Norway’s Deception returns with their second full-length album Daenacteh. I have been a fan of Deception since their last record The Mire (2019). I was also pleased earlier in the year to find out that their guitarist vocalist Sindre Wathne Johnsen is now the new vocalist for Blood Red Throne. For those not familiar with […]

This long fairly long-running Norwegian black metal band is new to me, but when I saw references to the likes of early Arcturus and Borknagar in the promotional blurb that came with it, I had to check it out. And Ye gads the blurb was correct! And indeed, eccentric symphonic black metal with a quirky […]

Recently I have been getting a lot of synth/keyboard heavy metal of various styles across my desk: Hope for the Dying, Rapheumets Well, Enthean, Winterhorde, Elvaron, The Devils of Loudun, Pathways, Hyperion, and this, the solid second effort from France’s Blood Ages. Blood Ages’ take on metal is death metal with a Middle Eastern flair similar to Nile. […]

I had zero expectations for this album. Considering the label’s recent out put, that cover, the moniker and album title that reads as ‘mediocrity’ at a glance. However, with this sophomore effort, these Swiss vets (who have toiled in DarkRise since 2003) have actually , along with Epsilon’s Zu Richten and Tomb of Finland‘s Below the Green, are bringing a […]

OK Mighty Music, THIS is more like it!!!!!!!!!! After a slew of awful rock, Mighty Music has released something that I more expect from the label. Some chunky, beefy European death metal by way of Austria’s Epsilon (formerly known as Side Y)and their second full length album. These guys are new to me, but I like what […]

Prejudices, they’re a bitch. Whether it is literature, music, food, or people, prejudices never amount to anything good. We all have them though, in some way, shape, or form we all prejudge something. Even as we understand and try our best to avoid them, we eventually fail…and fail is what I did when I first […]

I’ve said it before, I’m saying it now, and ill say it again; I don’t know what the fuck is going on at Mighty Music. Once a bastion for burly European death and black metal, the label is churning out mainstream rock, or just tripe like The Grumpynators, Fried Okra  Band, Franklin Zoo, Bullet Train Blast, See the Sky, Black Book […]

“The French female-fronted metal band UNSAFE brings the metal scene to a new level”… or so says the band’s label Mighty Music. A tad ironic, being that that is quite a mighty claim in itself, the problem is that it is nowhere close to the truth. Not that Enter Dark Places is a bad album, […]

I’m not sure what was going on over at the usually reliable Mighty Music at the end of 2014. After a couple of solid releases in Solbrud,  Planet Rain and Herod, the label sent me a slew of hard rock releases; Ruinside, Distance, 23 Acez, Annominus, Estate, Saint Rebel and such. And all of it pretty awful; Not […]

There is definitely a time and place for no-frills death metal.  It can probably be argued that that style might be the last true take on the genre now that death metal has been splintered into the factions of overly complex posturing or equally heartless Incantation worship.  It’s hard to not judge a record nowadays […]

2014 was  an quietly decent  year for high quality folk/viking with Eluveitie’s Origins, Crimson Shadows‘ Kings Among Men, Nothgards, Age of Pandora, Skalmond’s Með vættum, Valknacht’s Le Sacrifice d’Ymir and Equilibrium’s Erdentempel (with only Equilibrium making my 2014 year end list).  And I wish I could say that Denmark’s Vanir and their 3rd album would be included in that list but unfortunately it’s a […]

Solbrud hails from Denmark. Although this is the band’s second full-length, it’s my first encounter with them. The sound displayed on Jaertegn is vaguely reminiscent of darker, more raw European folk-metal acts such as Ygg and Wodensthrone, although to my ears this actually shares more in common with Cascadian black metal, such as Wolves in […]

Sometimes I just need a break from all the brutal music I listen to. Whether it’s some bouncy folk/viking metal, some melodic black metal or just something else to reset to internal brutality meter. Recently, it’s a few choice releases- the debut from Moldavia’s Arcturus worshiping Chordewa, Deathpoint’s soaring metalcore, Barishi’s prog waft and this, the second album […]

The Swiss are putting themselves back on the metal map early in 2014 with the likes of Tryptikon, Schammasch, Near Death Condition and Impure Wilhemina and this, the rather impressive debut of progressive sludge/post rock from Herod. They Were None is above all things heavy as shit.  And while tangibly culling from obvious contemporaries like Neurosis, Isis, The […]

I wasn’t expecting much from this, the debut of Denmark’s Roarback. I mean the moniker, the cover art all screamed old school thrash, which really isn’t my cup of tea. However, the old adage about books and covers came into play, as Echoes of Pain ended up being a kickass little old school death/thrash record. […]

I vaguely remember long running Swiss act Sludge and their late 90’s releases (Sweet Daisy, The Well, Scarecrow Messiah), as they had a couple of Tomas Skogsberg/Sunlight Produced efforts, had Samael guitarist Makro in their ranks and plied a dirty mix of death doom and thrash that was a pretty heavy sound coming from the […]

Denmark’s Mevadio are either going to appeal to a lot of people or simply not appeal to a lot of people simply based on their wide variety of influences. Part thrash, part melo death, part Nu metal, part modern groove metal, Mevadio could appeal to the Strapping Young Lad/Skinlab/Machine Head crowd with their robust, beefy […]

You’d think that a lineup of Swedish death and black metal veterans like Jocke Widfeldt (Dominion Caligula, ex-Obscurity), Matti Mäkelä (ex-Dark Funeral, Dominion Caligula, ex-Obscurity) ,Tobbe Sillman (Guidance of Sin, The Dead ), Robert Lundin (ex-Dark Funeral, Dominion Caligula, ex-Obscurity) and especially Jörgen Sandström (ex-Grave, ex-Corpse, The Project Hate, Krux, ex-Entombed, Death Breath, Putrefaction, Torture […]

Death metal has its share of geographic sounds; the Stockholm sound, the Gothenburg sound, the Florida sound, the Birmingham sound, the Canadian sound etc. Well one of the more overlooked sounds is the Denmark sound. Generally highlighted by chunk and heft with a dash of thrash rather than speed (and more often than not produced […]

With members of Exmortem in its ranks, you’d expect the debut full length from Denmark’s Spectral Mortuary to be lifeless blast fest, but in truth it looks like Mighty Music may have unearthed one of Europe’s hidden death metal gems. This is just damn fine death metal from top to bottom. Much like the recent […]

What a perfect name for a doom/death album. Slovakia’s Thalarion have been one of the bands I’ve always liked as they have perfected the “beauty and the beast” sound, mixing guttural death metal, atmospheric doom elements, and a hint of goth for three albums now. With their fourth album Tunes Of Despondency, Thalarion appears to […]