If you are the kind of a person that thought the 2011 releases by the likes of Ana Kefr or Unexpect were just too much, too chaotic and too avant garde, just go ahead and leave now. Go on! You’ll be doing yourself a favor. On the other hand, if you thrive on those sort of […]

Listen, a s much as I’d like to, I rarely review 3 track demos- I simply don’t have the time considering all the other stuff we get here to review. However, I will make a few exceptions; 1) if you are really fucking good, 2) if you are really fucking good and local and 3) […]

Up until I heard this 10 song, 7″ release from Atlanta’s Dead in the Dirt, God Is War from All Pigs Must Die was my favorite crust release of 2011, and before that, Nails and their Unsilent Death release was my favorite crust release of the last decade or so. But once the needle hits […]

I feel a little bit sorry for Finland’s Cryptborn, even after having their debut EP re-released by Dark Descent Records (an honor considering the labels affinity for awesome old school death metal). The reason? Basically because their EP is released about the same time as Entrails‘ The Tomb Awaits — much like the high quality indie […]

Well folks, here it is! Entrails‘ newest album, The Tomb Awaits. For old school Stockholm death metal fans, the follow-up to my 2010’s album of the year and arguably the most anticipated album of 2011; the cherry on top of a pie that’s already been filled with the likes of Undead Creep, Brutally Deceased, Demonical, Morbus […]

With album number 3, Maledictus Eris, Denmark’s Svartsot have continued their consistent enjoyable take on folk laced death metal. However, rather than frolicking synths and fruity jigs, Svartsot deliver folk metal with a bearded, burly presence that’s as much Amon Amarth than anything else. But what makes the consistency surprising is the band turn over and the fact that guitarist Cris Frederiksen is the only remaining member from the debut, Ravenes Saga. So I visited with Cris to get a little more insight in the band’s new line-up, as well as some details on the new album.

I’ll admit I wasn’t too excited for a new Lock Up album. I mean, it’s been eight years since Hate Breeds Suffering, which I really though wasn’t necessary after 1999’s Pleasure Pave Sewers, (which was admittedly one of the first high profile super groups). And let’s be honest, a grindcore side project in 2011 featuring […]

Hailing from Germany, Nothgard play a form of fun, epic and bombastic folk viking metal akin to country mates Equilibrium and Finsterforst, but also cull heavily from the genres other heavyweights, notably Ensiferum. Bouncy happy amicable metal is the order of the day with a power metal back bone beefed up with melodic death metal […]

Whereas label and country mates The Cleansing struck quickly with their second album, Denmark’s Spectral Mortuary took a little longer to muster up a follow up on one of 2007’s most over looked death metal albums. I’m glad to shout that the wait was definitely worth it, as Total Depravity is a monster of  death […]

The folks over at Deepsend Records really like their chunky Danish death metal, and particularly if it’s a band that features members of once respected Danish death metal acts. In the case of The Cleansing you have current and former members of Usipian, Iniquity, Corpus Mortale and Panzerchrist. And with label mates  Spectral Mortuary, you get […]

I really hope you readers appreciate what I do for this site, because I’m pretty sure that listening to Blut Aus Nord‘s latest effort and De Magia Veterum‘s latest album in close succession for review purposes, I’ve exposed myself to irreparable mental and psychological damage. Damage, that may require long term treatment and anti-psychotic drugs. […]

There’s a good reason it’s taking me so long to review notable 2011-albums from Blut Aus Nord and De Magie Veterum; you simply have to be in the right frame of mind and have some mental patience to punish yourself aurally for that long. In the case of France’s Blut Aus Nord it’s bracing for […]

As much as I love what Dark Descent Records has done in 2011–and will continue to do so–they have to have a blight on their record at some point right? If I’m being brutally honest, for me it’s the second album from Philadelphia’s supposedly legendary death metal act Goreaphobia. Listen. Just because you formed in […]

So we have a one man band called Ov Hollowness from Canada, on a label called Hypnotic Dirge Records, with long songs and titles like “Desolate”, “Winds Forlorn”, and “Drone”. I’ll give you one guess as to what style of music this is. Emocore. Just kidding. The best (in my opinion of course) of Hypnotic […]

Reviewing a Christian metal album is always like swimming in shark tank with a chum jockstrap on. Well…IT’S FEEDING TIME BOYS!!! But I try to stay the course and be objective as I can, and most readers probably don’t realize that I’m actually a devout (?) atheist, so my many Christian reviews aren’t some thinly […]

I’ve followed the UK’s The Belonging for a while now, from their slightly forgetful 2005 debut, Setting the Scene, to 2009’s Ashes of a Fallen Throne, where the band took an improved step into impressive blackened war metal. And now, in 2011, with their third follow up, we’ve got yet another quality self-released album. Continuing their […]

I really like what former doom merchants, Southern Lord, is doing with their crust/hardcore of late;  excellent releases from the likes of  Nails, Acephalix, Masakari, Black Breath, Planks, Summon the Crows, Sabarante, and this, the fucking blistering debut of All Pigs Must Die. Featuring Kevin Baker (The Hope Conspiracy) on vocals and Ben Koller (Converge) […]

Despite all the attention that post-rock influenced black metal or East Coast and Pacific Northwest black metal gets, there’s a few nice little unsigned, independent, more obscure USBM bands lurking in the sunny depths of California. Notably Lake of Blood and this mysterious new act, Leucosis. With only six myspace-friends and three of them notably […]

I’m not entirely sure how to describe the second, self-released album from Italy’s Laetitia In Holocaust. I mean, if the moniker and the cover art–a group of giant insects gang banging the planet earth–doesn’t clue you in the level of weirdness contained on Rotten Light, I’m not sure I can help. Falling ever so generally […]

If you need something to tide you over until Entrails‘ new album comes out later this fall, you have two solid options right now: Demonical‘s Death Infernal or the debut from Italy’s Undead Creep. Both will satiate fans of classic Swedish death metal, rendering damn fine examples of mid-range, buzzing, d-beat, Stockholm styled death metal. […]

Everything about this band and release initially screams utter pretentiousness; the moniker, the EP title, the artwork, the song titles, the horn rimmed glasses and hipster looks and the limited vinyl only release — though a mp3 download code is included. None the less, contained withing this 16-minute little gem could be the start of […]

When I first got this EP for review, I wasn’t overly excited; rather uninspiring band name, silly EP title, from a label known for brutal death metal. Then I discover that the vocalist and founder of Mordbrand is non other than Per Boder. Yes, the same Per Boder who formed the short lived  God Macabre. […]

Man! It’s been just a killer year as far as Swedish, Stockholm styled death metal is concerned! Not only do we have 2011 releases by the likes of Brutally Deceased, Revolting, Ribspreader, Miasmal, Feral, Morbus Chron and Undead Creep, but we’ve seen reissues from Furbowl, Toxaemia, Utumno, and Uncanny too. Also, I’ve been going back and discovering other recent […]

The debut EP from Finland’s Gorephilia was a victim of circumstance. Released earlier this year around the same time and on the same label as Corpsessed‘s debut EP,  it got kind of steam rolled by The Dagger & the Chalice. Which is actually a bit of a shame as Ascend to Chaos, while certainly not […]

Try as hard as I may, I simply can’t get into California’s Gravehill and their brand of blackened thrashy death metal. Even residing on Dark Descent and featuring an ex-member of Morgion/Keen of the Crow and current members of Exhumed (Matt “Hellfiend” Harvey to be specific, whose recently reissued thrash death project, Dekapitator shares a […]