Back in 2006, I saw Dismember, Grave, Vital Remains and Atlanta’s Withered at a hole in the wall venue in St. Louis, MO. Dismember and Grave were two Swedish death metal icons, Vital Remains were still basking in the afterglow of Dechristianize and new comers Withered had recently released Memento Mori, a solid Swedish styled death metal album with some black and sludge metal thrown in. It remains the best show that I have ever attended. After the show, I hung out with Withered front man Mike Thompson as I had recently interviewed him for Metal Maniacs. He was one of the nicest, most down to earth dudes I had ever met and we stayed in somewhat regular contact. Fast forward a decade.

After reigniting the Swedish death metal revival with 2 albums of Dark Descent Records, Entrails moved to Metal Blade and released Raging Death and Obliteration, the latter of which saw a line up change  as long time guitarist Mathias Nilsson left, replaced with youngster Penki Samuelsson and it showed with a solid but underwhelming effort. Well, World […]

The suddenly very productive and quality laden Portuguese metal scene (Goldenpyre, Prayers of Sanity, An Ominous Circle, Switchtense, Primal Attack), has kicked out a dose of old school death metal with the debut from Pestifer, a no frills Deicide,  Altars of Madness era Morbid Angel influenced band. There’s not much else to say really, Execration Diatribes […]

2017 is turning into quite the year for veteran American  death metal acts; Suffocation, Immolation, Broken Hope and Origin have all released albums and later this year we even have Morbid Angel and Incantation releases. But elbowing their way through all of them is Dying Fetus and their eighth opus, and for lack of a better […]

Listen. For me, vocals are an integral part of metal. Whether it’s death metal, black metal, power metal or even brutal death metal, vocals can make or break an album. And with the 4th album from France’s symphonic black metal act Akroma, they absolutely break it. I’m not sure I’ve ever listened to an album, […]

Cut from the same moldy, dank doom/death cloth as Ciande and Desecresy, Portugal’s Goldenpyre deliver a fine debut of simple, riff based chugging , slightly ritualistic doom/death  metal that hints at finer things to come. Not as nauseating or atonal as country mates The Ominous Circle, Goldenpyre have a distinct old school Chicago/Midwest, steady, death […]

All of a sudden, I have got a glut of thrash/groove releases (Treyharsh, Murkocet, Malkavian, Voice of Ruin) hearkening to the late 90s tones of Machine Head, Daath, Devildriver, Chimaira and Skinlab. And while it’s a sound I’m only a bit lukewarm on, sometimes a production can make a release much more impressive. Such is the […]

After a pretty long dryspell for deathcore, I get 2 releases from Swiss label Tenacity Music- first, the impressive  Swiss bruisers Conjonctive and their female fronted down tuned assault of In the Mouth of the Devil, and this, the second full length album from France’s oddly named Hybrid Sheep, a band I have never heard of […]

Admittedly, with the album name, the more Fallujah ish cover, yet more turnover (veterans Guy Marchais and Kevin Talley have left replaced by young guns Charlie Errigo and Eric Morotti respectively) and the first single “Your Last Breaths” not impressing me very much, I had pretty low expectations for this album. But for album number 8, mainstays Frank […]

Since Aversion’s Crown‘s Xenocide back in January no ‘real’ deathcore has really grabbed me. I know the genre is on the downswing and cross contaminating with other styles, but sometimes I crave a simple, downtuned beatdown, and Switzerland’s sextet Conjonctive is just what the doctor ordered. Conjonctive are a six piece because they have two vocalists, […]

So it appears that some HM Boss pedals have finally found their way all the way down under. They have surfaced all over Europe (Greece, France, Czech Republic, Poland etc) and the USA (Fatalist, Sentient Horror, etc), but now Australia can get in on the mid range action. However, Perth’s Earth Rot are not a […]

Any given time, when requested to list my favorite death metal albums of all time, Benediction’s “The Grand Leveller “always finds its way on the list. With typically scrappy British gusto, it shoulders its way in among the heavyweights like Morbid Angel, Death and Suffocation. The singer on that album and the four subsequent Benediction albums was no other than Dave Ingram.

