Ugh. I rather enjoyed the 2006 debut, Existence from North Carolina’s The Demonstration as it displayed the melodic chops of the North Carolina metalcore scene with a confidence and heavy dose of Prayer For Cleansing/Between the Buried and Me guitar work. However, guitarists Charles Matheny and vocalist Trevor Underwood have since left the band, replaced […]

First off, I’d like to congratulate Australia’s Brazen Bull (an ancient torture device) for the incredibly professional and well done promotional package they sent me; a folder complete with a professional, full digipack CD EP, glossy photo, a CDR with images, press sheet, logo as well as a very nice letter asking to be reviewed. In […]

So to coincide with the band’s current US Pagan Knights run with Suidakra and Tyr, Scotland’s purveyors of Pirate metal have given us a 4 song EP to tide us over until the next album, slated for a 2009 release. The EP consists of 1 new song (the 6 minute title track), a reworked track […]

Though the third release from the newly restarted Strikefirst Records won’t appeal to too many readers of this site, it will appeal to fans of the first As Cities Burn album as well as the likes of Misery Signals, Means and such; jangly, layered, melodic worshipcore with an overabundance of emo/clean vocals, that as usual […]

Three nasty, noisy albums into their career, Sweden’s Crowpath continue to make caustic, brittle attack that seems to be a perfect fit for Willowtip and gives the label’s relatively quiet 2008, a noisy, discordant ending. With a turbulent, chaotic sound akin to a being stuck in a sonic landslide, Crowpath’s largely unclassifiable mix of grind, […]

Where as most deathcore in 2008 was content to prolapse your bowels with breakdowns and little else, the full length debut from Belgium’s Days of Betrayal is actually one of the more complete deathcore albums I’ve heard, with an actual focus on songs and riffs and opposed to endless open note beat downs. Released in […]

The much maligned deathcore genre looks to be off to an explosive start in 2009 with the likes of Oceano and this sophomore release from Rose Funeral. I was actually surprised at this album, not only because Metal Blade signed them after the band virtually split up after 2007s Crucify Kill Rot, only leaving guitarist […]

I’m not usually one for stoner doom sludge rock or whatever, as A) I don’t partake of illegal drugs, and B) I’m usually too highly strung and easily distracted to let myself fall into a half sleep, red eyed stupor for any length of time. However with their self released debut (Tualatin Records is the […]

Chet Scott’s 2006 self titled debut was an excellent doomy, ambient, almost stoner take on depressive Pacific Northwest, one man black metal, giving the scene an injection of creativity that strayed from typical depressive Wrest and Malefic worship. And the follow up, while taking the same elements, delivers an even more tribal, ritualistic, organic and […]

With 2008s watershed of superb, high profile releases, a number of lower profile but still excellent releases from the likes of Mitochondrion, Hour Of Penance, Celebrant, Battalion, Hackneyed and Virginia’s H.P Lovecraft obsessed act Cyaegha got somewhat overlooked. For a debut, Steps of Descent is a confident, under the radar entry into technical death metal, […]

I’ve listened to and enjoyed a lot of deathcore over the years-most of it from the genres larger names on larger labels. But one of the smaller gems I discovered was an EP back in 2007 from a Canadian band called Dear Black Diary. Hardly groundbreaking stuff, but solid and well done with a crafty […]

If a complete stranger or non-metalhead were to come up to me today and ask me “What is Black Metal”? I’d give him this record. Sure there’s all sorts of classic options from Emperor through Marduk, Immortal, Leviathan and such, but as of right now A Spell for the Death of Man, for me, seems […]

Wow, real Black metal in the US is really starting to impress me and this his SoCal 5 piece look to be an up and coming band with some real potential as this 4 song, 21 minute EP does virtually everything right. With a perfectly balanced raw buzzing guitar tone and some actual presence of […]

Here’s the kind of album that drives old metal heads nuts, but the kids seem to like; squawking, growling, breakdown filled chaotic deathcore, given the ‘grindcore ‘tag’ by the Hot Topic crowd. Ugh. It’s all here for the kids to enjoy; 14 short bursts with Oh so quirky song titles (“Urethra Franklin VS. Queef Latifah”, […]

As much as I love nasty scary black metal like Anaal Nathrakh, Xasthur, Dagon, Leviathan, Deathspell Omega and such, I have a hard time dealing with such music coming from the relatively peaceful climates of France, England, California, Texas and San Francisco , and while those acts have no doubt injected plenty of hatred, spite, and […]

Hope for the Dying is the first release on the recently re-launched Strike First Records (a subsidiary of Facedown Records that released records by the likes of War of Ages, Sinai Beach, Inked In Blood, Jesus Wept and Bloodlined Calligraphy), and though its basically a repackaged version of the bands demo from earlier in 2008, […]

Its been 3 year since the debut, Devour the Power, and I knew just judging from the cover and the album title, that Tennessee’s purveyors of uber cheesy fantasy based metal was going to up the ante from the debut-and they do. Cut from the same heavily bearded and classically inspired cloth as 3 Inches […]

Delivering the same intense yet singularly paced style of mechanically precise black/death metal akin to Krisiun, Zyklon or even Crionics and The Amenta (without the cyber elements), Belgium’s The Reckoning (formerly known as Infernal Legion) have delivered a solid second album, that won’t change the genre, but it’s a pummeling, relentless listen. Truthfully, I really […]

As I detailed here , and to save some time, basically Order of Ennead is a continuation of label and line up hampered act Council of the Fallen, who released two very solid albums of blistering black/death metal in 2002s Revealing Damnation and 2004s Deciphering the Soul. Both I which I highly recommend. However, of […]

Here’s another old school death metal effort featuring vocalist Roger “Rogga” Johansson who has graced bands like Ribspreader, Carve, Paganizer, Edge of Sanity, Deranged and recently, Those Who Bring the Torture. This time he’s helped by guitarist Rober Bustabad of Machetazo and drummer Phlegeton of Wormed (who plays drums here). Ultimately the sound of Banished […]

Was there really such a demand for the video from Lair of the Minotaur’s last album that it has to be put out on DVD with unrated and TV edit versions? Apparently so, so Southern Lord has put both versions of Gary Smithson’s video on a DVD along with behind the scenes interviews and footage, […]

From 1997’s Lupine Essence to this years upcoming Crógacht, Germany’s Suidakra have been one of metals most consistent yet underrated acts. Whether plying Celtic/folk ish black metal as their early releases, or melodic death metal like their middle set of releases the core of Arkadius and Marcel Schoenen have forged on under the Suidakra banner […]

After hitting the melodic death metal jackpot with Arsis’s debut back in 2004, after a small wait, Willotip appear have tried their hand in uncovering another melodeath band in Houston’s As Eden Burns, though it has less spectacular, if solid results. While certainly a busy melodeath metal band similar to Arsis, there’s a lack of […]

Not to be outdone by Metal Blade’s group of teenage deathcore kids, Fate, here come Mediaskare/Century Media with their own group of growling, blasting, shredding, breakdowning kids plucked right from the halls of a San Diego High school. Though most might cringe at yet another group of snot nosed kids who can’t even buy a […]

Neither as influential as country mates In Flames, Dark Tranquillity Dismember and such and not as prolific as the likes of second tier acts like Centinex, Sweden’s Diabolical has been on the periphery of Sweden’s melodic death metal elite for over a decade now, with only two acceptable but hardly groundbreaking albums in 2001’s Synergy […]