Back in 2000,  along with Trauma, Lost Soul were super close to being mentioned with the same breath as Vader, Yattering, Behemoth and the then new Decapitated as Polish death metal elite. 2000s Scream of the Mourning Star was released on the US on the mighty Relapse, 2002s Ubermensch and 2005s Chaostream (For the record, “Godstate” is […]

Sure, there have been some great Death and Chuck Schuldiner homages in 2015- notably Gruesome and Skeletal Remains. But what if the spirit of Chuck Schuldiner was implanted into something  a little less obvious and something a little more cavernous? And what if that something was a sort of super group featuring George Kollias (Nile, […]

In this time of progressive experimental and genre/boundary pushing music, there’s is something to said for some straightforward, blasting black metal in the vein of the classic 90s Scandinavian style. Even is said release is Italian,, on a Korean label and over an year old. Sicily’s Krigere Wolf have one other release under their belt, […]

You can count on a few things in this world; death, taxes and Comatose Music releasing quality, brutal death metal.  And new act Abhorrent Deformity bring a little experience with them on their debut is drummer Matt Green who has session and live drummed for slam gods Kraanium. And though not as purely slam or perverted as Kraanium, […]

Finland’s Cosmic Church is the brain child of one Luxixul Sumering Auter, who plays all instruments and does all vocals for this project that has 2 full length albums and a large number demos and EPs, of which Vigillia is my first exposure, but I will certainly be going back to the artists back catalog based […]

Past Forest of Equlibrium, I consider myself a more casual Cathedral fan. The band’s later, Sabbath-y 70s, psychedelia being a occasional guilty pleasure when I want something grooooovy man. And though swansong The Last Spire was a pretty solid release, I really don’t feel drawn to Cathedral’s discography, so when Lee Dorrian announced the band was […]

After telling us about his Kentucky roots with 2012s Kentucky, and then his move to Minnesota with last years Roads to the North, Austin Lunn appears to have settled down and is down dealing with the most fitting season for his style of organic, naturalistic and atmospheric black metal- Autumn. And I gather autumn in […]

Based on the cover and album title, I was fully expecting some black metal here. But of course, being on Comatose Music, you know exactly what this is. Some brutal slamming death metal from the depths of Indiana. This is the band’s first release since 2012’s Omnipotent Asperity, a release I since picked up based on […]

Let’s be brutally honest shall we? Sure Grave’s first three albums are certified classics, and while there’s some division over Hating Life, I’m willing to say that other the overall excitement of the band’s reunion in 2002, the post Jorgen, post “Back From the Grave” glow might have worn off . And other than 2012s Endless […]

After 2011s solid debut of symphonic black metal, No Closure, I just assumed after not hearing literally anything about them for 4 years, these Chicagoans were falling to the same fate of some many metal bands, just one and done. But out of the blue from those fine folks at Clawhammer PR, this album appears. And […]

After 2012s simpler, Stockholm death metal based The Chills, this US death metal act emerged from a creative cocoon that was last years Ecdysis, a better, more creative and more challenging band. And only a year later they have returned with Anareta, (a greek astrological term for a ‘destroyer’), and it continues the more progressive, experimental […]

Stomping into view with a sound somewhere between Dying Fetus and Blood Duster, Finland’s creatively named Cumbeast is finally delivering album number three after a 7 year wait. I vaguely recall crossing paths with these guys  somewhere in my journalistic endeavors, but they didn’t really stick with me, but the aptly named Groovy Massacre certainly does. With […]

Considering the band name, logo,  album’s title and cool cover art, I braced for some ‘brootal’ death metal. However, what I actually got was some sharp if derivative Germanic  melodic death metal/metalcore in the vein of the label’s 00s stuff like Feast For the Crows, Six Reasons to Kill, Deadsoil the american sound of the time […]

 del·uge ˈdelyo͞o(d)ZH/ noun 1.a severe flood. synonyms:  flood, torrent, spate. “homes were swept away by the deluge” verb 1. inundate with a great quantity of something. “he has been deluged with offers of work” synonyms:  inundate, overwhelm, overrun, flood, swamp, snow under, engulf, bombard. “we have been deluged with calls” Hailing from France, the debut from Deluge is cut from the […]

In this ‘journalism’ gig you run across hundred of people and bands. I’ve done countless interviews, got countless emails and Facebook messages and so forth, but you rarely make a connection. Something more than just the grinding wheels of music and reviewing/interviewing. However, sometimes you do make a deeper connection and dare I say, friendship. I like to think I made one such connection with Nathan Gearhart, the vocalist for the re-activated Arizona Death metal band, Vehemence.

So back in 2004 I compared Vehemence’s God Was Created to Entombed’s Left Hand Path, granted, a brash comparison by a relatively younger , inexperienced me. However, I do stand by the fact the album is fantastic, and it remains one of my top 25 albums of all time. And the track “She Never Noticed Me” […]

So this a the French death metal band with a very similar name to the long running Italian death metal, Antropofagus band huh? Well, Ok, but the results are the same; damn solid tech/brutal death metal, although these guys are not quite as brutal and have a little more quirk and experimentation to them. I […]

Last Poem/First Light, the 2013 debut from these NYC blackgazers, was a gorgeous affair, layering dramatic (and real) orchestration and choirs on top of a Deafheaven-y black metal backbone. Since signing on with Prosthetic Records, the band is reaping the rewards, and has increased the orchestra size from 10 to 30 for their second release – which is a full-on […]

There’s been some pretty odd band names this year (Mutilatred, Dysrider,  Famishgod, Meatwound, Neurotic November, Weak Aside). There has also been some fine old school Swedish death metal (Morbid Vomit, Wombath, Mass Burial, Entrails, Abscession, Infected Chaos, Skelethal, Feral, Cult of Endtime). Belgium’s Torturerama have the honor of being on both lists. However, it’s the second one they might […]

I’ve been having a hard time putting words to paper about the fourth album from Germany’s Thormesis. You see, when Freier Wille – Freier Geist, (Free will- Free Spirit) is actually playing, I’m enjoying the hell out of its super melodic, sometimes black n roll , airy, bouncy take on black metal. To the point where I’m […]

Expiation, the debut from Italy’s Synapses was a fine slab of controlled tech death metal that focused much more on deliberate grooves and shuddering rhythms rather than the sheer tech death onslaught of many of their peers (Hour of Penance, Logic of Denial etc). Now, three years later, Devoutness has dropped, and while the focus is […]

More likely than not, you have already decided if you will like or purchase Deafheaven’s new album, regardless of this review. Am I right? I mean, you either loathed or loved 2013’s watershed album, Sunbather (full disclosure – it was my top pick for the year), or you simply don’t care for the band’s style, the ‘hipster’ […]

I won’t rehash the love already shown by this site to France’s tech death masters Gorod and their prior albums. You can see our previous gushing, by myself and Jordan Itkowitz, right here. The question I have for you, loyal reader, is this: can death metal, specifically tech death metal, be happy? Playful, even? We know […]

So all we need now in 2015 is a release from Anathema, and have it return to the Crestfallen/Serenades sound and all will be right with the world, right? In fairness, while Paradise Lost, one third of the seminal UK doom triumvirate received much deserved praise for The Plague Within,  and rightfully lauded for a ‘return’ to form, […]

Not content with dropping the reissue of debut, Winterborn on us earlier this year, former Before the Dawn and Black Sun Aeon founder Tuomas Saukkonen is already dropping his new project’s second album on us to fuck up 2015 year end lists everywhere. Whereas the template of the music is still heavily rooted in his past along […]