2024 has been the year of the EP. I think I might have covered more EPs this year than in previous and that’s not a bad thing. They’re bite sized albums, five maybe six tracks; half an hour tops. Yet within those handfuls of tracks, magic (albeit a dark, blood soaked and decapitated rabbit) can […]

There are 3 heavy hitters of the recent death metal resurgence I am reviewing (late). I don’t want to spoil it too much, but Ripped to Shreds is the best of them. The other two are not slouches, either. It’s a tight race, but Sanshi is better. The reason it’s better is RIFFS. Andrew Lee […]

I’ve loved Dark Ambient Music or ‘Dungeon synth’ music since the first time I heard Mortiis’ Født til å herske, but even before his music, I loved Midnight Syndicate. They were a Halloween and night drive staple, as well as Thou Shalt Suffer‘s Somnium; yes I’m bouncing around years, no I don’t care. I really […]

The first time I heard Steve Moore was the soundtracks for Mayhem and The Mind’s Eye (2017 and 2016 respectively). Zombi is a collaboration between Moore and A.E. Paterra and I have taken a deep dive into their music since getting the promo for Direct Inject. Since their inception in 2001 they’ve released six studio […]

If you had told me in 1994 that a band with the name Dying Fetus (DF) would eventually become one of the biggest names in death metal I would have told you to get your head examined…..but that is precisely what has occurred through the decades.  Dying Fetus returning with their ninth full-length album Make […]

The creators of cavernous unholy death metal, Incantation, once again return to the table with Unholy Deification.  A 10-song 41-minute album that is not quite on par with their last album, Sect of Vile Divinities, which I reviewed three years ago, and which I hailed as one of the finest albums they ever crafted. One […]

You know what they say, Outer Heaven, innie belly button. Or something. These young cosmic death metal fiends took a risk by letting five years pass between albums at a time when the new wave of old-school death metal is taking over. So, it has high expectations, especially from me since I almost literally live […]

Florida’s Obituary needs no introduction, being one of the legitimately legendary American Death metal bands, if not the godfathers of the genre. From genre-defining classics like Slowly We Rot and Cause of Death to their post-hiatus offerings like Inked in Blood,  Xecutioner’s Return, and Darkest Day you know what you are getting. That said, 2017s, […]

2022 has been quite the year for  Hoaxed. While maybe not a meteoric rise, per se, the virtually unknown Portland duo – armed with only a 4 song self-titled EP to their name – landed a surprise rotation on tour earlier this year with Amorphis, Uada and Sylvaine which, when you hear the band for the first […]

First things first…I. Love. Obituary. They were one of the first death metal bands that I ever heard back in the day and their music was never far from me throughout the ’90’s. While Cause of Death was my actual first exposure to the band, via one of my only other death metal loving friends […]

Ripped to Shreds has been doing this nasty, skronky, old school death metal for a while, but the style has recently taken off. There are several incredible albums in this domain so far in 2022. Namely, Molder, Phobophilic, and Tribal Gaze, to name some recent ones. There’s always been something a little more distinct with […]

Detroit’s death/doom mongers Temple of Void has parlayed 3 solid albums (notably the last 2 efforts,  2017s Lords of Death and 2020s The World That Was on Shadow Kingdom Records) into a deal with heavyweight label Relapse Records. And as you’d expect on a jump to the ‘majors’, the band has upped the ante, but […]

This is a nice little ditty of a release with Matt Harvey leading the way in both bands.  For the Exhumed side it’s 3 songs and 2 for the Gruesome side – “The Gruesome Twosome”…I couldn’t resist.  5 songs in about 20 minutes and I have gone through this split multiple times and it’s a […]

Incantation return with their 11th full length album, yes other than track order, Mortal Throne of Nazarene and Upon the Throne of Apocalypse is the same album except for the changed track order and different album cover.  I do digress for a moment – Relapse put out a stunning remaster of Throne… with a bonus […]

Gatecreeper’s 2016 debut album Sonoran Deprivation, caused a bit of a stir as Relapse Records signed and released a US based death metal album after a few years of lagging behind in the death metal arena. It was a solid, near great album of Swedish styled lumbering death/doom, and the follow up, Deserted follows suite, […]

Sweet Texas watermelon! Has it been two years already? Wow…it really doesn’t seem like a couple of years have passed since Exhumed released their fan and critic praised Death Revenge, but here I am blasting my eardrums as well as my face, clean into oblivion with the aural onslaught that is Horror, Exhumed‘s seventh full-length […]

Chug…chug… chug….blast…blast…blast…limbs are crushed…sinkholes erupt…lava explodes….ripped off heads…atomic blast…sky is torn…chest collapsing…atmosphere no more…planet dies……………….Yes, Devourment are back with their 5th album-Obscene Majesty, and their longest album yet at 47 minutes. They figured let us just bludgeon the listener more and more and if we do it longer than the beginning above part of this […]

I’m a little overdue on this one and frankly I didn’t really feel like chiming in with a review on Pig Destroyer’s latest platter of pain until some of the usual hype that comes with their releases died down.  They’re pretty much a love it or hate it proposition for most people at this point […]

I’ve had my eye on Outer Heaven for a bit as the band hails from my home state PA and a friend of mine introduced me to a pair of their singles.  “Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay” and “Into Hellfire” are the songs that made me take notice and convinced me that Outer Heaven was […]

Back in 2015, Matt Harvey of Exhumed fame gathered some of his pals from Possessed, Malevolent Creation and Derketa and released Savage Land, an  almost note for note  homage to Chuck Schuldiner,  Death and the seminal Leprosy album. He followed it up with an EP, Dimensions of Horror  a more raw release that seemed more focused on earlier Death […]

If you enjoyed Temple of Void‘s Lords of Death last year, Washington D.C’s Genocide Pact will make you happy with their second album, their Relapse Records debut, Order of Torment as it present the same sort of simple, groove based mid tempo doom/death metal, just with a little less experimentation. As with Temple of Void,  […]

Iron Reagan, the side-project from Municipal Waste and Darkest Hour members return with their third album. I was a huge fan of their prior albums: Worse than Dead and The Tyranny of Will. Caught the band live, opening for the Napalm Death/Voivod/Exhumed tour and they were phenomenal live.Iron Reagan play a brand of crossover thrash, […]

The apocalypse finally arrives. Water levels rise; the ground splits in two as previous terraforms are obliterated. Rains pour and fires rage with no end. Lush fields and calm plains instantly turn to sand under the fierce gaze of an unforgiving sun. Mother nature bears no ill will toward mankind but is also supremely unconcerned […]

After one of the more successful comebacks of the last few years with 2012s Vanquish in Vengeance, death metal legends Incantation had a quick turn around with 2014s Dirges of Elysium, a solid album, but a bit of a step back with a cleaner, more sterile production and a bit of a rushed sense of […]

  I was born in ’82, so while I was learning my ABCs Wino was already crafting a canon of masterpieces that still stand the test of time today.  The man has absolutely nothing to prove; reinventing himself from a hard livin’, outlaw doom rock n’ roll demon to a solo bluesman while exploring every […]