And so Australia’s assault on excellent extremity continues with the third album from Tasmania’s black metal horde Ruins. My last contact with this act was the 2004 EP, Atom & Time, which to my recollection, was a traditional, frosty, clinical style of blistering black metal. I missed 2008’s Cauldron (even with its belated US release […]

I’ll get straight to it. One of my favorite releases of the year, and indeed of the last few years is the debut from California’s Fatalist, “The Depths of Inhumanity”. Why? well, I’m a sucker for old school Swedish Death Metal, and Fatalist, right down to the logo, song titles and even some promo photos are Entombed incarnate. I caught up with band founder Neil Burkdoll to take The Left Hand Path and discover The Truth Beyond….

For those that don’t know, John Peel (RIP) was a BBC radio DJ who championed the extreme and the underground. While BBC Radio 1 and 2 (back then), was busy playing The Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Mel and Kim and other pop chart topping tripe, Peel and his late night Sunday radio show was playing […]

Don’t worry, I’ll keep this review only focused on the music…. The third and final album from despondent musician Umesh sees Brown Jenkins continue the more guitar based, droning approach of Angel Eyes, straying away from the more ambient depressive hues of the debut, Dagonite. And while the result is less suicide inducing than the […]

When listening to the self released debut from Canada’s Aquila (featuring former members of Bloodshoteye), I get a little sense of Deja Va as I’m reminded of Loren Battle’s Words Begins Wars, release earlier this year; Confident, well done, polished, epic artwork – and all of it self released. But it’s also plying a genre […]

With their debut self released EP, Italy’s Unconventional Disruption has simultaneously added to 2009s self released excellence (Belakor, Cephalectomy, Kalisia, Vengeful, Avicularia) and to Italy’s impressive, growing death metal scene, (Hour Of Penance, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Vomit the Soul, Gory Blister). With a chunky, angular, down-tuned sound, these five excellent songs reminded of a more controlled […]

“Rebirth of Gorgorooooooooth!!!!” It’s fitting that after all the legal and personal issues that have plagued this Norwegian stalwart black metal band over the last few years, that the third track has returning vocalist Pest spit out this line during the aptly named third track, “Rebirth” Truth be told, I’ve never been a huge fan […]

You know when you burp and sometimes you ‘vurp? You know, that hot sour taste as what seems like beef stew rises up the back of your throat, into you mouth, and then you are forced to swallow back down its acidic, regurgitated goodness. You know the look on your face when you swallow it? […]

Canada is hardly a hotbed for melodic death metal, but recently, with the likes of Muspellheim and now the debut from Montreal’s WarCall (formerly known as Plan B), things might be changing. Though only active for 2 years, this four-piece delivers a pretty solid if unspectacular and often hot/cold debut in Demonarchy. Nothing groundbreaking or […]

Disconcert Music has done a solid job of reissuing albums by the likes of Canopy, Agony, Stigmatized, Symbiontic, etc, and now they have added the 2007 self released debut from Canada’s Muspellheim, winners of the 2006 Long & McQuade Metal Fest (apparently judged by Gene Hoglan and Devin Townsend). Boasting a razor sharp production and […]

I dug the debut self released demo from this Portland metal act, and on their 6 song follow up, they have shown lots of improvement to their modern take on metal that includes lots of sweeping, epic synths, breakdowns and dual melody laden metalcore. Admittedly, this music is for a pretty niche group, but for […]

After two albums on At A Loss Recordings, the former Cavity and –16-duo jump to Southern Lord Recordings for album number three, and despite the label change, Chronomega picks up exactly where Bestial and Feather and Stone left off: gritty, crumbling sludge metal with a dash of discordance that comes across like a nastier, more […]

I’ll admit I am a Protest the Hero fanboy. I love both Kezia and Fortress and having met and interviewed the band after a local live show, I found a new appreciation for them, not just as a band, but as a pretty cool group of kids. That all being said, I wasn’t sure about […]

It’s fitting that this Croatian band take their name from a genus of spider that includes Tarantulas, because their form of spazzy, angular, technical , slightly experimental death metal is the perfect soundtrack for a nature documentary where spiders do their skittish, frantic, unpredictable, spidery things. The twisting, twangy form of death metal that Avicularia […]

Though Christianity as elbowed its way into previously untouchable genres of music, black metal despite a few attempts (Lo-Ruhamah, Frost Like Ashes, Admonish, Horde, Crimson Moonlight, etc) has generally resisted ‘unblack’ metal Christian interjections. So how about some Christian, symphonic black metal from the depths of Colombia released on a brand new indie label based […]

One look at the gothic font of this California band’s logo and even some of their press photos  and one word springs to mind: Entombed (or realistically, two words if you include Nihilist). The only this missing is Dan Seagrave artwork. Then you press play, and other words like Stockholm, Sunlight and mid-range jump into […]

And so, The Warren of Snares trilogy is complete and the UKs sadly short lived and now defunct (at least according to a farewell show back in October) Fall of Efrafa have a trilogy to their legacy that can be called truly special. Starting with 2006s more crusty, D beat based Owsla (‘Warrior’), then the […]

The critically acclaimed self titled debut from Krallice was an excellent and artistic addition to US black metal, not surprising considering the involvement of Mick Barr (Orthrelm)and Colin Marston (Behold… the Arctopus/Dysrhythmia) on guitars and bass (joined by drummer Lev Weinstein). However, with an even more technical and noodling, busy approach and less vocals and […]

One of the most revered bands in the Australian metal scene, the mucky, mysterious musical cist that is Portal seems to be one of those ‘cool’ bands to like because they are such an anti thesis of all that is popular and trendy in metal. And with their third insidious album of churning, seemingly unstructured […]

With 2007s Antithesis, Germany’s Secrets of the Moon flirted with the black metal elite, mixing blackened atmospherics, death metal and depressive ambience into long slithering tracks and memorable set pieces that hinted at greatness. However, with the 65 minute run time, and even longer songs that emphasize mood over intensity, Privilegivm, feels more drawn out […]

Man, not only has death metal seen some excellent , label released goodness in 2009 (Augury, Gorod, Obscura, Ulcerate, Man Must Die, Nile, As You Drown, The Red Shore to name just a few), along come bands like Cephalectomy, Avicularia, Unconventional Disruption, Burial Ritual, Zealotry and Quebec’s Vengeful to self release some death metal awesomeness […]

You know its been a great year for metal when the fifth album from Between the Buried and Me arrives with relatively little fanfare, takes two weeks for me to review and wont be an immediate shoo in for my album of the year like 2007s Colors and 2005s Alaska. Not that The Great Misdirect […]

So a couple of recent Rise Records releases have broken away from the label’s recent trend of emo vocals filled metal or Hot Topic core (Attack Attack!, The Devils Wears Prada, The Bled, Sleeping With Sirens, Miss May I, etc). With two stout death metal/deathcore releases by way of Australia’s impressive The Red Shore and […]

Though Cleveland Ohio’s Salt the Wound fit the annoying template of modern teen metal band complete with ever changing line up, cocked hats, tight jeans, pierced lips, pre packaged logo and loud shirt designs and an obsession of The Black Dahlia Murder, the bands 2008 debut was OK, and the follow up, complete with promising […]

I’ve been eager to hear the debut full length from Canada’s Weapon since I read an article about them from the indomitable Nathan T Birk in Metal Maniacs Magazine (before its untimely demise). And while an excellent release, Draconian Paradigm is still a bit of a mystery to me, but I imagine that was the […]