flat, flaccid record and not representative of one of New York’s hardest bands. What’s more, I saw them at Pressure Fest in Germany in 2005 and they were equally flat, uninterested and to be frank out of their […]