Cognizance is a brutal technical death metal duo from the UK.  Their 2013 debut release was a 4 song ep that the record label just sent me and my god this is some of the best and most memorable tech-death metal music you will hear.  The ep features some guest musicians, with The Faceless drummer […]

Los Angeles Californian, grind/punk/crust act Nausea, FINALLY return with their sophomore album, hell it’s been over 2 decades since the unleashing of Crime Against Humanity, for crissakes.  But we know how life is.  It’s really tough to keep a band going, especially when you throw in life responsibilities, on top of band responsibilities.  I will […]

Chalk up yet another winner in the Finnish death metal community, with Desecresy, a 2 piece act. In 5 years they have released 2 full length albums. The 2010, Arches of Entropy and 2012 The Doom Skeptron are among some of the finest death metal you will find anywhere. I agree with Tommi’s answer, when you read it, that they do have a strong Bolt Thrower influence. This is in terms of their rumbling mid paced heaviness that steamrolls all in its path, taking no prisoners. The band also has a thick Finnish atmosphere in terms of the riffs in that they’re heavy, memorable and played with feeling.

Hailing from AustraliaGaped is 1 man death metal project, from Ryan Huthnance, & is some killer death metal.  He was formerly in Mortal Sin and my forthcoming interview with him will delve into how he does all the instruments, etc… The Murderous Inception is a 6 song ep that all lovers of Chris Barnes era […]

2008 saw the emergence of this Arizona based guttural death metal act, that due to line-up troubles saw the band almost breaking up. Necrambulant put the pieces back together and their signing to Lacerated Enemy Records helped bring about Infernal Infectious Necro-Ambulatory Pandemic, their debut album. If you have bands like Epicardiectomy, Abominable Putridity or […]

Vulvectomy is a brutal gore/grind band from Italy. They have 3 albums under their belts and their latest album that came out last year, Abusing Dismembered Beauties, on Sevared Records is their best one yet. Showing more maturity in their writing and song structures. With drum machines, it can be a hit or a miss, but Vulvectomy really goes the extra mile in making sure it sounds close to organic as possible and they do an excellent job of this. I swear listening to their latest album, there were times, that it feels like a human drummer. Really if you love ultra brutal music, with tons of memorable slams and if you have failed to buy a Vulvectomy cd, than you need to be given a beating.

Temple Nightside is an Australian black metal band that venture quite a bit into the ambient atmospheric textures of music. Their 2011 ep, Prophecies of Malevolence can best be described as extremely raw black metal with a production that is so low fi, it makes early Dark Throne sound like it was recorded at Morrisound […]

Derogatory is from California and play a mid 90’s Floridian style of death metal that is quite good. Not quite up to par with the likes of labelmates, Skeletal Remains, but still kick ass nonetheless. After an instrumental intro “Into the Depth of Time”, comes out the starting gates and I’m instantly reminded of classic […]

2011 saw the debut album from Visceral Disgorge, Ingesting Putridity. This Baltimore, Maryland brutal guttural death metal band were only interested in creating some of the most punishing death metal out there and they did it with ease. The album contains 9 songs of sheer extreme slam brutality with songs that are super catchy so that you can hum the tune while bashing holes in your house from creating circle whirlwind pits! I’ve seen Visceral Disgorge live several times and they deliver an extremely tight and brutal set and the local crowd just eats it up every time. I have been in touch over the years with their singer, Travis and have hung out with him at the local shows. A true underground supporter of the scene and he wants the best for his band, as well as the local death metal scene. Just a really down to earth dude who just so happens to have a super killer death metal voice

Xtreem Music return with a classic reissue of Dissect’s debut album Swallow Swouming Mass in a killer 2cd set.  This Holland based death metal act released this debut album some 20 years ago and it was overlooked by a lot of people, which is a shame, because it’s a kick ass record.  Sometimes presentation also […]

Back in 2012 Unique Leader Records released one of their best albums that year, Obeisance Rising, the debut from Hideous Divinity. I love the Italian death metal scene and it has nothing to do with me being Italian. It goes all the way back to Necrodeath and their stunning debut album, Into the Macabre, back in ’87, when I purchased the beautiful double gatefold vinyl. Over the last decade the Italian death metal scene has continued to grow and transform itself into a country that is a force to be reckoned with. The bands are getting more and more vicious and the Hideous Divinity album last year, for me, was spectacular.

Emblazoned, burst onto the scene in 1999 and put out a demo in 2001 called Nocturnal Arsonist and then an ep in 2005 A Ceremony of Hellfire. This past year they unleashed a brand new incredible ep The Living Magisterium. The band incorporates killer blackened death metal with elements of thrash and some doom/death metal. I gave this ep high marks a while ago and think it’s fantastic. It’s really powerful and everything from the singing to amazing guitar riffs will stay embedded in your head for days on end. They hail from the midwest in the U.S. and anyone that knows anything about American death metal knows that some of the sickest and most depraved bands, as well as serial killers, come from this area. Kevin Forsythe is the guitarist for the band and I’ll forgive him for calling the Cowboys, the Cowgirls, since he’s a cool dude and sent this interview back to me quicker than Aaron Rodgers can say “My collarbone hurts”. My interview with him is below and be sure to pick up The Living Magisterium right after you read this.

