Back in 2011, I questioned the need for another Lock Up album in Necropolis Transparent, and resultantly, got my ass handed to me by one of the year’s best grindcore albums. Well, the band is if anything consistent in both their lack of productivity (3 albums in 15 years) and kick ass-ness when they do […]

Back in 2015, I ordered a Solium Fatalis CD from Canada’s Galy Records, as part of the order, I was granted a free bonus CD. I chose Ordoxe’s May Death Be My Shepard as a completely arbitrary, blind selection. As it turns out, I really enjoyed the band’s super melodic take on Scandinavian black metal, so […]

I loved everything Tuomas Saukkonen did with his Before the Dawn and Black Sun Aeon projects as well as Wolfheart, his latest endeavor. The band’s first two albums, Winterborn and Shadow World are near classics of Finnish melodic death metal that immediately put the band in the same conversation as as Insomnium and Amorphis, just without the lengthy discography. So here is album […]

So yeah, Ghost Bath is from North Dakota, not China. Let’s move past that and get right to the issue at hand- the band’s 3rd full length album and one which sees founder Dennis Mikula add members from the band’s first 2 releases as opposed to go it alone as he did on 2015s Moonlover, my […]

I have to admire Arizona’s Murkocet. They are stuck firmly in the early 00s American/thrash/groove  slightly Nu metal scene, firmly influence by the likes of Lamb of God, Slipknot, Machine Head (circa The Burning Red/Supercharger), Devildriver, Chimaira, God Forbid and such. It’s a scene I wasn’t totally into, ( I never really got into Lamb […]

I’ve been following the development of this project for a while now,  as for a small label and one man band, Dusktone and Scuorn‘ founder Guilian have thrown and a lot of resources and money at promoting and producing this project. And it apepars to have paid off. Touting it sound as ‘Parthenopean Epic Black Metal’, […]

It looks like we have another burgeoning Rogga Johannsson in the making by way of Sweden’s Johnny Pettersson. Not only did he feature in the reactivated Wombath, he is in Ashcloud, Gods Forsaken, Human Harvest, Just Before Dawn, Syn;Drom, Skineater, Vholdghast and produces/mixes or masters in all of those projects. On Henry Kane (The creepy […]

After 2 fine albums on Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions in 2012s Al Azif, and 2014s Teliki-Li, I was curious how this fast rising Lovecraft themed black metal act would fare after the jump to the big leagues on Season of Mist. Well, after a while to grasp the effort, it seems the result is a […]

Maine’s Falls of Rauros improved greatly from their 2011 debut, The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood, to 2014s Believe in No Coming Shore, which made my 2014 year end list.  And now with album number four, I feel these guys have absolutely reached elite status, as  Vigilance Perennial, isn’t just going to be on my […]

I’ve been listening to France’s Benighted ever since I reviewed 2004s Insane Cephalic Production for Digitalmetal.com and it blew me away. And it struck me as I prepared for this review that the band is 8 albums and 17 years into their career and all the albums are simply killer (how many current, active death […]

As I stated in my review of 2015s Forensic Nightmares, it would be easy to simply look at Cut Up as Vomitory 2.0, seeing as the band is comprised of 3/4 ex Vomitory members (drummer Tobias “Tobben” Gustafsson, guitarist Anders Bertilsson, and vocalist/bassist Erik Rundqvist),  and you know what? When it’s this solid, that’s perfectly OK. Still delivering the […]

Whoa! Here is a stunning little 4 song EP from Spain’s Aversio Humanitas (Aversion to Humanity) a completely new band to me, but hopefully one I will be hearing more from in the future. The Madrid trio has one full length debut and some splits/EPs under their belt, but this should be the release that gets […]

I’m not sure what’s worse; that I know exactly what this is going to sound like before I it play or that I’m still going to enjoy it. I mean is there a label that has a more predictable output that Comatose Records? And I mean that in a good way. You know exactly what […]

Those following this project know that Memoriam is a UK death metal super group of sorts born of sadness, loss and friendship. With the passing of Bolt Thrower drummer Martin “Kiddie” Kearns in 2015 and the death of Benediction’s Frank Healy’s father  just 3 weeks later, former members of both bands came together to form a cathartic […]

I’ve been keeping tabs on this Minnesota act since the demise of With Dead Hands Rising, one of the oos early and better deathcore/metalcore acts, as they feature some former WDHR members. And finally they have released a follow up to 2014s self released debut,  Poison of the Earth, and it’s quite the follow up. […]

So in a recent mail package from the always reliable FDA records, I got the promos for the new Rude and Wound albums, and you’d think that in itself would be enough reason to be excited. However, tucked away in the package was a CD from a band called FUBAR, a band I was not […]

Ever since Metallica’s infamous 1991 album, self titled albums have always made me a bit leery. They always seem to scream sell out, contract out out or flat out of ideas. Throw in the simple ‘just our logo’ cover, the 10th album, and a song from a prior stopgap EP, and my spidey sense is […]

I vaguely remember seeing these guys pop up on my Facebook feed a year or so ago for the video for “Possessed“.  I recall the fairly average metalcore, but loving the female vocals and keyboards of Aimy Miller. So when this promo showed up,  I have to admit along with Miller, it was morbid curiosity […]

One of the better and most consistent band currently atop the Swedish death metal revival is Germany’s Revel In Flesh. As prolific as they are awesome, the band is now four albums in, in just 6 years, each as good as the last. The latest release, Emissary of All Plagues, was released late last year on Cyclone Empire and sees the band

As I still wade through 2016’s releases, I try to review stuff that I liked, was worth my time or an actual CD was sent. One such release that crossed all three boxes was the debut full length album from Finland’s Illusions Dead. With an odd moniker, generic art and the dreaded black/death metal tag, […]

So Maurizio Iacono and his Kataklysm crew are back with album number 3 of his Roman themed, epic, symphonic death metal project, Ex Deo. And while album number 2, Caligula was better than the debut, Romulus, and album number 3 is similarly incremental in its improvement, I’m still not enamored with a project that I really […]

New Zealand’s Ulcerate apparently are far more influential than they know. While Gorguts gets the lions share of the credit for the churning, murky atonal style of off kilter death metal, Ulcerate were 3 albums in before Colored Sands and Gorguts‘ return. Other fine bands like Zhrine, Zealotry, Miserist, Construct of Lethe, Ara, Artificial Brain, Mitochondrion and […]

I’m far from an Immolation fanboy. In fact, I’m a real late bloomer when it comes to these guys. It wasn’t until I recently (2011) picked up 1999s Failures For Gods that I started to get an appreciation for the band, picked up the back catalog and looked forward to each new release. And I […]

I’m not super familiar with the German brutal/slam death metal scene. I’ve only heard one band/album and it’s Architect of Dissonance‘s Realm of the Deviant Throne, and that was a mighty fine slab of slam. So when the third album from Germany’s Arcanius showed up, a band name I heard mentioned in the same breath […]

I’ve never been a fan of instrumental metal. And I’m not a huge fan of EPs either. But here is Australia’s Miserist to make me eat crow with a debut 6 song EP, of flat out nasty, atonal, crumbling instrumental death metal that really kinda blew me away. With clear reference points to the likes […]