For a while there in the early/00s, Nails was one of the flagship bands of what I call the “Southern Lord” sound. Bands like Nails, Trap Them, All Pigs Must Die, Black Breath, Dead In the Dirt, playing a filthy form of Swedish Death metal-hued d-beat, crust, grindcore/hardcore. And I’m confident in saying popular new bands […]

Power Metal has been part of my life since Helloween and their Keeper of the Seven Keys albums. A long time, considering that that first album was ’85-’86 I think. Manowar was around then, wearing animal skins and looking absolutely ridiculous. I confused (and wrongly assumed) that Hammerfall were Manowar clones. It might’ve been the […]

Album number 6 from Italy’s master of symphonic/orchestral brutal death metal sees more lineup changes, much like 2019s Veleno. And while they certainly weathered the changes admirably (replacing long-time members Christiano Trionfera and Tommaso Ricardi departing, Francisco Paoli moving from drums to vocals), with a really good album that even showed some more controlled and restrained songs, […]

I reviewed and raved about the Cavalera brothers re-recording the first two recordings of Sepultura, Bestial Devastation/Morbid Visions EP, last year.  Last year when they played “Escape to the Void” and “Inquisition Symphony” live, on the Morbid Devastation tour, I knew it was a matter of time before we all got notice that Schizophrenia was […]

When Arizona’s Gatecreeper burst onto the scene 10 years ago they did it with such gusto, ushering in a bludgeoning death metal sound.  By incorporating many elements of the Swedish chainsaw – buzzsaw HM-2 heaviness with large elements of groove they became one of the heaviest bands, overnight.  Across their prior two albums and eps […]

I have seen Exodus live so many times, it’s ridiculous, both on the east and West Coast, mind you.  I know they’re not in the big 4, but for me, if there was a big 5, Exodus, that is right, not Testament would be there.  Still, to this day, whether on studio albums or live, […]

Listen, I was Korpiklaani fanboy for many years loving the band’s boozy folk metal anthems like “Beer, Beer” and “Happy Little Boozer”, but somewhere around 2008s Korven Kuningas up to 2015s Noita I started losing interest in the band and their albums. The band seemed to get a bit of a hangover, lose their fun […]

So album number 14 (or 15, depending on how you view 2011s Evinta) from England’s long-running Godfathers of Doom sees the band continue down the path of the last album, 2020s The Ghost of Orion, and the subsequent Macabre Cabaret EP both releases I was a bit ambivalent on. Since the band’s 1999 transitional effort […]

Oh, Aborted. We share a little in common. When my parents talk about me, Aborted is brought up. It’s usually at the end of a sentence beginning with “you should have been,” but whatever. As for other things we have in common, there aren’t any. Their new album Vault of Horrors is indeed a new […]

I reviewed Exhorder’s comeback album, Mourn the Southern Skies, in 2019 on TOTD.  While I enjoyed the album, and as a comeback album it was good, but still left some meat on the bone, so to speak.  There were aggressive songs, however, I felt, much of the album was marred by sludgy slow songs, that […]

I reviewed Ministry’s 14th album Moral Hygiene in 2021, on here and really enjoyed it….a lot and now Hopiumforthemasses, their 15th album-wow, is here and sees Al Jourgensen incorporating elements from all the various Ministry eras on here…That’s right.  There are moments going all the way back to their 1983 With Sympathy debut album, which […]

Long-running California thrash metal band Sadus returns with their sixth album, The Shadow Inside.  I was a long time fan of the band’s earlier works and their demos and first three albums, Illusions, Swallowed in Black, A Vision of Misery and they contained the type of technical and hyper-speed thrash that melted face worldwide. I […]

It’s been a difficult few years for Fuming Mouth since they released their debut, The Grand Descent. You can likely get that entire backstory from any other review of this album, so I won’t dive into it here. However, suffice it to say this band came out swinging with their follow-up, Last Day of Sun. […]

So here it finally is…. the new Suffocation album, and notably the first release without original vocalist Frank Mullen, since the band formed in 1990. While other members (other than the other lone original member, guitarist Terrance Hobbs), have come and gone, Frank and Terrance have been there since day one, so this album is […]

Everything about the UK’s Svalbard can be characterized, in one way or another, as high-freaking-impact. Even when the band is taking a brief respite from their usual full-speed-ahead musical approach – a high-octane mix of Post-Hardcore, Metalcore, Black Metal and D-Beat that rarely (if ever) pulls any punches – they’re still likely coming at you face-first […]

I love all things Brujeria.  When they first were getting signed to Roadrunner Records the promotion for their upcoming 1993 debut Matando Gueros was genius.  The magazine, pre-internet, had members of the label in a basement surrounded by the band, the band with bandanas around their faces and they had AK-47’s pointed at it was […]

Despite being one of the first deathcore bands to dabble with black metal keyboards, Carnifex seems to have never quite fully committed to being a full-on symphonic/blackened deathcore band. The last two albums, 2019s World War X and 2021s Graveside Confessions, flip-flopped between more Whitechapel-styled deathcore and slightly more blackened deathcore that they introduced with […]

Montreal Technical Death Masters Cryptopsy returns with their eighth studio album As Gomorrah Burns. It was written over the last two years during the pandemic and they wrote and recorded this in a cabin to add to the horror movie-like ambiance.  This is the first full-length album since their 2012 self-titled release featuring original guitarist […]

Ever since I saw Exmortus with Amon Amarth I’ve been a fan. Their absolutely over the top performance was amazing, the guitars shredded like a fucking meat grinder and the energy of the band made for a memorable experience. Following that show, I picked up Slave to the Sword, Ride Forth and The Sound of […]

Back in the 80’s a little known Brazilian act called Sepultura, set out to conquer the metal world, but their early recordings were a tough listen for many.  Their 1985 ep Bestial Devastation and debut album a year later Morbid Visions, caused underground waves throughout the death metal scene.  Chuck Schuldiner, from Death, wearing Sepultura […]

I do not purport to be an expert on all things Immortal, the long-standing Norwegian Black Metal band, but I do have some interesting things to share, probably more opinions than anything else, before delving into the band’s 10th album, War Against All. Until now I only followed the band from 1992-1996, so that is […]

I think it’s safe to say the Tri-State Area East Coast thrashers Overkill regained their mojo with 2010’s Ironbound album.  They were also armed with a new label Nuclear Blast Records, where they have remained since.  The four albums which followed were also pretty damn ass-kicking and that trend continues with Scorched, the band’s…wait for […]

UK’s long-running doom mavens, Paradise Lost have been a hit or a miss for me.  I’ll admit to being a tremendous fan of their first two albums Lost Paradise and Gothic mainly because of the doom/death/goth atmosphere, but after that, their material was a departure of that sound and just did not do it for […]

In 1994, I was a twenty something working at Best Buy. We had received a copy of the Emperor/Enslaved massive split Hordanes Land and it caught my eye. I had no clue what Black Metal was, had never heard of the genre at all. Of course, Emperor comes first, and those four tracks alone had […]

Imagine, if you would, finding a way to beat the odds and make a legitimate career for yourself in music. Dope! You’ve already lived out the dream of myriads of artists around the world. But not only are you making a living, you’re literally spearheading an entire musical movement – laying a foundation and becoming […]