I like surprises, and a concept based black metal album from Sumerian deity named band  from the depths of Austin, Texas certainly qualifies as a surprise, especially when its this good. The band has a couple of splits and one debut album from 2009 under their spiked belt, though this is my first exposure to them. They […]

So back in 2010, these guys released a solid album of shredding, technical melodic deathcore/metalcore, that was kind of an under the radar release (other than Metalsucks gushing all over it for 3 articles in a row), and i rather enjoyed it but it wasn’t doing anything new in 2010 that I had not heard […]

Où est le boeuf? Apparently it’s in Montreal, Canada an it’s all located on the second, fun as hell record from the awfully named Dark Century. But luckily the band’s tongue in check delivery allows for the moniker and the album name and the album cover, but the music itself is where its at here. Dark Century play […]

I got this brutal little nugget in my email and wasn’t exactly sure what the hell I was in for. Judging a book by the cover isn’t always trustworthy in a literary sense, but with Metal you can usually gauge what your experience is going to be. So, by that rationale Sangus doesn’t disappoint; because […]

Psygnosis is a band from France, the home to many things weird and dark in the world of metal. Those two words describe Psygnosis, but beyond that, Human Be[ing] is difficult to define. It’s a difficult listen, for it pulls from many influences and often doesn’t even attempt to blend them. For the most part, […]

As any metalhead will tell you, one of the eminently satisfying things about being a metalhead is discovering an excellent band that no one else has heard. For me, one of those bands was The Mire. Those who were fortunate enough to hear the band’s Volume II EP from 2010 were treated with a surprisingly […]

Greece is not a pretty place to be right now. Allochiria takes their album’s name, Omonoia, from a neighborhood of Athens that has undergone significant urban decay. They play a style of post-metal that exists in a middle ground between the meditative atmospherics of bands like Pelican and mid-era Isis, and heavier sludge band akin […]

Wow. Fucking wow. Aleph Null, a Germanic trio of sludge-like proportions, mix the best of everything you remember best about grunge combined with a whole lot of sludge, 70’s rock freewheelin’ experimentalism, and just enough catchiness to give Torche a run for their money in the “we’re sludgy-yet-grungy-yet-catchy” department. This album is equal parts fuzz, […]

Coming seemingly out of nowhere, Germany’s Hangatyr has exploded into 2014 with a superb slab of Norse black metal that is as infectious as it is intense. Bristling with a sonic ferocity as it should in this genre of metal, Hangatyr also has crafted their music around swirling melodies and catchy, simplistic riffs. While the […]

I’m usually not one to step outside of my usual metal fare of death metal black metal and their various sub genres. However, a little prog band from Vermont named after a Magic the Gathering card has really captured my attention with their self titled 2013 debut. It’s my understanding that the band started out […]

“Allo…………cunt” And so begins “Upon Your Mountains of Flesh My River of Life Shall Flow” the opening track from Australia’s Wretch, a grindcore band featuring Duncan Beard, former drummer for doom act Futility, and this is a hell of a departure from that project. And as you’d expect any grindcore from Australia to sound like, […]

Following their self titled LP in 2009, The Strange Innerdweller is Romanian post-metal Kultika‘s debut album, and despite being a decent effort, it doesn’t really grab you by the balls as much as you’d want it to. Unlike fellow countrymen Negura Bunget, who create music that isn’t just unique but that also pays tribute to their […]

Aeon of Horus is a progressive metal band that has built a solid reputation on the Australian metal scene in recent years.  Formed back in 2006 the band released their solid yet understated debut, The Embodiment of Darkness and Light in 2008, and despite a rather limited recorded output (their debut is wedged between a […]

I have not really got into the whole smokey female fronted , cultish, 70s inspired ‘vest’ metal  scene that’s been prevalent over the last few years. Other than the first Serpentcult album and a smattering of Blood Ceremony or Demon Lung, it just has not sucked me in. And it’s a shame, as Texas’s excellently […]

For the most part, Cyber or Industrial Death Metal has a pretty rigid formula: Beefy, chunky guitars, mechanical pounding drums and the odd whirr or beep and sample here and there with some growled vocals. The Netherlands’ Empire of the Scourged, while generally following those paradigms also manage to changes things up a bit on […]

It’s pretty simple really- if you look me/my site up, ask politely  and personally for a review, send a CD and follow up equally as politely, chances are I will give your album a few listens and publish my worthless opinion on it, good or bad. And the Brothers Guzman, did just that for their […]

Formerly known as Bolero, Toronto’s newly remaned Vesperia are part of a suddenly surprisingly strong Canadian folk/Viking metal scene that includes the likes of Will of the Ancients, Crimson Shadows, Valfreya, Trollwar, Nordheim, Battlesoul, and of course Blackguard just to name a few.  I’m not sure why the canucks have latched into the sound and delivered […]

Cleanteeth refer to themselves as “beard impregnating doom metal.” I’m not sure what exactly they mean by that. If this genre tag is a victim of the hyphen thief, it means that their music makes beards pregnant, a prospect which does not initially appeal to me. If not, they mean that their doom metal impregnates […]

It goes without saying that it’s difficult for a band to stand out in a crowded field. With dozens of bands all mining similar influences and plying similar styles, you either have to turn in an incredibly convincing performance that elevates what might otherwise be mundane or you have to apply a twist on the […]

Hailing from France, Hypnos is a doomy post rock act that instantly reminds of the likes of Morne and Mindrot, that’s to say they are fucking excellent, and their self released debut album, The Fall is an artfully crafted, elegant and powerful album that any Post Rock fans should check out as well as fans of […]

I stumbled across this London duo while browsing the Facebook feed from fellow Brits, Dyscarnate  and after a few preview listens from the band’s page, immediately ordered a physical copy of the CD.  What we have here is a band that seems to initially cull from British metalcore act Sylosis, but adds a more epic, […]

With an upcoming full-length in the pipeline, I can only assume the young upstarts that comprise Ohio’s Dismemberment are doing some good old fashioned self-promotion by shooting their tidy sophomore EP, titled Denied Salvation and released last year, back into the promo portal. Whatever their motives, as a reviewer it’s always a nice feeling to […]

Even after a name change from So Hideous….My Love, this New York post black metal act is still going to be labeled a ‘pretentious’ band and lumped in with the likes of Deafheaven, Liturgy and such, but personally I don’t give a fuck, as Last Poem/First Light improves upon the same taught, orchestration filled, post black metal […]

Hope Drone is from Australia, but listening to their music, one could easily mistake them for a band from the U.S. Their 4-track debut EP demonstrates a bleak style of black metal strongly indebted to the Cascadian variety, specifically Wolves in the Throne Room and Altar of Plagues, played with surprising maturity and aplomb. The […]

I can’t recall ever coming across any other bands from Belarus, which I guess shouldn’t come as a surprise since, according to Metal Archives, only about 250 metal bands have ever existed there. Despite that lack of a fertile scene, Crypt of Reason have crafted three of the strongest, most promising death/doom tracks of the […]