As I mentioned in my review of the 2025 Existentialist EP, Terminal, Seek and Strike is snatching up all the Blackened deathcore acts like To Obey A Tyrant, Ruins of Perception, When Plagues Collide, Immortal Disfigurement, Assemble the Chariots and Downfall of Mankind. And now they have added another one with Austria’s Castiel (Hebrew for […]
Give it up for Godeater, outta Texas, y’all! Some bruising deathcore with symphonic elements. In their short existence of three years, they released an EP, Divine Abstraction, in 2023. Although there were two instrumentals on it, the three other songs were pretty damn righteous. Now we have the 11-song debut album – Madness of the […]
I’m starting to feel like metal websites need to have this image on their site: The UK’s Ingested was the latest in a concerning, long, and consistent run of deathcore vocalists being douche-y, with Josh Davies, who replaced original vocalist and co-founder Jason Evans in 2024, being promptly removed from the band after barely 2 […]
After gutting the band and coming back with a new lineup for a 2023 EP and 2024’s No Name Graves, the founder and guitarist Wyatt McLaughlin, sort of reinvented TLTSOL into a moodier, more down-tempo, and I dare I say, menacing take on deathcore, having more in common with Bound In Fear. Helped largely by […]
You ever feel like your brain just needs a complete shutdown? A total reboot? Just 5 minutes to shut the FUCK up? I feel that shit all the time. Between the ADHD and the I’m sure untold amounts of other undiagnosed issues in my head, there’s rarely a moment’s peace where I can just, like, […]
Much like last year’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra effort, this short but blistering 6-track EP (though only 3 actual songs) from Indianapolis’s Mauled is a throwback to the Myspace, early /mid 00s era of deathcore. Specifically, the likes of Suicide Silence, Whitechapel, All Shall Perish, My Bitter End, and Embrace the End. No blackened or symphonic […]
After 2024s Hunger album, one of the best in the blackened deathcore genre of that year, there was a considerable shake-up in the Worm Shepherd camp, who were already functioning in a reduced capacity as a duo and some guests. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but original vocalist Duane Duarte was let go […]
‘Uhhh huh huh. Hey, baby. I heard you like The Black Dahlia Murder’. I have smoothly pressed “Power” on the remote on my living room 10-disc CD changer, which slides out smoothly as I casually drop the new Carrion Vael album, Slay Utterly, into the not-at-all-too-large or gaudy apparatus. It closes instantly because it’s the […]
Love it or hate it, Deathcore is here to stay, folks. You can not like that fact, but accepting it will make it far less frustrating for you. I make no bones about loving the genre and the city of sin, Las Vegas, which sports a nifty deathcore band, Ov Sulfur. In 2021, they released […]
Back in 2023, I reviewed Dead and Dripping’s Blackened Cerebral Rifts, and I was pretty rough on it. I didn’t like it/ didn’t get it, what-fucking-ever. Anyway, today I went back to it before listening to Nefarious Scintillations, and goddammit, I started to like it. I blame my fellow scribes for my newfound love for Deathcore. They all […]
Germany’s bludgeoners of death, Stillbirth, return with Survival Protocol, their ninth full-length studio effort and debut for Reigning Phoenix Music. Their albums have run the gamut of brutal death metal, deathcore, to even smatterings of technical death metal. The one thing I really like about Stillbirth, is that they have improved their sound and style […]
I’m so perpetually behind, one can say I will never catch up. So, being Blindfolded and Led to the Woods doesn’t sound so bad right now. I also share the same hardships as The Hardest Thing About Being God Is That No One Believes Me. That’s a different story for another time. That lengthy band […]
In psychology, the term ‘Shadow Work’ is used to describe the process of exploring the unconscious reasons behind your feelings or behaviors, particularly uncomfortable emotions that seem out of character or beyond your control. Like, “Why do I hate my co-worker?”?. Yay! I finally used my college degree. So what is Despised Icon trying to […]
Listen, I strive to be as objective as possible when writing reviews, providing an unbiased opinion where I can to guide you, good reader, in the right direction and help you spend your hard-earned money wisely. But if you have read my reviews before, you know I am one: A huge fan of the blackened/symphonic […]
After a few albums of top-tier deathcore, Signs of the Swarm earned their spot as one of the genre’s better bands, with 2021’s Absolvere being their very peak in my humble opinion. But on 2023’s Amongst the Low and the Empty, along with a jump from Unique Leader to Century Media, came a slight development. While […]
Boy, Seek & Strike is snatching up all the newer, younger orchestral/blackened/symphonic deathcore acts, aren’t they? Existentialist, To Obey A Tyrant, Ruins of Perception, When Plagues Collide, and the big one, Immortal Disfigurement, etc, adding to the established likes of Assemble the Chariots and Downfall of Mankind. The UK’s Existentialist has been around for a […]
I reviewed the recent Dawn of Ouroboros album, mentioned Fallujah, and so this is perhaps a full-circle moment. I must, however, admit that I am one of those who enjoyed the early recordings, aka The Harvest Wombs, and feel as though the band hasn’t topped it. The rest of the recordings were frequently plagued with […]
Can someone explain to me how Shadow of Intent is unsigned? Especially considering the absolute proliferation of the symphonic/blackened deathcore genre of late? Are the band members complete dicks? Are they independently wealthy? Do they hate labels? Imperium Delirium is the band’s 5th self-released effort, their third after dropping the Halo video game-inspired themes from […]
I keep waiting for the Blackened/Symphonic deathcore movement to burn out, but nope, it appears 2025 is going to be an even better year than 2020 and 2025. Of course, the 800 lb gorilla in the room will be the forthcoming album from Lorna Shore, and then a 600 lb gorilla with Shadow of Intent. […]
Do you miss early/mid-00s ‘Myspace’ deathcore? Still jamming All Shall Perish, As Blood Runs Black, Embrace the End, The Red Chord, Salt the Wound, Knights of the Abyss, Animosity, The Number 12 Looks Like You, Rose Funeral, My Bitter End, and Dead to Fall? Well, Im right there with you- that era was my mutha-fucking […]
Deathcore duo Larcenia Roe got the deathcore scene’s attention back in 2023, with their self-titled EP, Dereliction. Especially the vocals of Ryan Vail, who made Lorna Shore‘s Will Ramos look like Hansi Kürsch. And indeed, there were immediate comparisons to Lorna Shore. However, Larcenia Roe‘s sound is much more of a grimier, beat down, and […]
Face Yourself is finally signed to a label, having released three prior EPs. Now, their fourth one, Martyr, drops on Sumerian Records. I have dubbed this deathcore act the ‘EP band’ and have reviewed a bunch of their prior releases. They really caused a stir with that debut s/t EP and the last song “Grosse […]
Colorado’s deathcore kings are here to beat your fucking face in. Right the fuck in. No theatrics, no choirs, no sweeping symphonics (ok, maybe just a smidge in 2 songs), just 4 songs in 18 minutes to remind you they arguably sit atop or near the top of the current pure deathcore heap. After delivering […]
From the promotional email: FFO: Mental Cruelty, Worm Shepherd, Lorna Shore Yep, I’m in. How these Brits haven’t been on my radar before this EP is a mystery to me. They play my favorite genre of music right now and reside on one of the better independent labels doing said genre. But trust me after […]
After bursting on the scene with their 2007 debut, The Somatic Defilement, Tennessee’s Whitechapel quickly rose to the top of deathcore hierarchy with the follow-up, This Is Exile, in 2008, still a classic in the genre all these years later. However, subsequent albums like Our Endless War, Whitechapel, Mark of the Blade, and A New […]