The one-man death metal band just keeps on gaining credibility, the trail having been blazed by the likes of Shawn Whitaker (Insidious Decrepancy), Shaun LaCanne (Putrid Pile), and Peter Hasselbrack (Bloodsoaked). Thirst for Revenge’s Annihilation of Races (Comatose) tickled a few of my fancies as well. Welcome now A.Death, the man responsible for Putrified’s Neurotic […]

It’s that time again, isn’t it? How infrequent is infrequent and how absurd is absurd? Have I told you that I’m reading Sammy Hagar’s book and that I waited until it came out on paperback to purchase it? How many more sentences formed as questions can you take? Does it really matter? Aren’t we all dead eventually anyway? Is that even relevant here? What happens next? You take a look at the list below, ok?

Is Manilla Road a cult heavy metal band? Who cares? You shouldn’t. What you should care about is the fact that this superb Wichita-based group has been raising the flag and saluting since 1977 in spite of a music scene that has been far too indifferent in the United States, at least outside of a rabid core fan base. As usual, Europe has been a different story for Manilla Road, a region in which the act has no trouble commanding a festival audience. It seems all Europe sees is a forward thinking band with lyrical themes that run deep and a style that is musically progressive, yet firmly based in classic heavy metal, rather than “cult.” All cynicism about America’s fickle attitudes aside, the fact is that Manilla Road is a celebrated, highly influential Heavy Metal institution with an impressive body of work that has been given a boost this century through CD and vinyl reissues by Shadow Kingdom Records in North America and High Roller Records in Europe. The last album, Playground of the Damn, was released last year and since then the band has brought in a great new German-based drummer in Andreas Neuderth and is planning to release a follow-up album before 2012 becomes a memory. In the interim the self-titled debut from Hellwell, the side project of guitarist/vocalist/composer and founding member Mark “The Shark” Shelton, will be released through Shadow Kingdom Records. All that and more awaits your prying eyes in this interview with the ever genial and always interesting Shelton. Read on and Up The Hammers!

If you’re choice of metal falls squarely into the Brutal Death Metal camp, then surely you are familiar with North Carolina based Comatose Music and its Chairman, CEO, and Overlord Steve Green. Steve is certifiably workaholic and selective about releasing only those albums in which he personally believes and to which he can provide the proper support/promotion. Having personally ordered from www.comatosemusic.com (including distro items), as well as reviewing Comatose titles (Thirst of Revenge, Bloodsoaked, Face of Oblivion, and others), I can state without equivocation that Mr. Green runs a tight ship and offers quality products at great prices. He also deals in decibels as guitarist in his own bands Atrocious Abnormality (current) and Lust of Decay (on hiatus). Steve’s story is one of dedication, determination, attention to detail, and above all else customer service. Read the interview and for the love of all that is brutal and unholy order something from Comatose Music!

Dear diary, piss off! No relevance to anything really, just typing random shit. I don’t even have a diary and I sure as hell don’t want one. Can you even begin to understand that? There is a big fat list below. You should read it some time.

The times I don’t mind the tedious process of transcription is when it pertains to an interview with a member of one of my favorite bands. That was without question the case with this recent telephone conservation with UFO drummer Andy Parker, my second with the British rock veteran, Texas resident, and all around affable fellow. Four decades strong and UFO sounds as great now they’ve ever sounded. The names occasionally change and there is a more pronounced blues streak on albums released this century, but more than anything else UFO continues to churn out intelligently written and memorable hard rock. New album Seven Deadly is another notch in the belt of that proud legacy. Along with Parker (a founding member) and guitarist/keyboardist/songwriter Paul Raymond, Phil Mogg (the other remaining founding member) leads the effort with an emotive, soulful voice that is one of the most unique and recognizable in rock, while guitarist Vinnie Moore shreds and blisters with some of the best chops in the business. Quite simply, UFO was, is, and always will be one of the best, most influential bands in hard rock and heavy metal. Period!

