This fall/early winter, a group of excellent Swedish-styled/HM-2 death metal releases will be vying for your attention and hard-earned cash. Belgium’s Carnation,  Prosthetic Records’ 2023 foray into the genre, Xorsist, Australia’s The Plague, reliable German vets Endseeker, and the best of the bunch, the long overdue second album from Sweden’s Gravestone. The 2018 debut, Sickening, […]

Welcome to the Annual Cynicism Roundtable, where we bring the world’s prominent cynics together to share why we think the world is total bullshit. As always, I’m hosting several well-known guests, such as my first, Neill Jameson of Krieg. I’d ask how you are, but I think we all know the answer. On that note, […]

Guitarist/Vocalist Tim Rowland’s Alchemy of Flesh album returns with By Will Alone.   A big change in terms of sound on this record is that he strictly uses six-string guitars tuned to D Standard.   The last album was a bit of a tribute to Morbid Angel, and it was noted that Rowland was trying to use […]

I kinda dug, These Nameless Worlds, the debut EP from this atmospheric/melodic black metal duo from Sweden. Despite the light-less moniker, it was a cosmic-themed, uplifting, bright take on the genre with some very pleasant melodies in the vein of Ghostbath, Vinland, Numeron, and Vallendusk. Well here is the full-length debut on the very fitting […]

Mouth For War hail from Colorado and outside of this release are new to these ears.  Having released An Ear Kept To The Ground ep in 2019, and Life Cast In Glass full-length in 2021.   Bleed Yourself is their second full-length album. Mouth For War play a beatdown version of metalcore with nods to bands […]

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. […]

No longer a band with international members, USA’s brutal tech death metal/deathcore band Wormhole returns with their third album, Almost Human, and debut on Season of Mist Records. Wormhole has been around for 8 years and their 2016 debut, Genesis, caught my attention with the monstrous tech brutality and brutal beatdown slams.  Outside of the […]

Germany’s Alkaloid have returned with a massive double disc release in Numen.  For those of you not familiar with Alkaloid it is a side project of guitarist Christan Muenzer (Obscura) along with bassist Linus Klausenitzer (Check out his solo record also released this year) and drummer Hannes Grossmann (Hate Eternal, Obscura). The opening track of […]

Once upon a time in Ireland, four lads got together in 2002 to create some funny as fuck and heavy as fuck Thrash Metal and throughout the course of eight full-length releases; including Bats they have achieved that goal whole-handedly, because goddamn Bats is fucking incredible. Does it stand up against Survival of the Fastest […]

So this fall sees a couple of Matt Schott (Valdur, Sxuperion) projects drop new albums. There’s a disgusting new Cabinet EP and this project he has with his former cohort in Weverin, named Oreamnos. I covered the prior Oreamnos release, Into the Night, and it was as I was expected considering Schott’s (who does drums […]

I listen to a lot of Black Metal, and through doing these reviews I hear a lot of different styles, so it’s not a surprise that I love the absolute hell out of this album. I could leave it there, however my editor would yell at me though and I don’t want that. But I […]

I’m surprised this project didn’t get more attention earlier this autumn. It is a project formed from the ashes of Cruish-Nir, which was Romanian lyricist/conceptualist Valentin Untaru and multi-instrumentalist Robert Cotoros. However, after the passing of Cotoros in 2020, Untaru resurrected the project but gathered some well-known musicians to bring his lyrics and concepts to […]

Is this the Death/Doom album of the year? That’s for you to decide, bitch. However, Death/Doom is absolutely my wheelhouse and I have been underwhelmed by a lot of the output so far this year. At this time last year, I felt the same, and then Mother of Graves punched me in the gut. So, […]

All the underground maniacs, me included rejoiced in moribund when Autopsy put the pieces back together and reformed in 2008/2009.  The band always a cult favorite was happy to see how their name, over the years, had grown to more than just cult status.  What was originally supposed to be a short-lived reunion became full-blown […]

I have a soft spot for Gothic Metal. It goes pretty deep, this Gothic love. So when this album popped up in the promo bin I picked it out because I saw that Kostas Salomidis was attached to it. In case you haven’t heard of him, then you should be checking out his band Distorted […]

For my real, actual paying job, I do a fair bit of travel and on said travel, I meet some interesting folks. Some good, some bad, some eccentric. What has always been consistent is metal heads, when they identify each other in the wild, generally get along and have a good time. It’s just kind […]

Canada’s Tomb Mold have a pretty good underground death metal following in their short 8-year existence and their output has been excellent, honing their craft and releasing better albums each and every time.  Their third album in 2019, Planetary Clairvoyance, was their finest hour.  The band increased their touring output as well increased their exposure […]

Technical Death Metal Italians Gory Blister returns with the 7th full length.  The album kicks off with a cool synth intro into some thrashy riffing over aggressive blasting.  Reminds me of a cross between Vader and Hate Eternal.  “Push through the Venom” gets things kicked off after a fun short intro.   The production is quite […]

If somehow Gravesend’s previous album, Methods of Human Disposal, didn’t catch your eye with its artwork of a nun holding a newspaper with the headline “Pope Shot,” perhaps their new album Gowanus Death Stomp will. If you were able to get through my introductory run-on sentence, good for you. Good for all of us. Good […]

Long Island, New York’s Afterbirth return with their third album In but Not Of, and the band has shifted from Unique Leader Records to Willowtip, another reputable, but smaller record label.  The album cover, once again done by guitarist mastermind, Cody Drasser, is eye-catching, and ties in with their previous ones.  I am not a […]

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 […]

There’s no argument that this summer has been the hottest the planet has ever experienced. Temperatures soared into the hundreds and a desperate population searched for any relief from the blistering heat. However it’s fall now (meteorologically speaking) and an album to fit the changing season is needed. Enter Malokarpatan and their fourth full-length Vertumnus […]

I love Black Metal, the rawer the better, and the more tortured and vile the better. The raw hate of the Black Legions in France, True Norwegian Black Metal, the fact is that every country has it’s own vital scene, using their traditional influences to carve their own niche and get that legendary status that […]

From Helsinki Finland, Technical Dissonant Death Metallers Omnivortex returns with their second full-length Circulate. The album kicks off with “Dwells” which opens with a huge dissonant vibrato riff that leads the way for an impressive track.   What makes Omnivortex unique is their dual vocal approach. Both the drummer Aaro Osterman and guitarist Aaro Österman manage […]

After 3 years, countless singles, EPs, and compilations former Amon Amarth and Blood Mortized guitarist Anders Biazzi and his cohorts are finally back with a full-length album (number 5) to follow up 2020s An Army at Dawn, one of the better Bolt Thrower worshiping albums of the last few years. But there are a few […]