Turkish brutes Carnophage have been slinging their brand of death metal since the early 00’s.  Matter of a Darker Nature is their third album and it’s been eight long years since their last album, Monument. This is 8 songs in 33 minutes of no-frills brutal death metal in the vein of the likes of Dying […]

Despite being around since 2016, Beneath the Blazing Abyss is the Finnish band’s debut and boy, is it an excellent, pummeling example of death/doom metal that is a very, very impressive first effort. If you enjoy mid-tempo trundling death with sprinkles of doom like Temple of Void, Grave, Malignant Altar, Vore, Hooded Menace, Frozen Soul […]

Fun fact: This is the third intro I’ve written for my review of this album, all on different devices. I wasn’t satisfied, which is probably the story of my life and my exes’. I’m just going to mostly skip that part and go into the first track on Replicant’s new one, called “Acid Mirror.” Sharing […]

2024 is coming in hot. I picked up this promo and a couple more biding my time and waiting for a new release to which I am also looking forward. It’s unnecessary to mention which, but it dropped mere days after I grabbed the debut full-length from Resin Tomb. Those circumstances almost caused me to […]

Anytime I think of Warcrab, I can’t help but be reminded of the meme/photo of the crab holding a knife. I sometimes identify with that crab. Crabs in general. Something about a hard shell and tasty insides. Legs spread and eaten. Hold on now before we all get hot and bothered. This isn’t that kind […]

I love head-banging. It is a great feeling to release pent-up energy at a Metal show, the crowd is into the experience; each head is like those fucking drinking birds you can get at the novelty store. Unfortunately for me, my head-banging days are pretty much over. I just kind of shake my head like […]

So at 2023s midpoint a few bands and their respective debuts are arguably vying for the year’s best Swedish death metal release (with Iron Flesh Church of the Dead, Angerot and Wretched Fate certainly in the conversation for non debuts). One, Come, Sweet Death’s, hacking, slashing Dismember homage, Imperishable. And two, the debut from Swtizerland’s […]

War is hell. It has the power to change borders and boundaries, tear nations apart and displace millions at a time. What India’s  Sarcoptes has done with Prayers to Oblivion, is break down five aspects of war to create fifty minutes of thrashing, blackened military insanity. It’s an album that seems daunting at first, the […]

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 […]

What do you get when two powerhouse Death Metal legends come together? A fucking blistering Death Metal album that would make the nineties blush. Marc Grewe (ex- Morgoth, Insidious Disease) and Rogga Johansson (Paganizer, Revolting, Ribspreader) have joined together to create Leper Colony, a healthy slab of chest-bursting brutality that has… melody and manages to […]

For this one, I want to take a trip back to heavy metal city where the mustachioed man wearing the trench coat from my last Veilburner review resides. Turning the corner once again past the mainstream shops, I see the man and two masked men standing over his lifeless corpse. Oh shit, the Veilburner duo […]

I was ready to fight to review this. Not literally, though as it would have been between myself, Frank, and Steve. I’ve met Frank and I’m more than 100% certain he could kick my ass. While I’ve not met Steve, some of the fish he’s caught rival me in size, so I’m not confident. With […]

I haven’t written a review in ages, literally seven years. I’ve come back to TOTD after only seven reviews back in 2014, and I’m super thrilled to be back, writing about metal and hearing bands I’ve never heard before. I picked Morgue Supplier for my first review back, and since I had started following vocalist/guitarist […]

Germany’s Vorga burst into the scene about 6 years ago and released an EP, but Striving Toward Oblivion is their debut full length album and showcases a trailblazing style of black metal. Opening this 8 song 45 minute album is “Starless Sky” and what an opening ripper of a lead off song. Massive blasting equipped with […]

Listen, if you guys want me to stop reviewing material from Transcending Obscurity Records, you’re going to have to tell them to calm it down with the excellent new releases… Don’t, though. That brings us to the new, excellent album from a band with an intriguing name, The Last of Lucy. I didn’t like it […]

Czechia’s Cutterred Flesh are a new band on my radar, thanks to Transcending Obscurity. This is their fifth full length and the first time I’ve heard them. They’re classified as brutal death metal, and that fits. If you’re on board with Aborted or Benighted, this is certainly going to be right up your alley. There […]

It’s been 5 years since Swedish/German act Abscession released their excellent debut album, Grave Offerings, one of the best slabs of HM2 Swedish death metal of the last few years, with one of the best songs in the genre “Gargoyle” of the last few years also. And now partnered with Transcending Obscurity Records (allowing for […]

Heads for the Dead are a great band and one of my favorite old school death metal bands from the last several years. If you don’t believe me, check out Frank’s review for their latest full length, Into The Red where I am name dropped as being a fan. I really enjoy their old school […]

I had no idea what to expect when checking out New Jersey’s Replicant, I just had not heard a Transcending Obscurity release in quite a while and while grabbing the killer new Abscession, I checked out Veilburner’s excellent Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull (due to the review here), and Replicant’s second album, Malignant Reality on […]

Let me start out by saying I’ve rewritten this intro and parts of the subsequent review 3 times now. That’s what happens when I have way too much time with an album and question the articulation of my thoughts. I’m always trying to write a funny, witty, creative, suitably childish intro, and sometimes when I […]

Imagine heavy metal as a city. A city in, say, a cheesy 1980s film. You can walk down the streets and you’ll encounter the nice part of town. You have your Slipknot, Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold. The mainstream stuff. That’s fine, but on this day, you came to the city to try something else. Something dangerous. […]

Transcending Obscurity Records and Fetid Zombie are a perfect combo. This is full length #7 for Mark Riddick and this death dealing project, but if you were to count splits and EPs, he might have as many releases as Johnny Sins (ba dum tiss). As a casual fan of the project, I was more than […]

Finland’s Sadistik Forest flew under my radar until their third full-length album, Morbid Majesties, came out in 2018.  Their intense combination of death metal mixed with some blackened thrash metal had me thinking of early Skeletonwitch.  I went and discovered their prior 2 excellent albums, however Morbid Majesties is still my favorite release from them.  […]

In theory, I should have been all over this release, the debut from Oregon’s Felled (formerly known as Moss of Moonlight). It’s Cascadian, atmospheric black metal with a violin. Not an occasional violin, but like My Dying Bride, Exulansis or Hung, a full-on, full-time, violin, courtesy of Tiffany Holliday who along with some of the […]

“Oh, that’s nasty…” I could probably end this review right here with that stellar Cleveland Brown quote and you’d basically know what you have. However, finishing early is just not in my vocabulary (ladies…). Crypts of Despair have already released one album, but this is the first on Transcending Obscurity for this crew from the […]