If you were a fan of Germany’s Rotting Demise and their 2023 self-released debut, My Whole Wrath, you might be in for a bit of a shock for the follow-up, The Unholy Veil of Silence, also self-released. Not a bad thing, but the band’s style of chuggy, sometimes Bolt Thrower-y death metal has all but […]

Long Island’s Internal Bleeding has been through it; from arguably being one of the progenitors of ‘slam’ death metal with their first two albums, (featuring our own Frank Rini on vocals) then mixing even more hardcore elements, which seemed to divide fans, then lots of member turnover, label jumping, a 10 year hiatus where they […]

I don’t know anyone who just ‘sorta likes’ Sabaton. They seem to be one of those ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’ bands that truly divide heavy metal fans. Personally, since I heard “Winged Hussars” back in 2016 from The Last Stand ( still my favorite Sabaton album), I have fallen on the ‘love it’ side. Unashamedly […]

There has been some excellent symphonic black metal released this fall: Old Machines, Gjallahorn’s Wrath, Maahes, Carach Angren, Argesk, Mystic Circle, Rotting Demise, Mourniaty, The Gloomy Radiance of the Moon, Echoes of Gloom, Execrari, and Withering Soul.  But if you want something that truly and authentically imbues the 90s nostalgic spirit and sound of Emperor, Gehenna, Ancient, […]

It’s weird. I own a bunch of Soulfly albums. When recently checking my CD collection, I saw that I actually possess albums like Savages, Ritual, Archangel, Dark Ages, Omen, Conquer, as well as the band’s first three or four more tribal, famous/popular efforts, such as Soulfly, Primitive, 3, and Prophecy.  But the thing is, because […]

Back in 2008/9, Dutch symphonic black metal act Carach Angren released their much-lauded, ghostly debut Lammendam. They followed it up with 5 more albums since, most excellent, some OK, but they are still widely regarded as one of the genre’s top acts. And now, 17 years later, the band is revisiting the local tale and […]

I’m not familiar with Finland’s Enragement, but a former writer, K Allred, enjoyed their last effort, 2022s, Atrocities, and he is in a pretty fine death metal band (Crungus), so I trust his opinion. And this sounds nothing like typical cavernous Finnish death metal. This is a very European-meets-American-sounding death metal that covers all the […]

Imagine for a second that Enthrone Darkness Triumphant-era Dimmu Borgir or Old Man’s Child leaned a little more into Egyptian history, myths, and legends.  Then you would have Germany’s Maahes. Maahes is an ancient Egyptian lion-headed god of war, protection, and the weather, and Nechacha, their second album, is an Egyptian symbol of dominion held by pharaohs […]

Gjallarhorn’s Wrath is a Barcelona-based symphonic black metal act with members also residing in Poland and Canada, and was formed from the ashes of Oblivion, a short-lived Spanish black metal band from the early 00s. But the new project has a very clear, very obvious new influence and fan base they are going after, and […]

I don’t know what YOU expect from a project that consists of  Brian Kingsland (Nile, Enthean), bassist Alex Rush (Olkoth, Enthean), and drum legend Derek Roddy (ex-Hate Eternal, ex-Malevolent Creation, ex-Divine Empire, etc). But I know what I was expecting it to sound like, and it sounds exactly like that. Yeah, this debut is blistering blackened […]

Paradise Lost needs no introduction. And unless you have lived under a rock for 30 years, you are bound to be aware of their vast history and legacy, transforming from a pure death doom band, being part of the UK 90s Doom trinity along with My Dying Bride and Anathema, to a Gothic metal act, […]

When I see ‘For Fans of Bal-Sagoth!’ in a promotional email, I’m usually pretty skeptical. Only a few bands have been able to honor/copy that unique sound: Hungary’s Runeshard, the Alestorm spinoff, Wizardthrone, and, of course, the UK’s Kull, but they have actual former Bal Sagoth members, so I’m not sure they count. However, the […]