A new discovery for some and a reaffirmation for others, old school Swedish death metal has achieved a level of appreciation and acceptance these past few years that exceeds that afforded it during its original era. As an admitted fan I’d be the last person to find fault with that, but let’s not forget the […]

The name, Hellcrawler, immediately piqued my interest, while the combination of album title and grim cover art guaranteed that I’d have to give Wastelands a spin or 10. While maybe not as perpetually disappointing as finding out the girl with the sexy voice on the phone looks nothing like she sounds, making the leap from […]

This one took a little while to complete, but it’s finally done. I found myself rather smitten with Cerebral Bore’s 2011 Earache debut Maniacal Miscreation, an album self-released by the Glasgow unit a year earlier. It punched and kicked in all the right brutal death metal places, offered just the right amount of groove and technicality, and left a memorable impression owing to some pretty darn effective arranging. Hard workers these Scots and it seems to finally be paying dividends, a case in point the band’s North American tour later this month with Goatwhore and Hate Eternal. Now all that’s left for you to do is read this Q&A session with founder/guitarist Paul McGuire, which will in all likelihood send you scrambling to find the link for Earache’s on-line store so that you may purchase Maniacal Miscreation with the money you’d set aside for self-help books and green tea.

Up at 4:30 a.m. involuntarily, but what else is new? Insomina is a way of life and I can never seem to stop the gray matter from percolating, bubbling, and spitting juice.. Then I start thinking that I’ve not done one of these playlists in quite a while. But then again, they are infrequent, as […]

  If you don’t know about The Stooges, then it’s time to do some research and learn about the primitive blueprint for punk, the precursor to primal musical minimalism, and an integral part of a late 60s/early 70s hugely influential rock ‘n roll scrapyard in Detroit that also spawned the likes of the MC5, Ted […]

I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me? It really does seem quite fitting in the context of another release by NE Ohio sludge merchants Fistula. Is it possible that this is a harsher Fistula? Eh, probably not, but it’s pretty damn harsh. Even better is that the Loser EP is available in […]

You know all those overused descriptions you read in reviews by writers (like the one penning these words) referencing a great guitarist’s ability to play his ass off each and every time, ones like “tearing it up,” “ripping it out,” “shredding,” and “wailing?” Well, in the cases of Wayne Kramer (MC5) and James Williamson (Iggy & The Stooges) those could not be more apt descriptions. Both icons of the axe have been immortalized as Limited Edition (750) Guitar God “Riffing” Collectibles, individually numbered bobble heads that inclusive of a recorded signature riff that you can hear by pushing a button on the base mount.

I wondered from time to time if Tacoma, WA’s Infernal Legion was ever going to release a follow up to 2005’s Your Prayers Mean Nothing, a slab of old school based, no-frills death metal that I thoroughly enjoyed. The wait now over, I found third full-length The Spear of Longinus to be an album that […]

Taking musical inspiration from Black Sabbath is never a bad thing, especially when bands like Iron Man use it to create doom metal that is as heavy and memorable as what is heard on this Shadow Kingdom reissue of 1999’s Generation Void. One of those bands that have struggled for its art through continual lineup […]

It’s a new release from Comatose Music, the North Carolina label that continues to bring to stand firm in bringing you an unfiltered stream of brutal death metal. And some pretty damn good CD specials too, such as the current “buy three get two free” deal. But I digress…as usual. Right, the new release! It’s […]

Having the utmost respect for what guitarist, keyboardist, and composer Nicolas van Dyk has done with Redemption since debuting with 2003’s self-titled album (followed by knocking one out of the prog metal park with 2005’s The Fullness of Time) and deep gratitude for what the music has meant to me personally, it was with great sadness that I heard the news of his cancer diagnoses a few years ago. At the time, the rare from form of blood cancer with which Nick had been diagnosed was said to be incurable. Fast forward to 2011 and Nick is a man renewed, having faced down his disease and for all intents and purposes conquered it with the help of a doctor in Bart Barlogie that took conventional wisdom and flushed it down the toilet. Van Dyk took the experience of that fierce, emotionally-draining fight and channeled it into his most powerful set of lyrics to go with what may be Redemption’s most aggressive and deeply emotional musical effort to date in This Mortal Coil. At once metaphorical and introspective, This Mortal Coil is musically complex and undeniably heavy, yet as melodically accessible as anything the group has ever released.

