Listen up, if you enjoyed Burst’s more adventurous, experimental and unpredictable take on the whole Post Rock genre with Lazarus Bird, just go ahead and grab the fourth full length album from this Swiss quartet. Now. Former Digitalmetal writer John Gnesin had always told me to check these guys out, long before the genre exploded […]

Another year another Six Feet Under album, but surprisingly like 2007s Commandment, Barnes and Co. appear to be back on track after a couple of albums of suck. With a change in producer and studio from Erik Rutan and Mana for Commandment to Chris Carroll at Morrisound, Death Rituals sounds a bit rougher and analog-y, […]

Well, Profound Lore has done it again. This time finding a self described “English Heritage Black Metal” metal trio from the UK comprised of member of Atavist and Wodensthrone. I’ve often wondered, with our rich history, why there are not more UK bands (though Iron Age Records appears to have uncovered a few) plying metal […]

In my line of work, I’m all about first impressions. I will generally make a snap judgment about a person and determine their veracity within about 30 seconds. Luckily, this does not apply to metal albums and reviews, because if I had simply relied on first impressions, Among Flies would have been album of the […]

Here’s a pretty solid debut EP from French act Diluvian (meaning a “deluge”) that combines melodic death metal and modern polished brutality (I hate to use the term deathcore here) into a impressive 5 song EP that holds a lot of promise. Though I’ve seen the term ‘deathcore’ thrown about in regards to this release […]

Hailing from Algeria in North Africa, Devast play a form of jagged, choppy, twangy technical death metal, that while fits all the paradigms of technical death metal, has a little of its own character and differs from the sudden flurry of California tech death that’s assaulted the scene of late. The 8 songs on this […]

Though some may consider The East coast and Florida the main stays of US death metal, but for the home of technical, brutal death metal, you need to consider that in California there are such amazing death metal acts as Deeds of Flesh, Vile, Brain Drill, Decrepit Birth, Odious Mortem and Severed Savior, who after […]

Seriously people, its about time we start talking about New Hampshire’s Trap Them as one of the US’s best kept metal secrets, as with their second full length album, the band has once again delivered a sonic donkey punch that mixes crusty chaos and hardcore (think Converge), Rotten Sound and the midrange pummeling of Wolverine Blues […]

2008 was a pretty good year for melodic, contemporary hard core with the likes of Verse, Have Heart, Brothers, Take It Back and the almighty Killing the Dream. Yet here comes this nautical themed debut from this awesome SoCal three piece featuring members of Graf Orlock and comes close to taking the throne of 2008s […]

Way back in 2005 before metalcore and deathcore annoyed everyone, The Classic Struggle released their solid debut, Feel Like Hell, and at the time was one of the heavier displays of the genre I had heard. Fast Forward three years and unfortunately The Classic Struggle like With Dead Hands Rising and Embrace the End, simply […]

Great, another group of kids playing off the wall spazzy, crumbly, squealy deathcore. Except this lot are named after a Mitch Hedberg joke, have lots of samples (including Dane Cook and Anchorman), goofy song titles and quirky synths and an oh so quirky sense of humor. And somehow they’ve done this for 3 fucking albums […]

The third in Willowtip’s excellent recent grindcore revival trilogy (Phobia, Kill the Client), Maruta (a Japanese name for the collective victims in the infamous Unit 731 war crimes) ironically lies somewhere between the two as they mix furious, relentless modern grindcore with a more classic power chord driven sound. Seething blast beats feral screams, deep […]

Despite the switch from Deepsend to Unique Leader, little has changed in the Lecherous Nocturne camp. They still feature Mike Poggione (Monstrosity, Carpharnaum) on bass, they still unleash blistering blackened death metal, still under 30 minutes in length, and its still pretty good stuff. Coming it at 28 minutes, compared to Adoration of the Blade’s […]

Though I was very impressed with this young act’s debut, Akeldama back in 2006, my recent experience of them at this year’s Summer Slaughter, and exposure to their new material left me somewhat unimpressed. Whether it was the lack of full time keyboard player, the more experimental material, or just an off night in a […]

I’ve enjoyed watching Light This City evolve from their rough and ready debut The Hero Cycle in 2003 to through their brilliant third album,  Facing the Thousand , to what is now their swansong, Stormchaser, a mere five years later. The band has evolved from a mere At The Gates worship to a powerful, polished an […]

While you might expect yet another clichéd take of breakdown reliant deathcore based on the band name, label and overly dramatic album title, the fact is, once you discover The Plasmarifle hail from arguably the tech metal capital of the world, Montreal, feature former Neuraxis vocalist Maynard Moore and a familiarly tight mastering effort from […]

Due to their ferocious female vocalist Grace Perry and a solid mix of thrash, hardcore and Bolt Thrower, Arizona’s Landmine Marathon have always been in my periphery, but never quite taken it to the next level. With their 2006 debut release Wounded and subsequent split EP , they only come across as a band with […]

First off, before you read this review, go here  and check out Medeia’s killer video for the single “Cold Embrace”. Making fun of black metal? Making fun of themselves? Who cares-it’s awesome. Hailing from Finland, Cult is the second album from Medeia, a melodic death metal band that utilize keyboards and a very US sounding […]

Do palm tree leaves turn and fall?

Who cares. The leaves have turned, trees stand barren and wasted, the shadows lengthen and the chill of cold breath fills the air. Autumn, the most metal of seasons is upon us and while I’m sure there’s hordes of obscure black metal albums I’ve never heard that fit the bill, here are some albums (in no real order) I think signal the dawn of winter and bring in the grimmest of seasons as good as any:

Wow. Not only have Misery Index rebounded from the slightly disappointing Discordia and returned to the full on brilliance of Retaliate, they have responded to the gauntlet thrown down by the recent Willowtip triple headed assault of Kill the Client, Phobia and Maruta as far as American grindcore in 2008 is concerned. While one could […]

Considering my love of Between the Buried and Me, you’d think I’d be all over the debut from Indiana’s Exotic Animal Petting Zoo; Off kilter, jazzy, Dillenger-ish styled alternative rock and impossibly scattershot structures littered with lengthy ambient, introspective strains of clean vocals and progressive experimental textures. A must have right? Well not just yet. […]

Based on the 18-minute burst of a debut ‘full length’ that was Parasite , I didn’t exactly have high expectations for the sophomore album from this Michigan deathcore act. However, once I saw the cover, titles, new producers Dan Kenny and John Cinotta (Suffocation) and the mastering credits of Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed), […]

Arguably, The Fathomless Mastery is one of the most anticipated death metal records of year, partly due to the return of Mikael Åkerfeldt to vocal duties (which cancels out the loss of Dan Swano), and partly due to the fact that the bands two full length’s (2002s Resurrection Through Carnage and superb but slight step […]

Released with relatively little fanfare, Unearth’s fourth studio album shows that this Boston band, while certainly never able to attain the level of magnificence of The Stings of Conscience, is one of the most consistent and predictably satisfying American metal acts around. The formula, as with like minded act Killswitch Engage, is simple; deft Swedish […]

3 months ago, this was the perfect summer album; peppy, energetic, uplifting melodic hardcore with injections of pop/punk catchiness that you hummed along to while driving with the windows open that came across like a Christian Bane mixed with any popular pop punk act (Blink 182, Yellowcard, Sum 41, etc) but now in the grey […]