There was a time in the late 90s and early 00s where England’s Cradle of Filth were one of my very favorite bands, and whether you liked it or not, they were legitimate superstars in extreme metal. I enjoyed 2000s Midian, 2003’s Damnation and A Day, and really liked 2004’s Nymphetamine, but I never really loved […]

I think most death heads will agree that there are a few immensely satisfying experiences when it comes to death metal; 1) a random new find that kicks ass and 2) that moment when death metal is done perfectly, achieving the immaculate balance of speed, power and brutality. Well, on their second album Italy’s new to me acts, Inverted […]

Hate, the 2012 second album from these Aussie deathcore mongers, was a solid slab of techy modern deathcore/death metal, that grew on me a little bit as time wore on. And now, three years later it appears the hopes of deathcore have been but on TAIM and Holy War as the genre seems to be in a […]

Christ…… Just when I think I literally cannot hear anything fresh new and different in metal, along comes Maladie. This 9-person German collective is comprised of folks from various mid-level German Death metal acts like Tombthroat, Deadborn and Spheron, as well as Belgian post-rockers We All Die (Laughing). That totals up to 3 Guitarists, 2 vocalists, a saxophone player and […]

I’m having a hard time coming to grips with the second album from Finland’s Oceanwake, Sunless. Not that I don’t like it or anything, it’s just its sort of in stylistic limbo between traditional melancholic lumbering Finnish doom metal and a more Post Metal ebb akin to country mates Callisto or fellow Europeans like Desert Beneath […]

So Floridian black metal act Mindscar were around back in the early 00s with a few demos and such and back then, their guitarist/vocalist Richie Brown was the bassist for Trivium for a year, before Heafy and co got famous. But the band faded out of existence after a lone 2001 EP, However Brown reformed the band with in […]

Gruesome released one of the best death metal albums of this year in ‘Savage Lands’. Not only that, but the album is an excellent love letter to the older Death -albums, old school death metal and most of all, to Chuck Schuldiner. We chatted briefly with one of the main motors of Gruesome, drummer Gus Rios, about how the band came to be and how ‘Savage Lands’ turned out how it did. So sit down, pour yourself some Chianti, eat a corpse and let death consume you.

Black Tower is a Canadian trio that play a form of punk/thrash/power/heavy/black metal that’s a perfect fit for Unspeakable Axe Records, and might actually be their best release yet. And while that mish-mash of styles might overwhelm some, it’s going to appeal to a lot of folks, as it’s done with an awesome retro but fun […]

Symphonics/orchestration and brutal death metal aren’t uncommon bedfellows, but it isn’t exactly a thriving, saturated genre, due to the obvious dichotomy the two style provide. Fleshgod Apocalypse certainly elevated it to critical acclaim and mastered the sound but before that the likes of arguable trendsetters Nocturnus as well as, Agiel, Scrambled Defuncts, Ovid’s Withering and a few […]

I can usually tell of I am going to like or dislike an album after a few moments. A few skips from track to track, hear the vocals, the production etc. I can get a general idea pretty quick. Sure, there are anomalies, growers, late bloomers and stuff I’m just not feeling at that time in […]

So now France is finally joining the European masses like the Czech Republic (Brutally Deceased), Croatia, (Hezera), Italy (Undead Creep), Germany (Revel in Flesh), Poland (Ulcer), Greece (Wreckage) The Netherlands (Funeral Whore), Finland (Morbid Vomit) and even the US (Fatalist) getting in on the Boss HM2, Swedish death metal revival with the duo known as Skelethal. A […]

For 5 years and three previous albums now, Sweden’s Entrails, reactivated from the 90s has been arguably the forerunner and top band in the Swedish death metal revival. After two killer albums on FDA Rekotz/Dark Descent, they were elevated to the big leagues with 2013s Raging Death, on Metal Blade Records, and didn’t lose a […]