I’ve always dug what Crown the Lost has done and find it relatively unique, yet comfortably familiar. The Pittsburgh act’s style could generally be described as power thrash, although their knack for muscular riff chunk-age and shredding leads, whilst carrying the melody with traditional heavy metal singing, helps set them apart from the herd. It’s […]

APMD (All Pigs Must Die) is a band committed to uncompromising sonic warfare. Its sound and lyrics assault the listener in a fury of blackened death filled anthems.” Yep, I lifted that straight from the band’s Facebook page, thinking it a perfectly apt description of the aural terror inflicted upon the listener by All Pigs Must Die. One of a growing number of bands that blend gnarly death, d-beaten crust, and vicious hardcore in a way that is somehow fresh and exciting, APMD swoops in like an elite commando unit, executing its mission with deadly efficiency, leaving as quickly as they arrived, and with not a soul left alive in its wake. That’s what is in store for you with each and every spin of Southern Lord full-length debut God is War. Featuring members of Bloodhorse, The Hope Conspiracy, and Converge, this is one band does not – in the most direct way I can put it – fuck around. Adam Wentworth provides the debriefing.

Ever wonder what happened to supreme death metal vocalist James Lee after his departure from Origin? Here is your answer. Lee swings the microphone with authority on The Embers of Man from Mankato, MN’s Face of Oblivion, an album on which he is also credited with lyrics. No big surprises here; just a solid tech-death […]

I’m thinking this is the third interview I’ve done with Billy Nocera of Razorback records over a time span of what must be approaching 10 years, maybe eight. Heck, I don’t remember precisely, but I know that up until now I hadn’t interviewed him for Teeth of the Divine. Given some changes in Billy’s life on both the domestic and label fronts, it seemed a good time to check in with this long-time lurker of the underground. In this installment of the, uh, Razorback interview series Billy talks about the label’s doomier end, his marriage to Vanessa and their relocation to Kentucky, the world of underground distribution, and various other Boar-ing topics. If you’ve any interest in acts like Wooden Stake, Fester, Crypticus, Hooded Menace, Mausoleum, Church of Misery, Coffins, Blizaro, Revolting, Scaremaker, Mausoleum, Decrepitaph, and Fondlecorpse (to name a handful), then you should probably take the plunge and read on. Have horror will travel. Can you dig it? The grave I mean.

To grind or not to grind; that is the question. That question is answered by Germany’s Necromorph in the extreme affirmative, as you’ll hear within moments of the calamitous ride that is Grinding Black Zero. More Nasum than Insect Warfare and characterized by a relative degree of compositional diversity within grindcore parameters, Grinding Black Zero […]

One of those “old and forgotten Eastern European jewels“ that I Hate Records has been mining as of late, the rediscovered, repackaged, and reissued Let Draka/Flight of the Dragon from the Czech Republic’s Drakar nearly defies classication. Progressive thrash? Sort of. Quirky metal? You’ve just gotten in warmer. Creative music? Let’s go with that one. Vocalist/guitarist, founder, and visionary Ivan Sekyra takes us back to beginning, moves us through the middle, fast forwards to 2011 and tells the tale of a small Swedish label reissuing a little known album – in two-disc format for English and Czech speakers alike – from a killer cult Czech band . Read on; you just might learn something.

Any decision about whether to purchase Nunslaughter’s DemoSlaughter should come down to your ability to answer one simple question. Are you a devoted fan of the long-running, rabidly anti-Christian, barbarous dealers of death? If the answer is “yes,” then you shouldn’t hesitate in picking up this comprehensive collection of songs from all six previously out […]

It’s all in good fun and Cannabis Corpse is nothing if not clever when it comes to song titles and lyrics parodying the likes of Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, and Deicide. Musically, the chops have always been there, but to use the example of 2009’s The Weeding EP, the songs just weren’t all that memorable. […]