As I stated in my review of the excellent Obšar EP, I love receiving unsolicited, blind requests from obscure, completely unknown (to me) bands for us to review their material. So when I got an email from Moscow’s Renunciation, asking us to cover their second album, Make Babylon Great Again, I checked the band’s music […]

The promotional email for the sophomore effort from this Danish act (named after the Hebrew word for wanderer?) stated it was melodic black metal for ‘fans of Behemoth, Hate, Mgla, Belphegor, Anaal Nathrak’. Not sure I could have been lured in any harder if they had a six pack of IPA beer, Crunchie candy bars, […]

If you don’t know the name Darren Cesca, you certainly know the bands he has drummed for over the years: Pillory, Arsis, Goratory, Incinerate, In Asymmetry, Serpent of Gnosis, Deeds of Flesh, and what was a surprise to me, the 2006 Burn In Silence album, Angel Maker– a metalcore album drenched in keyboards. Here is […]

I grabbed this promo as it is the same label behind the excellent Pathogenic album that came out earlier this year. And also because the ‘For Fans of’ band listing was this: The Black Dahlia Murder, Dimmu Borgir, Prayer for Cleansing, At The Gates. Ok, ya got me. So yeah, an altogether different beast than […]

Crungus (a name given to an AI-generated creature – I’ll let Wikipedia explain this one further) is a Texas-based death metal band that happens to feature a former writer for this very site, Kris Allred, who performs bass here on the band’s second album, their first on a label. So now that’s out of the […]

Oh man, this shit right here is fire. Denver’s Victim of Fire has been around since 2016, and this is their third album. They describe themselves as ‘Stadium Crust’, whatever that is. But what I’m hearing is an utterly nostalgic throwback to the early second wave of metalcore, when Maiden, At The Gates, and dual […]

It’s been 5 years since Las Vegas Brutal Death metal act Cordyceps released their debut, Betrayal. And while I feel like they missed the boat by not releasing this album a little sooner, at the same time as The Last of Us TV show (where the Cordyceps mushroom is the cause of the apocalypse), as […]

After a few albums of top-tier deathcore, Signs of the Swarm earned their spot as one of the genre’s better bands, with 2021’s Absolvere being their very peak in my humble opinion. But on 2023’s Amongst the Low and the Empty, along with a jump from Unique Leader to Century Media, came a slight development. While […]

I’m always down for some French black metal on the always reliable Antiq Records. That said, the last releases I dug into were the non-French act, Belnejoum, and the harrowing semi-French depressive black metal of Enterre Vivant. Both enjoyable, but not the usual regal, medieval-sounding French black metal I have come to expect from the […]

Finland’s Sarastus (Finnish for ‘Dawning’) was formed in 2014 and has 2 full-length albums since then. I grabbed the promo for Agony Eternal as I have been on a back metal/melodic black metal kick of late, and the promo dropped terms like ‘anthemic hooks are at the forefront’, ‘melodies spiral with nightsky fervor’, and ‘too […]

I consider myself a fairly well versed JRR Tolkien/ Lord of the Rings fan, but there are those that are just next level, Stephen Colbert types that are just way beyond me. and the duo that forms Anfauglir, Griss (guitars/vocals ) and Lord Bauglir (vocal/synths/drum programming) are in that category. Case and point; Anfauglir is […]

First off, there is a contender for the best album cover art of the year, right there (Though Clamfight’s S/T is still my favorite so far). After a 5-year wait, Germany’s most American-sounding death metal stalwarts, Dehuman Reign, are back with album number 3. And little has changed since 2020s Descending Upon the Oblivious. Still […]

Deliquesce (to liquefy during decomposition), is an Australian brutal/tech death project from Disentomb’s Adrian Cappelletti. He’s joined by vocalist James Cooper (ex-Incarnate), bassist Armando Wall and American session drummer Lyle Cooper (Mithridatum, Humanity Is A Cancer). And it’s a bit different from the hulking, brutal death metal of Disentomb, as Deliquesce is even more technical […]