I am only casually familiar with Wretched‘s previous release, Son of Perdition, which struck me as a more technical, less core-ish Carnifex, and belonging to that sort of ilk that has all the right ingredients but somehow didn’t manage to make it stick. With their fourth full-length offering, Cannibal, Wretched has stepped up the game […]

Several years ago, I was reviewing a steady string of super heavy, angular, metal bands like The Minor Times,  The Red Chord, Apiary, Swarm of the Lotus, Harlots, Engineer, Animosity,  Ion Dissonance and Into the Moat. Well, Dallas TX’s Seeker has tapped into that sound on their Victory Records debut and unleashed arguably one of Victory […]

Celebrate the return of fall with some metal and merch from Victory Records! Symphonic death metallers ERIMHA recently released their album Reign Through Immortality, and for those that like Dimmu Borgir and other bombastic, symphonic black/death metal, Erimha is a must listen and Victory Records wants 3 lucky TeethoftheDivine readers to get in on the action with a huge Erimha prize package and an added bonus prize!!!!

Victory Records has become such an anomaly for me. After being one of the true stalwart metalcore/hardcore labels responsible for releasing albums by Integrity, Martyr AD, Damnation AD, Hatebreed, Earth Crisis and Thursday and even being the home to Between the Buried and Me for 3 absolutely classic albums, the label is just hard to […]

Growing up in Chicago, it was engrained into my brain basically to loathe anything related to Wisconsin. The people, the state, the cheese (though the cheese is great from there) and their pro sports teams. Aside from some good cheap beer, Wisconsin was always a lousy state in which I never wanted to step foot […]

I had pretty low expectations for this release; Victory Records, the cliched moniker, and names like Emmure dropped in the Victory records press releases. However, this Parisian metal outfit surprised me with a pretty solid release of modern djent-y metal that has a lot more depth and style than many of their hardcore based peers […]

After toiling away in the Mid West death metal scene for over a decade and 5 albums, Chicago’s Jungle Rot released the best album of their consistent, if unspectacular career last year in Kill on Command. And even though it was an album released on their much maligned home town label, Victory Records, it was […]

With standouts such as Between the Buried and Me, God Forbid, Darkest Hour and Jungle Rot, it’s safe to say that Victory Records is one of the top labels when it comes to metal/extreme music.  In addition to the above bands they are also quite well known for the large number of metalcore/deathcore bands on […]

The best possible analogy I came across as a main descriptor for Pathology is the ”press play; get your ass handed to you for 30 minutes” type of endearing imagery. I wouldn’t go to an album from these guys with any other real expectation in mind; they satisfy this craving for uncompromising violence without a […]

Think of the current metal scene as a vast metropolis. Profound Lore  might be the artistic quarter, Nuclear Blast the bustling, successful yet respectable commercial hub, and Roadrunner Records the aging, somewhat dilapidated but culturally rich heritage district. Some miles away, we have Victory Records, which I may liken to the ghetto of this city, […]

North Carolina’s Wretched return with their third album on Victory Records, carrying the flag for the label’s strangely eclectic death metal roster amid the likes of Pathology and Jungle Rot. And while I’ve enjoyed the band’s prior two releases, they remain a band that are just ‘there’ for me, neither overly impressing me or making […]

After being with Century Media for four albums, God Forbid marks their debut on Victory Records with a show of defiance and determination on their sixth album, Equilibrium. The positive and indomitably titled “Don’t Tell Me What to Dream” kicks it off with a Meshuggah-style riff over a commanding Byron Davis shouting the song’s name. […]

For four albums now I’ve viewed California’s Carnifex as a solid second tier deathcore act. Not quite up there with Whitechapel, Oceano, I Declare War or All Shall Perish (my opinion of course) but mired in the vast, faceless but quality  rabble with the likes of Chelsea Grin, Molotov Solution, Betray the Martyrs, Rose Funeral, […]

Up until a few months ago, I had never heard of ‘slam death.’ Not a big surprise, since my death metal tastes run more towards tech or melodic, and I was never that into Suffocation to begin with (who, I understand, are kind of the granddaddy of the subgenre). Yet, out there are entire blogs […]

From Olympic to Crash to Napalm to Victory (and that’s only since 2004), Wisconsin’s death metal war machine soldiers on without missing a beat, much less taking prisoners. If you’ve not dug it to date, then Kill on Command may not change your mind nor does Jungle Rot have any intention of changing their patented […]

Well folks, Dr.Acula are back for another round of nu-grind violence in the form of Slander. Well actually the whole grindcore scheme of things (beer pong massacre anyone? No well I loved that song) is replaced with a deathcore sound meaning longer songs yet still retaining the same snotty attitude of the old. Slander is kind […]

The chances of one liking Emmure is determined if they can withstand an album chock full of breakdowns. Not just a breakdown here or there–no way–this is a situation where the album is one giant breakdown that also gave birth to little breakdowns and… hell, you get the picture. Anyway, Emmure are back with another […]

You know its been a great year for metal when the fifth album from Between the Buried and Me arrives with relatively little fanfare, takes two weeks for me to review and wont be an immediate shoo in for my album of the year like 2007s Colors and 2005s Alaska. Not that The Great Misdirect […]

Tasked with following up the excellent Undoing Ruin and Deliver Us, Washington DC’s Darkest Hour- arguably one of the culprits of the state of the modern American metal scene, at least know how to be consistent. Starting their more refined take of hack and slash At the Gates worship on Hidden Hands of a Sadist […]

The reason I decided to review the debut from this North Carolina act and Italy’s The Modern Age Slavery so close together was so readers could get two examples of how to beat a dead horse – on one hand The Modern Age Slavery making deathcore sound even more redundant and tired, and on the […]

On 2007’s The Final Dawn, Ontario’s Arise and Ruin delivered a solid if forgetful slab of thrash based metalcore and now with the follow up, even though the thrash element has been upped and the metalcore sound is virtually gone, Arise and Ruin prove a cool cover and album title does not a great metal […]

It’s been a while since I heard anything remotely metal from Victory Records, but all of a sudden they release a slew of records in the form of Arise and Ruin’s improved thrash attack, Corpus Christi’s As I Lay Dying impression, Wretched’s impressive The Black Dahlia Murder worship and this fine melodic death core assault […]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with The Diseased and the Poisoned, sophomore effort from Carnifex (derived from the olde English word for ‘Executioner’). In fact, its arguably one of the better deathcore releases of the year-up there with Whitechapel’s This Is Exile-and therein lies the problem. The Diseased and the Poisoned and This Is Exile […]

After boldy claiming their Victory Records debut Goodbye to the Gallows was the ‘most brutal CD of 2007′, Emmure return with their more humble, yet equally devastating follow up. And while admittedly, most metal heads will turn up their nose at this group of cocked hat, short haired kids and their hoodies, but truth be […]

Well, based on this, (sorry labels, I don’t do digitally released reviews) enjoy possibly the last review of a Victory release on this site. Luckily, it’s is a damn fine surprise. With a new line-up, gone are the gimmicks like songs named after Tom Cruise movies, fairy tales, suits and sense of humor. Instead, fronted […]