I’m unfamiliar with female fronted Minnesotan black metal act False, but seeing as their second effort was released on the usually reliable Gilead Media, who recently dropped the magnificent third Falls of Rauros album, I though Id give this a go. And what I was greeted with was some fantastic 90s styled , Scandinavian semi […]

After Whitechapel’s The Valley, you could argue that Thy Art is Murder’s’ Human Target, and Carnifex’s 7th album are 2019s other ‘big name’, veteran deathcore releases. And while I have yet to hear Human Target, The Valley was phenomenal, so where does World War X stand? Well, I had some reservations when I saw/heard first […]

I’m not familiar with Germany’s long running, female fronted black metal act Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult, so despite being apparently respected in the German scene and having been around for about 20 years, Mardom , their sixth release, is the first album or release I have heard from them. But it won’t be the last. What […]

Norway’s Darkthrone return with their 18th album and Old Star is ass-kicking from start to finish.  First a few things.  Outside of Bathory’s first 6 albums and the 2 Nordland albums, Darkthrone are my favorite black metal band of all time and this is coming from a person that only dabbles in the black metal genre and not full on into all the bands, as many know […]

Louisiana’s wrathful extreme music scene gets another notch on its termite-gnawed bedpost with this debut album from Pale Misery.  This musically dank, fetid trio rams the spiked gauntlets of black metal down the throat of crust-addled punk all across Black Candles and Gutter Scum’s sickening six tracks.  Goatwhore this is not as precision, tightly-bolted song […]

Skulls? Czech. Wild corpse paint? Czech. Black attire? Czech. Hooded/cloaked member? Czech. Spiked wrist band(s) and/or gauntlets? Czech. Finger claw ring thingy? Czech. Satan as the bands frontman? Czech. Wait…What? That’s right friends, Hnus Umirajici’s frontman/vocalist is apparently the Prince of Darkness himself, or at least according to the band’s press bio. In fact, the […]

Der Rote Milan is a black metal band from Germany that has couple of members of solid death metal band Ichor in its ranks, so I thought their second effort, Moritat was worth a look, especially seeing as the version I got for review was packaged in a  pretty cool deluxe A5 digibook format with […]

At its onset, the third album from Norway’s Blodhemn, (a new act to me) is an odd beast that’s not sure if it wants to be a more enigmatic and off kilter type of black metal akin of Enslaved, or a more vitriolic and melodic entity in the vein of Grafvitnir, and after a while […]

I was pretty impressed with my first exposure to Stephane Thirion  and his third album,  A fleur de peau, from his one man project, In Shadows And Dust. It delivered black metal rendered with a Stockholm death metal guitar tone with good effect, and apparently the guys over at Redefining Darkness were also impressed, enough to […]

Every once and a while a band manages to make a few lineup changes and all of the sudden their sound has been elevated.  Thus is the case with Nordjevel’s latest effort Necrogenesis coming out latest this year on Osmose Productions.  Holy hell!  Does this album pair well with -50 degree weather! I must say […]

Apparently a lot has happened in the 12 or so years since reviewed this Polish band’s debut, Buried in Between, a decent At The Gates ish metalcore/melodeath record. There’s been a lineup shuffle, and more importantly over the band’s 3 albums since the debut, these guys have evolved into solid death/black metal act and now […]

Hot damn! I like surprises (at least good ones) just as much as the next guy or gal, but I have to say that some of my most favorite surprises are when I find out a band I really like has released a new album right under my nose without me knowing anything about it. […]

Back in 2008, I reviewed an an album called Vltra by an Italian black metal band called Spite Extreme Wing for another webzine, and I loved it ( the release was also reviewed on these very pages with a similarly positive result). Well, the band is no more, I still play the song “ix” alot, […]

Stockholm’s The Ugly are back with album number three and follow up to 2015s decent Decreation. Not much has changed as the band still has ties to Marduk (whose Fredrik Widigs plays drums and the mastering/mixing was handled by guitarist Devo), and thusly the sound shows it with a frosty, razor sharp, slightly melodic take on blistering black […]

I must say I enjoy listening to albums of groups like Necrophobic.  I started becoming a fan of underground music as a teenager and Dark Funeral Secrets of The Black Arts was one of the first Swedish black metal albums that really resonated with me. Blackmoon’s influence on Dark Funeral added to the strength of […]

So about 8 years ago and for another webzine,  I reviewed the second album from Australia’s Arkheth, IX & I: The Quintessence of Algaresh, a sprawling, brilliant, epic 2 CD , 10 song, 150 minute album of Symphonic black metal in the vein of Emperor, Keep of Kalessin, Dimmu Borgir et al.  Well, apparently  my review […]

Okay, here I am venturing outside my normal realms and diving into more black metal. Auðn hail from Iceland and my bud, Graham, Deepsend Records owner, sent me their s/t debut a few years ago and I was hooked. The band sings in their native language and the best way to describe them is atmospheric […]

I will attempt to do Watain’s ardent supporters proud by this review. Understand that I am new to the Watain camp, so forgive me if you disagree with me. Deepsend Records owner and friend, Graham Landers, recommended this new Watain to me and I was hooked. He guided me through their discography and within a […]

I’ve got to hand it to New Jersey’s Mortum, from the little snippet of material that I had heard from them before I signed up to review their new album, Eheieh Chaos, I wasn’t too impressed. The music wasn’t bad per se but it wasn’t anything new or more than just a little intriguing; yet […]

France’s Aosoth released one of the greatest black metal albums I ever heard in 2013-IV: An Arrow in Heart. It made my best of list and I interviewed them as well.  Nice dudes, creating some dark and brutal music.  There were a few death metal elements on the album and it was just fantastic.  Fast […]

We had to wait 13 years between Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age and its second chapter, Dialogue with the Stars – which has since become one of my favorite metal albums of all time. Now Vindsval has only taken 5 years to deliver Saturnian Poetry. Don’t hold it against him; in the meantime, he’s started and completed the 777 trilogy, […]

The self-titled album. A tradition as old as almost metal itself. There are several reasons for the eponymous album title. An introduction, by which the band simply says “We are Iron Maiden. We are Black Sabbath. We are Bathory. And this is our sound.” Or a re-introduction, where the band has undergone some significant change, […]

I’ll be honest, the French (Canadian) spelling of the word ‘nuclear’ is about as threatening as George W. Bush’s ‘nucular’. Also, when you title your album Unrelenting Fucking Hatred, that sets all kinds of warning signs that this is not going to be particularly original. However, given that this project was started by Lord Worm […]

Cult of Fire are described as “the new Czech masters of atmospheric black metal,” following in the tradition of forebears like Master’s Hammer and Root. A lofty statement, but once you hear Triumvirát, it’s an undeniable one as well. (And if those names aren’t enough for you, drummer Tom Coroner also led a previous life […]

The press notes for this French black metal band mention the strange, underground terror of Les Legions Noires as part of their heritage. Not quite; that’s a comparison better suited for atmospheric and boundary-straining countrymen like Deathspell Omega or Blut Aus Nord. I’d place Fhoi Myore – named for a tribe of frost giants from […]