Calmed By The Tides Of Rain released the killer album, Phaeton, recently, that I raved about in my review on here and now the Russian slam deathcore band are back with a digital only 3 song ep, Hives. One of the things that I spoke about is that they had more death than core to […]

Cadaver Mutilator is a brutal death metal band, from Italy and this is their debut album.  One thing is for certain Italy is becoming the hotbed for ultra brutal death metal, these days.  Many of the bands going for the jugular in their approach to music and if you’re a fan of bands, like Putridity, […]

Dysmorphic is a technical death metal band from France and A Notion of Causality is their full length debut album.  They have a self financed ep from a few years back that I have yet to hear.  Some of the ep tracks appear on this full length and one would assume they have been revamped.  […]

I first heard about Epicardiectomy sometime in 2012 and after hearing some internet snippets I rushed to find their debut cd online, Abhorrent Stench of Posthumous Gastrorectal Desecration, on Coyote Records. Suffice to say this Czech Republic band became an instant favorite of mine. Playing a ridiculous heavy slam death brand of death metal that is pure knuckle dragging brutality. With song titles aptly named, “Fornicating in Pulverized Feces” or how about the top forty hit, “Feasting on Putrid Hysterectomy Remnants”? Tongue twisters to pronounce, yet complete brutal head smashing viciousness.

Back when I was fronting Internal Bleeding, Deathrune was one of the local NY acts that we played with and I became friends with their singer Kelly Izquierdo.  Killer dudes and a great live act as well.  Dark Blasphemies Records has put together an absolute beast of a reissue/compilation, containing all of Deathrune’s material across a […]

Oceano, after previously going into hiatus due to singer, Adam, becoming a father (congratulations dude), have returned with their 3rd deathcore inspired album that is a pretty good listen, from this Chicago based band.  I love their debut album, Depths, which came out in 2009.  Super heavy and the bass bomb drops were the heaviest I […]

Ok, here is a brief history of Pestilence & some out there may have similar viewpoints.  Their first 3 albums are legendary in my book, therefore pointless to comment on.  The 1993 release of their progressive, jazz-fusion hybrid death metal album, Spheres, polarized their fan base so much that fans dropped off the face of […]

I first saw Pyrexia live, at a small Long Island, NY club in 1992, called Sparks. Their demo, Liturgy of Impurity had just been released and they opened for Suffocation that night, Human Remains were also on the bill-it was insane, so was Immolation. Damn talk about a line-up! I was blown away by Pyrexia and picked up the demo and shirt. To this day this is one of my all time favorite demos and live the place went nuts and I was in the pit doing wind mills like a bastard! The band had a knack for creating brutal NYDM that was so catchy that the songs attached to your brain instantly upon hearing them for the first time. Back then, man I would sing the title track all the time, Virgin Mary violated, conceived you, a son of Satan, crucified for your denial, where is he who art in heaven? Then BOOM-it goes into that crucial slam part that you just wanted to punch holes in walls-live this part was one of the most vicious live experiences you would encounter.

It’s been 6 long years since Pyrexia’s last album, Age of the Wicked, was released and what we have here folks is Feast of Iniquity, the fourth album in this legendary NYDM band’s repertoire and it’s a bulldozer of an album. WOW-Zeus mixed and mastered this bad boy at his Planet Z Studio and one […]

Boal is a brutal death metal band, hailing from The Netherlands, playing a really chunky style of death metal that is mostly U.S. influenced, with some European tinges.  Album opener “Deranged”, blasts right out of the starting gates and the vocals are exceptional, alternating between ultra low gutturals and some screams.  If you’re a fan […]

Florida’s Brutality return with their first official recording since the outstanding 1996 album, In Mourning.  We only get 2 songs, but they are really good songs and this also marks the return of the original band logo. The 8 minute title track opens the album and the return of the signature Brutality blast beats hits […]

My introduction into France’s Aosoth is quite recent. Graham Landers, from Deepsend Records some time ago stated their new album was his favorite of 2013, at that time. Now I have gone on record that I’m more of an older school black metal fan, like Bathory and I still love Dark Throne, to this day. I love blackened death metal and Aosoth combine black metal with death metal influence and I agree with Graham’s assessment that IV: An Arrow in Heart is one of this years highlights. I reviewed it a while back and scored it 9.5/10 and feel this is the band’s magnum opus. Their past material, the 2008 self titled album (which I recently was able to get) and the 2009 Ashes of Angels are pure black metal, but played so viciously and amazing, that I feel they conjure up some of the great legendary black metal albums of the early 90’s.

When Sepultura burst into the scene in 1985 with the Bestial Devastation split LP in 1985 I was an instant fan and had the pleasure of seeing them on their SOS tour on their Beneath the Remains U.S. tour with openers Sadus and Obituary.  This was a classic show and I spoke at length to […]