So this “extreme progressive metal’  movement is becoming I thing I see. The Great Discord, Black Crown Initiate, Ne Obliviscaris, France’s Maladie, and this long running Swedish act named after a subterranean lake in Antarctica are delivering metal that switches on a dime between prog metal, thrash, technical death metal, symphonic metal, power metal and everything else under the metal […]

I was not overly impressed with the 2012 debut Symbiosis, debut from this Florida tech death/deathcore act. There was nothing inherently wrong with it, it was just yet another faceless (no pun intended) modern tech death/deathcore record with little soul and all twiddle and breakdowns. The kind of stuff that Ive heard too many times […]

I’m not usually one to get to reeled in by hype. Even more so for Sweden’s Tribulation, who left me unimpressed in 2009 with a pretty standard Swedish death metal release, The Horror, then their death metal got all proggy and developed with the rather hyped  The Formulas of Death, a transition that really didn’t […]

France’s Putrid Offal were one of France’s early death metal/grind bands with a number of obscure splits and demos between 1991 and 1994, but it’s taken them until 2015 to release a full length album, which essentially re-records most of the material from the bands 90s discography and adds a couple of covers for good measure. […]

Here’s an early 2015 release from Switzerland’s oddly named Dysrider ( formerly known as Trophallaxy, a symphonic power metal act) that has grown on me of late as it adds to the recent spat of various types of metal laced with epic symphonics and orchestration. It also recalls some of my favorite releases from the late 90s early […]

Tucked away in the midst of Dark Descent’s higher profile 2015 releases is this little gem from reformed 90s Netherlands act Eternal Solstice, who released 3 solid albums in the mid 90s. Founder, Ramon Soeterbroek and early member Mischa Hak (also of Sempiternal Deathreign back then) has recruited a couple of young bucks (notably ex Funeral Whore drummer Tim Roeper) […]

I’m not super familiar with the UK crust/D beat scene or this Durham based act who have been around since since 2006 with a number of splits and EPs under their bullet belt. But if debut full length Usurping the Throne of Disease is any indication I need to rectify both issues right away. Coming across […]

After classic Swedish death metal, my second favorite style is the burly, blasting, but measured, commanding death metal that’s a step below tech death, that the early Floridian (Monstrosity, Deicide, etc.), New York (Suffocation, Dying Fetus) and Polish scene (Behemoth, Vader, Hate, etc.) did so well, and was encapsulated perfectly last year by the likes of Abysmal […]

“And on their skins, as on the bark of trees, Have with my knife carved in Roman letters ‘Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.’ Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things As willingly as one would kill a fly; And nothing grieves me heartily indeed But that I cannot do ten […]

Hailing from Quebec, this duo take their name from Siberia’s most desolate, northernmost city, and of course it’s home to a ….metal foundry. And while you’d expect doom considering the moniker and label, this isn’t the huge, lumbering, funeral doom, Evoken/Ahab sort of crawl the name and label imbue, as it’s much more varied. These […]

So Canada’s Blast Head Records has thrown their hat into the retro Swedish death metal movement, and what an entry it is, digging up up Mörbid Vomit from the depths of Finland and compiling the bands 2012 demo and 2013’s self-released I Breathe Hell EP into one festering compilation. But you’d swear they were from the bowels of […]

Based on the artwork and logo, I was fully expecting either unadulterated,, guttural Comatose/Unique Leader styled assaulted of tech death or a burly typically Belgian chug fest (Dehuman hails from Brussels), I braced for the impending assault. However, I was graced with a modern style of death metal that mixed a little of everything from Floridian death […]

I owe Shroud of Despondency’s Rory Heikkila an apology. Not only was I extremely tardy in my reviews of the band’s albums—Pine and Tied to an Dying Animal—this interview was supposed to occur months ago. Quite frankly the band slipped through the cracks of my massive backlog of metal to review, emails to answer and interview requests. I guess my situation sort of mirrors the band’s trials and tribulations as they have slipped through the cracks of even metal’s most independent labels during the band’s 15 years of existence (and 18 or so releases)…