‘Ole Steve “Zetro” Souza shot himself in the foot right out of the gate with this one, doing a full-court press to the press that he would re-join Exodus in a heartbeat, all the while trying to get the very stupidly-named Hatriot off the ground. This boneheaded move essentially sucked any sort of validity out […]

Really testing our patience with the falsetto here, and it’s not even the good kind of falsetto ala King Diamond or pre-Fight Rob Halford. Rather, Australia’s Raven Black Night have rolled out what could be one of the more purposely annoying brands of high-wattage, ball-grabbing power metal in recent memory with their sophomore Barbarian Winter. […]

If this scribe were heading up promo for October Falls’ new The Plague of a Coming Age, all of the album’s selling points should be preceded by “With guest vocals from Amorphis’ Tomi Joutsen!” Like, ad infinitum on that one. Not only is Joutsen one of European metal’s best singers (perhaps we should extend that […]

Trying to get a reissue some face time in this day and age is a near fruitless endeavor. Chances are, someone out there has the album in question, and probably has gone to great lengths to post it as a torrent. Therefore, the term “reissue” loses some of its muster for a band like Montreal’s […]

Have to feel some type of pity for Norway’s Audrey Horne. Thanks to the current onslaught of retro-minded, bellbottom-lovin rock, they’ve cast as an afterthought while Rival Sons, Graveyard, and Witchcraft prance around like they’ve been doing this since the 70’s, while AH has been doing it since 2002, which in some weird twisted way, […]

Generally, most releases under the Seventh Rule banner come with an inordinate amount of distortion draped over them, falling somewhere between the crust and doom areas of classification. It’s what has made the label so successful in a short amount of time, and has polarized it to those who prefer their metal a bit more […]

Without having to do too much mental legwork, pondering the current state of death metal spews forth (perhaps in a literal sense) the word “boring.” It’s boring because the new crop of bands that inhabit it aren’t trying very hard; they’re just referencing their copies of Mental Funeral or Eaten Back to Life and running with it, doing as little as they can to establish their own sound. Worst of all, it’s an accepted practice. People are inexplicably excited about the retro death metal movement, even if it threatens to send the style hurdling toward the Stone Age, well before Venom could piece together a power chord. Better yet, why aren’t more bands copping Obituary? …..

A lot of legendary thrash bands are past the point of having their current output deemed as “mandatory.” Frankly, no one is going to prefer what said band is doing now, as opposed to what they were doing then. And by “then,” we mean the 80’s, which were rather nice to thrash (in case you […]

Distractions were a-plenty as we huddled with four members of Ancient VVisdom for our scheduled chat in the main backstage area of Mr. Smalls Theatre in Pittsburgh. Royal Thunder vocal queen Mlyn Parsonz stood a few feet behind us, trying to freshen up after their set. Various members of Enslaved’s crew shuttled in and out, oftentimes yelling loudly (in Norwegian, of course) to each other. To top it all off, emerging funeral doom crew Pallbearer was on stage, no doubt lambasting the crowd with maximum levels of distortion and deafening chugs. Yet, somehow, the interview went off without a hitch, as singer Nathan Opposition, guitarist Ribs, lead guitarist Mike, and bassist TA, proved to be some of the nicest dudes around while we huddled together.

This scribe thought Ancient VVisdom would be the next breakout band from the swelling devil rock field; the sidebar act to Ghost’s carnival appearance and The Devil’s Blood straight-faced, no frills approach. They certainly had the album to do it in the form of last year’s A Godlike Inferno, which married mysterious acoustic rock with […]

“Do it yourself.” Does anyone in metal or music as a whole really “do it yourself?” And if someone really did (and excuse the improper tense) “do it yourself,” then they wouldn’t need the help of labels, press, and basically everyone else involved with getting an album off the ground. So, doing it yourself is […]

To the outside observer, the 2012 departure of long-time Suffocation drummer Mike Smith came as a surprise. It was Smith’s drumming, of course, that was usually the catalyst for the band’s legendary brutal death metal attack, one that spawned such gems like 1991 Effigy of the Forgotten and 1993’s Breeding the Spawn. Without Smith, some figured, Suffocation couldn’t survive. Needless to say, they were wrong, as evidenced by their new, domineering Pinnacle of Bedlam.

Not quite at Steve Harris level when it comes to notable European bass players, but just as valuable, Helloween’s Markus Grosskopf has been the band’s perennial bedrock since their 1984 formation. Thrust into what was seemingly a never-ending tug-and-war between huge egos (see: Kai Hansen, Michael Weikath, Michael Kiske, and later, Roland Grapow and Uli Kusch), Grosskopf emerged as the band’s de-facto mediator, the sole level head in a band that always teetered on self-destruction. Even after the near-crippling departure of Hansen in 1989, the acrimonious split with Kiske in 1993, and ugly divorce with Grapow and Kusch in 2002, Helloween is still standing, thanks in large part to Grosskopf, and singer Andi Deris, who is far and away the longest-tenured vocalist in the band’s history.

Considering winter has decided to rear its ugly head for most of the Midwest and Northeast (lucky you, those not afflicted), the need for bands of similar dreariness is predicated. Aside from the usual suspects whom shall not be named, there is a growing tide of bands emerging from the likeliest of all places: Finland. As we’ve come to learn through our Finnish friends, their winters make our winters look like a walk through a daisy-filled park. Darkness of the never-ending variety is the norm, while temperatures make little effort to get out of the sub-zero department. Definitely the right environment to make metal that is dark and dreary, don’t you think?

The first band out of the gate for 2013 is Hanging Garden, who have toiled in relative obscurity since their 2004 formation. This should change thanks to their brand-spanking new At Every Door (Lifeforce), an album that channels song-oriented death/doom, with the chilling and cold spirit of countrymen Swallow the Sun and better yet, Sentenced. There’s plenty of onus on melody on cuts like “Ten Thousand Cranes” and “The Cure,” while numbers such as “Wormwood” and “To End All Ages” smolder with an unforgiving atmosphere; a perfect offset to the bounty of melody on display.

We snagged guitarist Jussi Hämäläinen and vocalist Toni Toivonen for a round of queries regarding the new album, their slow-build, and most obvious of all: how they cope with Finnish winters…

You can spot Bjorn Gooßes’s voice from a mile away, a visceral, pointed roar that exudes instant charm…in a pure death metal way, of course. After spending the better part of 2011 and 2012 promoting his now former band Night in Gales’ most awesome Five Scars album, the German-based singer has turned his focus to The Very End, his long-running side band which is obviously, a side band no more. Positioned in the same thrash/death hybrid as the likes of Hatesphere and Dew-Scented, The Very End has alongside Gooßes’s vocals, a song-oriented, melody-driven sound that should keep them out of the dreaded retro thrash discussion for the time being. Their latest (greatest) is Turn off the World, an album that with the help of SPV, will provide a broader stage for the band’s fresh and vibrant Euro thrash sound. Plus, to reiterate what we noted above: few can peel paint like Gooßes. Batten down the hatches and read on…

First off, I am most honored to be writing for Teeth of the Divine. Instead of routinely misspelling the URL (long domain names are a problem spot for me), I can now have it saved to my favorites and see my work alongside some rather top-notch writers. Prior to this, I was editor for Blistering.com, […]