I’m fairly new to Sweden’s Meadow’s End despite my love of all things that melds symphonics and metal, having only recently discovered the band’s 2016 release, Sojourn (in part to a brilliant piece of evocative cover art), and thusly grabbing the bands other 2 previous releases and pre ordering this, the band’s fourth effort. What […]

Believe it or not, 2019 has delivered the best In Flames record since 2006’s Come Clarity with I, the Mask.  12+ years later, In Flames seems to be rediscovering themselves as a guitar and drums driven band. As a lifelong fan and someone who appreciates their entire catalog, albeit some albums much more than others; […]

I was rather impressed with the debut album Memento Mori, back in 2016 from these French melodic death metallers, and they have finally released a follow up in Prokopton, and no surprise, it’s just as impressive and consistent as the debut. Again with a sound heavily rooted in the string/synth-heavy, brighter, bouncy tones of early Children […]

Good lord- talk about an obscure blast from the past. I vaguely remember purchasing this Swdish band’s debut EP Alienor back in 1993 as a blind purchase, and kind digging it. It was a more progressive slightly different take on death metal back then, but 2 albums later in 1994 and 1996 the band disappeared […]

Creating anything is hard, even if you’re a master of your craft. I don’t care if you’re Spielberg, Scorsese, Pixar, or Stephen King. You still need to take your raw, half-formed idea, and then use all of your skill, experience, judgment, and persistence to shape it into something that measures up to or surpasses your […]

Earlier this year I regrettably slept on the sophomore LP from Denver outfit Necropanther. Now the impressive young band has recently dropped the first of a planned series of EP’s, each written exclusively by an individual band member, beginning with Oppression, a three song effort penned by bassist Marcus Corich. I also thought it would […]

I’ll go ahead and assume that Germany’s Godskill is named after killing Gods, and not the skill said God possesses. Anyway, what we have here is a late 2018 release that is a pretty solid second album from these burly melodic death metalers. Imbuing the chunky Danish scene akin to Illdisposed, Corpus Mortale, Dawn of Disease and […]

Founder and owner of now-defunct Canadian record label Blasthead records, Paul Shaw, always had an ear for good music, even if his own tech death band Hate Division was merely average. But it appears he and his Hate Division pals have a better knack for melodic death metal. With nods to Amon Amarth, Arghoslent, Helcaraxe, […]

When you deliver an debut album that arguably reinvigorated melodic death metal in 2004s A Celebration Guilt, expectations tend to pile on and pile up, and despite a Children of Bodom like trajectory, founder and brainchild James Malone has largely responded well with subsequent albums, maybe with the exception of 2010s more rock based Starve for the […]

I’m not familiar with The Netherlands’ Bleeding Gods, but they have some Dutch scene veteran’s in their fold (Houwister, Grind Minded, Debauchery, Divine Sins) and a 2015 debut album under their belt. And with a few key words like ‘symphonic’ and ‘Hercules’,  ‘war’ and ‘death metal’ popping up, I decided to give their second effort a […]

If only other bands’ cutting room floors looked like Soilwork’s. When they released The Living Infinite in 2013, I marveled at how many superb songs they had turned out during those writing sessions – enough for an absurdly generous double album that was also my #1 pick for the year. And then some, it turns out, when they […]

I’ve been a longtime Dream Theater fan – 21 years, in fact, since the release of one of the finest progressive metal albums ever released, Images and Words. And yet, in all of that time, I’ve never checked out any of vocalist James LaBrie’s solo material (4 albums’ worth). A friend slapped me around a […]

Wow. x2. Soilwork have returned with their strongest release to date, and they’ve done it with a double album. This means they’ve just topped themselves – and likely the rest of the entire melodeath genre – twice. These two albums coalesce everything that’s always been dazzling about Soilwork, from the early shredfest barrage of Steelbath Suicide and The Chainheart […]

Remember in the late 90s when In Flames and Dark Tranquility were exploding? When Children of Bodom were fresh and awesome and young energetic, but short lived melodic death metal bands like Lothlorien, Auberon, Ebony Tears, Embracing, and Eucharist were releasing killer albums? Well, if you long for those days of bouncy, busy, solo filled, […]

The sophomore release, Formshifter, from Allegaeon refines and polishes what they had established with their debut on Fragments of Form and Function – tight, technical, groove and hook-laden riffs with catchy choruses and blazing shredding all along the fretboard and deep, commanding death growls. Unlike a lot of other technical death metal bands, that like […]

So back in 2010 I reviewed the self-released debut from Portugal’s Karnak Seti, and it was a surprisingly good melodic death metal effort that imbued the the genre’s once hailed stylings and even reminded me a little of Disillusion‘s landmark debut. Well, the band were kind enough to send me the follow-up, In Harmonic Entropy, […]

A common idiom states: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” something December Flower (taken from the In Flames song of the same name) has taken to heart with In Flames, Eucharist and Dark Tranquillity; at least their earlier forms from the mid-90s. This German quintet, made up of former members of Chronicles of Tyrants, […]

Still a musical anomaly residing on Facedown Records , Finland’s Immortal Souls are four albums in to their career and have yet to truly impress me. Their form of melodic “wintery” death metal has always been solid, but I’m never craving this band. So I’m not sure what’s more impressive, the fact they are still […]

There’s a fine line between plagiarism and homage. And in metal, that line is even thinner as many acts have simply said, ‘you know what? We like this band we are going to sound just like them, not to rip them off maliciously but they just rock’. For every Suffocation, Entombed, Morbid Angel and Slayer […]

In their four album transition from typical Finnish doom death outfit to a melancholic melodic (melocholic?) death metal, Insomnium have done no wrong. Each album being better than the last. And album number 5 is no different as the band manages to take slivers of recognizable influences like Rapture, Amorphis, In Flames, Paradise Lost, My […]

This band literally came out from nowhere to knock me on my ass. Sorry, I just had to – I’m a cheeseball like that. From Spain, From Nowhere are another of those smelting pot type bands, incorporating influences from many sources. They are at once thrashy, deathly, melodic, grooving, and technical. I struggle to find […]

It’s been a while since I heard a quality, old school, pure modern melodic death metal album  — and no, In Flames does not count. Here is Poland’s Made of Hate attempting to solve just that with their sophomore effort and they meet with a measure of success. Though glossed with a little thrash and a little, dare […]

I’ve followed the UK’s The Belonging for a while now, from their slightly forgetful 2005 debut, Setting the Scene, to 2009’s Ashes of a Fallen Throne, where the band took an improved step into impressive blackened war metal. And now, in 2011, with their third follow up, we’ve got yet another quality self-released album. Continuing their […]

Another “super group” of sorts, World Under Blood is the product of CKY guitarist Deron Miller and skins beating journeyman Tim Yeung (Divine Heresy, Morbid Angel, ex- Decrepit Birth, ex- Agiel, etc), . Along for the ride is ex-Decrepit Birth four stringer Risha Eryavec and guitarist Luke Jaeger, who has done time in All Shall […]

I’ve never really considered myself anything but a relatively casual fan of The Black Dahlia Murder, despite their rather large status in the realms of modern metal. With a sound that’s been cloned more times than Jenna Jameson has had cocks in her, their appeal loses even more luster as I blame them for the […]