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 […]

If In Flames‘ Foregone has whetted your appetite for Swedish, 1994-1997 era melodic death metal nostalgia, then let’s continue your meal with another band from that era, Falkenberg’s Ablaze My Sorrow. Knocking around the same times as their clear peers (then and now) In Flames and Dark Tranquility, Ablaze My Sorrow was a productive, if […]

Oklahoma’s PeelingFlesh was introduced to me relatively recent by our dear site owner Erik T.  Their 2022 Slampilation Mixtape compilation combined all their previous singles and EP’s and the band has been busy writing since they formed in 2021. The band has yet to release a full-length album because now they grace us with this […]

World War One was, without a doubt, the most brutal war in Military History. In terms of lives lost and concerning the horror of trench warfare, was the battle of the Somme. It’s in those blood-soaked forests and fields that form the setting for Feuerwalze and those trenches where thousands lost their lives. What better […]

I have been looking forward to this one. First off, the cover artwork is fantastic.  I am going to want to mail order this and get a shirt as well.  “Demonic Totem I Am” gets the album going.  The opening riff hook has a Deeds of Flesh Vibe to it and even more so when […]

I’ve got a pretty long history with Scotland’s death metal veterans Man Must Die. From covering the band and their 2003 demo in Metal Maniacs, reviewing their massive 2004 debut, ….Start Killing , for Digitalmetal.com, to their 2 Relapse Records releases, (The Human Condition and No Tolerance for Imperfection to Peace Was Never an Option […]

If you get naked, cry, and sacrifice babies at the altar of death doom, you probably like Insomnium. So, I guess the GOP can start looking for pedophiles at their shows (or in their mirrors). I’m only here to help. I’m no fanboy, but I do enjoy their output, particularly my favorite of theirs, One […]

Funeral Winds has been around for a long fucking time. This makes it a bit daunting to cover a band with a massive discography as theirs (his), whatever. Funeral Winds has been the work of Hellchrist Xul, since 1992. An incredibly talented psychopath, whose heart beats with the elemental rage of 90s Black Metal; his […]

Turbid North delivering a new album takes me back to when Eyes Alive was released 7 years ago. So young, naïve, and infinitely more fuckable. Unless you’re a cougar. Not the animal, though. I’ve found no parallels. Much like the awful tenure of my life from then to now, it hit me hard when I […]

2018 saw the release of the debut album Warning Blast, by international band Siege of Power.  I mean with a band name, named after one of the best Napalm Death songs ever-you cannot go wrong.  Featuring members of Asphyx, Autopsy, Grand Supreme Blood Court, Hail of Bullets, Infidel Reich…I mean I can go on and […]

The Netherlands’ Distant has the unenviable task of now being on the same label as Lorna Shore after a stint on Unique Leader. And then, as one of the first, larger profile deathcore bands to release an album in 2023, after Lorna Shore‘s Pain Remains changed the game for deathcore (labelmates Ov Sulfur look to […]

The first time I heard The Ukraine’s Hate Forest was back in the early 2000s. I had found a Russian MP3 site that had Arkona, Nokturnal Mortum, Lucifugum, Astrofaes, and hundreds of other European bands I had never heard of; Hate Forest is one of those bands that I latched onto because with a name […]

I’ve been working through writer’s block for months now, and nowhere near my normal standard of productivity. I’m at the stage where I am wondering if I have anything to add to the heavy music stratosphere, or if anyone cares about my voice. You know, existential bullshit. Anyway, here I am, a couple of dick […]

Atomwinter is a veteran German death metal band, who I have not year heard, despite having three albums under their belt since 2011. Their last effort was 2018s Catacombs, and in the 5-year gap since then, they have got themselves a new vocalist in Florian Bauer, and whoo boy is he a beast and makes […]

Two years ago,  I reviewed Sanguisugabogg’s Tortured Whole debut album and previous to that I reviewed their Pornographic Seizures EP.  With their debut album, I said  “Sanguisugabogg’s blow-up throughout the underground metal scene is really only just the beginning”.  And that is precisely what happened with the band right after the release of the debut. […]

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 […]

New Jawsey’s finest brutal technical death metal act, and friends, Mortal Decay have been around for over 3 decades.  Insanity!  I have many fond memories playing shows with them and when I was back with Internal Bleeding in 2018 Johnny and Joe came to the show and had printed me a Mortal Decay logo shirt-so […]

International (Canada/ US/ Australia) act Dragoncorpse, has garnered quite a bit of on line hype with their take on deathcore meets power metal and anime (self-described power core), with three rip-roaring singles,  as well as a rather amusing online presence full of memes and self-deprecating humor. Well, now it’s time to see if the hype […]

The forests of Eastern Europe hold secrets, the landscape wears the scars of battle like badges of honor; trenches and bunkers dot the countryside where years of war have done their worst. This region has contributed numerous bands to the Pagan Black Metal scene over the years, they stand out for their use of traditional […]

The weight of expectations can sometimes be quite heavy. Like your mother. So here comes Ashen Horde to give her a piggyback ride… or something. I don’t even know how to follow up my own analogy. With their new one on the incomparable Transcending Obscurity Records, they (and by “they” I mean Trevor Portz) have […]

Bizarrekult hail from Norway, but originally was from Russia-go figure?  Starting out in the mid ‘00’s the band went on hiatus a few times and really got their basic start in 2019 with the first EP, but it was in 2021 they released their debut album – Vi overlevde.  I became an instant fan, especially […]

Now on album number 5, the UK’S Memoriam should not need an introduction. But for those that don’t know, Memoriam is a project involving Bolt Thrower and Benediction members and was started as an homage to fallen Bolt Thrower comrade Martin Hearns (RIP). And if you also have not heard the band yet, I’ll give […]

Sometimes you hear an album, and it awakens something in you. It pulls you in with long, skeletal arms and shows you sights you never imagined. Cursed lands where Black Metal reigns supreme, and the sky is always overcast with storm clouds. Allow me to introduce Wormgod, two insane Motherfuckers from Bucharest playing uncompromising Black […]

As someone who was really cutting his teeth in the more extreme metal scene during Metalcore’s heyday, it’s safe to say that it will always have a special place in my heart. Even when the genre fell out of fashion and became more a butt of every gatekeeper’s jokes, it remained a regular part of […]

Intro, take 2. Let’s talk about some filthy, nasty, ass sweat-inducing death metal. Last year, I had several albums that could fit this description on my year-end list, with a few just short of it. I think the only band in the genre I did not see live last year was Tribal Gaze, but maybe […]