One of the things I love about this reviewing gig is being completely blindsided by a new young act. Sure, you get to hear new Nile albums early and the occasional guest passes, but when a bright eyed young band has poured all their money and energy into a self released CD, send it to you […]

Plutonium is the brain child of one J. Carlsson who does everything in this Swedish industrialized black metal project. It’s been a while since I’ve heard a good example of the style (Havoc Unit  maybe?) , and while Plutonium checks all the boxes, it’s not a release I’m enamored with. The check boxes that Carlsson fills […]

Switzerland quartet Buried Souls self-proclaim their love for New Orleans sludgecore on this Self-Titled debut and I’m not going to argue with them.  They might just shoot me up with black tar and then drag my lifeless corpse to drown face first in the swamps of Switzerland.  I am hearing shades of Eyehategod, Soilent Green, […]

Here’s an interesting one. A self financed and released effort from a Swiss band playing Egyptian/ Middle East themed deathcore. No there is no punchline I’m afraid, and this is actually pretty decent stuff, even though deathcore haters will still fume. Actually despite sticking rigidly to modern deathcore paradigms (pick whomever), the band’s little Egyptian […]

Here’s a very cool little 3 song, 30 minute EP out of Southampton England from a female fronted blackgaze/atmospheric black metal act that really hits on all notes for the genre and adds a little of its own angelic character to the mix. The clear, ignorant comparison is Myrkur, as this is female fronted black metal with […]

You could regard me in many ways. I assume the standard way is that I am a boring ugly fat idiot. But you could also regard me as lucky. I tend to take “time off” from peering into the corners of the metalverse while I try to get my ugly fat idiotic life in order. […]

Initially, the costumed Battlelore-ish press photos of this North Carolina sextet and their self created alternate fantasy world where all their songs and two albums take place had me a little bit leery. But these guys, (who used to go under the name Blue Man’s God), actually deliver a kick ass album of epic, fantasy themed symphonic/black death […]

You add symphonic keyboards to any kind of metal, and for the most part I’ll dig it. Add them to a blistering tech death/black metal sound and me love you long time. Such is the case with South Carolina’s Enthean, a new -ish trio and their impressive self released debut album. With a tech death backbone […]

Lets face it, the times, they are a changing. Nothing gold can stay, right? While this is true of most things here on this floating ball of water and rock we call home, metal is once again a stand out, an anomaly, a mystery of sorts, continually proving that the genre is alive and well, […]

When it comes to death dealin’ doom metal and steroid pumped 70s riffs, never turn your back on the Steel City of Pittsburgh, man.  Spawning some of my favorite riff welders of all-time including Dream Death, Penance, Argus, Molasses Barge, Satanic Bat, Iron Crown, Vulture and many, many more past and present; there’s a tight […]

Here’s a fine example of how symphonic elements added to metal can truly work regardless of genre. Hailing from Seattle, and named after a 17th century Demonic possession event in France, The Devils of Loudon mix over the top symphonics and European melodic death/black metal melodies with modern, shreddy death metal, dare I say even deathcore- […]

I have reviewed and covered metal from all from all four corners of the earth, especially from South America, but I think this is the first album I have covered from Peru. And everything about the release screams generic; from the band name, album name and ‘shocking’ artwork. But this second effort from the band is actually […]

Here is a group that I am excited to see are still around and making cool music. Minnesota’s Gracepoint have been on my radar since I first heard their first album Science of Discontent that came out back in 2000. These guys play a unique style of Progressive metal that is not in any way […]

Lord of the Rings nerds will recognize the name of this Wisconsin death metal band as the vast underground Dwarven Kingdom also known as Moria and the site of the bridge where Gandalf uttered his famous “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” challenge to the Bal-rog. So now my inner nerd got that out of the way, you […]

So Rhine is a project from Gabriel Tachell and some local Pacific Northwest musicians, and is the continuation of his UK act Perfect Harmony, but the name has changed and the the location is now Seattle, Washington. got it? But what matters is how damn good this is. Even with some questionable clean vocals this Opeth ian […]

I’ve heard some damn good doom-y, riff-y stuff from Austria; nightmare vomit sludgers Cyruss, killer psyched-out heavy rockers Savanah, etc.  I know I’m forgetting more than a couple in this quick brainstorm session but the point is that there’s a damn good scene over in Austria that gets overlooked when viewing the international arena at […]

Chicago trio Snow Burial presents their first full-length Victory in Ruin after a pair of EPs.  The band’s history is something I can jive with as the fellas formed the band after attending a Shiner reunion show.  I’m a huge Shiner fan and Snow Burial has that same kind of effervescent, ever-changing sound that never […]

There is nothing wrong with the debut album from France’s TankrusT, nothing at all. There’s also nothing particularly striking about it either. They hail from France and seem to come from the ashes of some underground bands called SIC, One Shot, and Filet o’fish fuckin (yup), and they play a form of modern, tight, chunky, and almost Danish sounding […]

“Never judge a book by its cover”. You’d think I would have learned my lesson by now. When I got Nine Plagues in the mail, with a logo that looks like something I would have drawn on my 9th grade English folder, I set my expectation pretty low. However, as it turns out that the […]

I can’t say I’m overly familiar with the Lithuanian blackened doom/sludge scene, but the debut, Dugne (seabed? bottom of the sea?) from Deprivacija certainly holds some promise if the rest of the scene is as competent. 6 songs, 55 minutes, a gritty, feedback laden, gravelly guitar tone and delivery despondent slower, crawling riffs and pained raspy screams will give […]

An interesting thing has happened in extreme metal over the last twenty or so years.  As a genre, death metal once looked like it was limitless- not necessarily in terms of speed, technicality or the abstract idea of “brutality” but regarding where the style could go creatively.  The aforementioned traits no doubt were going to […]

Suppressive Fire is a new, slightly blackened 3 piece death/thrash metal band from North Carolina, and while I’ve never been a huge fan of black/thrash, Suppressive Fire lean a little more to the thrash side and their war laden themes and imagery had me more intrigued than I usually would be with something this style. With […]

Recalling the glory years of Scandinavian 90s melodic death metal, Finland’s Suotana  and their debut album hearken back to an era of early Children of Bodom, Norther, Lothlorien, Ensiferum, Kalmah and such. Big, epic, keyboard drenched, catchy, bouncy slightly blackened melodic death metal is the order of the day, and while there is nary a […]

Whoa! Reykjavik Iceland’s Cult of Lilith has made quite the debut with their nearly twenty minute Arkanum EP.  I honestly did not know what to expect from this group as I was expecting something completely different when I saw the cover artwork.  I was thinking that this was going to be more of a symphonic […]

If Volume I era Sleep was signed to Am-Rep in the 90s and recorded Sleep’s Holy Mountain under Haze’s supervision, you’d probably have something like Connecticut’s Bedroom Rehab Corporation.  Simply a duo comprised of Adam Wujtewicz on bass and drummer Meghan Killimade, the band’s second studio slab Fortunate Some is full of hypnotic groove meditations […]