As I continue dip my plated sabatons into power metal, a genre I have ignored for many years, amid the older, expected suspects I am enjoying like Blind Guardian, Thy Majestie, Orden Ogan, Freedom Call, Rhapsody and Sabaton, some relative new comers have caught my ear such as Twilight Force, Pathfinder, Grimgotts, Lör, Brothers of Metal and my […]

California’s Morfin are back after a 3 year wait with their second album of pure, old school Death worship and the old school -o-meter has been been turned back even more for an even more musty, raw and primal take on Leprosy era Death. Not much as changed from the debut, Inoculation. Jesus Romero still […]

After a 13 year wait between albums, Italy’s Antropofagus  dropped their sophomore effort Architecture of Lust in 2012, and it ended up being one of 2012s better death metal records. and while the 5 year wait is a little easier to swallow, the result is the same. Sheer death metal destruction. As I mentioned in my […]

I’d like to buy a vowel please, Pat. Looks like Finnish moody, melodic death metal bands have given up on vowels this year. First Wolfheart’s Tyhjyys and now Noumena’s Myrrys. And the other commonality between the two, is that both are excellent albums. Noumena have been lurking around since the late 90s, but with only 4 […]

More often than not, I can formulate and knock out a review of an album fairly quickly- 4 to 5 listens on the average. However, the second effort from the Netherlands’ Dodecahdron has me flummoxed, but in a good way. A twisty, suffocating, avante garde black/death metal record that’s hard to get a grip on, […]

I’m not sure why i have not heard of New Jersey’s Kalopsia up until now. They have been around since 1999, have a handful of releases, including two full length albums and feature current and ex members of the likes of Abacinate, Deteriorot, Dehumanized and recent Dark Descent act, Ruinous. So here is the band’s third […]

Scotland’s (I guess now Tennessee’s?) favorite Pirate sons are back with album number 5. And I have to admit after 2014s Sunset on the Golden Age, I thought Chris Bowes might be winding the project down, but boy was I wrong. No Grave But the Sea sees Bowes and co (inc new guitarist Máté Bodor) deliver […]

It’s been 5 years since Sweden’s Evocation released Illusions of Grandeur in 2012, and frankly I thought the band was done. After transitioning from a  pure, mid range, Swedish death metal band akin to their Cemetery/90s roots, to a more melodeath/Amon Amarth-ish styled band the band has returned with only 3 remaining members from Illusions of Grandeur, […]

Has it really been 15 years since Colorado’s Excommunion released Superion? I reviewed the album for digitalmetal, and the review has been lost on the mists of time, but I recall really liking it. The two members (Christbutcher- bass/vocals and less creatively named Kyle Spanswick- guitars/vocals) have since blown up in Nightbringer, releasing 5 fine […]

Yep. That Nightrage is back. I had to do a double take as well. After bursting onto the scene as an international  super group featuring guitar maestro Gus G (Firewind, Dream Evil) and the legendary Tomas Lindberg with 2003s debut Sweet Vengeance and 2005s Descent into Hell, Nightrage were the supposed saviors of a waning melodic death metal […]

Brooklyn’s black metal act Woe has been to the top of the mountain and the bottom of the valley. From stunning debut as a one man black metal act almost a decade ago, to almost breaking up, founder Chris Grigg has seen it all. After a 4 year layoff, Grigg is back with a new album, some new members and the return in “Hope Attrition”, which drips with a cathartic venom of a man and a band that has something to prove. Ive known Chris for a few years, back when he was called “Xos”, and thought I’d reach out to see how hte new album and lineup came about as well as the last couple of albums….

After splitting in 2011/12, founder and lone remaining original member Henri Satler as well as long time drummer Michiel van der Plicht decided to reform the band. They are joined by veterans  Jeroen Pomper (Absorbed) and Mike Ferguson (Detonation), but even after 5 years and the new line up, the results are the same, reliable, consistent and […]

Chris Grigg (then known as Xos) burst on the the USBM scene with Woe on 2009s stunning debut, A Spell for the Death of Man, a nigh perfect black metal album. Then a year later released Quietly, Undramatically on Candlelight Records and the now full band was starting to get mentioned in the same breath as […]