Ironic that the cover of Kylesa’s new disc is so monochromatic, given all of the color the band has just added to its sound. The past’s last album, Static Tensions (only a year ago), was a tight blend of terse, punchy hardcore and grumbling sludge; with Spiral Shadow, the band has embraced a whole new […]

The first time I heard Otargos was their blackened death metal waltz “Hexameron” that apropos of nothing turns into this stripper-friendly fuck-me groove featuring what sounds like a sampled philosophy lecture. Okay, fine. Maybe you’re just cooler than me. Maybe you’ve already been into and tired of the whole blackened death-metal, stripper-friendly, fuck-me groove/philosophy-lecture craze. […]

What was formerly Count Nosferatu Kommando is now The Cosa Nostra Klub, as The CNK have reinvented themselves from industrial/symphonic black to a more martial, pompous brand of electro and metal. Based on the 1930’s goth-military uniforms and the propaganda cover art, I’m already hooked. Perhaps this will deliver what similarly-themed offerings – like Marilyn […]

By now, incorporating Middle-Eastern accents into metal is not the most original of ideas. Nile and Melechesh have both been doing it for several years now, and new bands keep popping up doing something similar. Now we have Arkan, a French band with Middle Eastern roots trying their hand at it within the context of […]

I wanted this album to be bad, so I could redouble the album’s badness with some bad one-liners referencing the album, i.e. “I can find the space for this…in the garbage,” or better yet, “Cynic are the kings of those who know…how to suck.” You get the gist; I wanted to use their song titles […]

Atrox has reminded me of one of the central tenets of my existence on this album, specifically the one about murdering anyone who thinks techno and metal are a good combination. This is very clean industrial-nu-metal without a hint of malice to it anywhere, even the Planet of the Apes sample. The drumming is the […]

For most bands, releasing a double disc studio album comprised of solely new material, and clocking in at an hour and a half, would be an amazing feat. But for England’s extreme doom gods, Esoteric, this is just another day in the park. In fact, it’s not the first time they’ve released a two disc […]

Based on the liner notes that accompanied this disc, it sounds as if Karelia have been searching for a comfortable niche over their 8-year career. They started as power metal on Usual Tragedy, and then downshifted to a more mellow, poppy experience on Raise. And with Restless, it seems they’re trying on the eyeliner and […]

If you’re going to name your band Klone, you’d better have something original to present, whether you hide that C behind a K or not. At first, opening track “Candlelight” seems solid enough, though clearly influenced by fellow countrymen (France) Gojira. A sludgy, low-end lurch, a very similar vocal delivery, and then, the chorus glides […]

Just based on the cover, which features a skinned rabbit dressed in lacy dollclothes (rather than the usual demiglace), you can already predict that this will be some sort of loopy, eccentric goth-metal. Eths certainly has a touch of the avant-garde, but musically, it’s a more familiar blend of metalcore and nu-metal. Comparisons to Slipknot […]

With its nighttime cityscape and tech-font title, I was pretty sure this side-project from current Susperia (and former Old Man’s Child) members Tjodalv and Memnock would be some form of industrial metal. Perhaps a futuristic update of the catchy, blackened thunder of those other acts, but replacing gothic pomp with synthesized deathscapes. Instigator is futuristic […]

So in my recent discovering of all things black metal, one band that kept coming up as a band I had to hear was Sweden’s Watain. Lo and behold, Sworn to the Dark shows up in my mailbox and I play it expecting a nasty, evil and malevolent tide of blackened blasphemy. Instead what I […]

First, after re-listening to The Codex Necro in preparation for this review, there is no doubt in my mind that the debut album from this British duo was and is one of the most extreme releases ever and arguably the most important extreme record to come out of the UK since Scum. That being said, the […]

Five long years preceded the realization of Ancient Rites’ Rvbicon, and the wait proves to be well worth it for fans of these Blackened Folk trailblazers. However, neither time past nor shifts in the long-running Belgian outfit’s alignment have slowed the severe creativity relayed by this adeptly talented group. The influences that Ancient Rites derive […]

When a band compares itself to the likes of Nevermore, Symphony X, Iced Earth and Iron Maiden (especially Nevermore), I tend to get somewhat interested (to the point where the expectations rise up quite dramatically). And such is the case with Chicago’s Twelfth Gate who continue their metallic deeds on “Threshold of Revelation”.Did I get […]

It’s been a good year for black metal for me so far; Thyrane, Lugubrum, Grand Belial’s Key, Oblomov, Dark Funeral, Leviathan’s 35 split CD’s and this superb effort all have made black metal interesting for me again. Frankly, I’ve never really delved to far into Aborym’s discography, so this album came as a surprise to […]

Over the course of their entire career as ‘the’ black metal supergroup and especially in the last few months prior to the release of this album, the Arcturus project (or Project: Arcturus for you Simpson’s fans) have taken a bizarre pride in throwing a wrench into the works of both the genre in general and […]

Roughly translated as ‘Lord, You Are Not Worthy’, Domine Non Es Dignus is the highly anticipated follow up to the utterly devastating debut The Codex Necro which due to its caustic, barren and apocalyptic sound, arguably made England’s Anaal Nathrakh one of the most extreme black metal acts around. So how does album number 2 […]

When Nordavind, the most corpse-like being in all of black metal, left, I feared the mighty Carpathian Forest would change drastically. His Frostian flourishes were always inspired and were one of the quirks that made the band one of the elite. Easily one of the most consistent of the long standing black metal bands, they […]

For some reason, much like with their debut, even though it is unoriginal, derivative and simplistic, I enjoy Severed Eyes… immensely. Killjoy and Frediablo have successfully brought gore and splatter death metal to the black metal scene. There are, of course, many bands incorporating the sounds of American death metal but Killjoy delights in the […]