News, Reviews and Interviews
Heavy Metal Around the Globe
FULL ALBUM STREAM: PRECARIA and ÔROS KAÙ – Theosulphuros
Taken together, the two sides of Theosulphuros have something of a yin yang quality to them – the more structured Precaria, riding herd on the wild nature of Darkness, driving chaos relentlessly forward and the more chaotic ÔROS KAÙ whose wild rhythms reveal a central, mesmeric calm being birthed.
Sea Sleeper – Old Guard
…I hear caustic, acidic sludge, bonkers dissonance and hard left turns, and mesmeric melancholy…
TRACK STREAM: The Sombre – My Betrayal As A Knife
Desperation. Hatred. Pain. All of these can be heard in every riff, drum beat, and anguished growl of Maurice de Jong on Shapeless Misery, his latest offering to the world.
VIDEO PREMIERE: Cult Burial – Dethroner
Great beauty is buried within a dark morass of dissonance destructiveness.
Throne – Pestilent Dawn
There will be a moment in your future when you get to press play on this album for this first time, and that moment will be amazing!
TRACK PREMIERE: Azaghal – Kuoleman kylmä ikuisuus
Finland is widely known as the home of one of the most furious and active scenes in all of black metal. Albums such as Perkeleen Luoma demonstrate exactly why.
Blood Red Fog – Fields of Sorrow
Like other Finnish (and French) bands, the sound initially comes off as very raw, but you then realize that every instrument is heard, everything has their space and their moments to be heard and appreciated.
FEATURE: Vulgarian – Human Scum
Musically ugly, the nasty riffs, abrasive drumming, destructive bass, and visceral howls of rage-filled horror mirror the ugly underbelly of society, an underbelly that has always been there, but that has been crawling ever further into the light during the tenure of this administration.
Lunacy – Melancholic Invocations
The final product is gripping, painful to behold, and wonderfully cathartic.
Æolian – The Negationist
…the band combines passionate vocals with a top notch blend of influences woven through their melodic death base, to call attention to the destruction being visited on the earth through the havok of mankind.
Entry – Detriment
What this album offers, aside from pure catharsis, is a somewhat conclusive end to this cycle
Interview – Serena Cherry and Liam Phelan of Svalbard
A day before their third album was set for release, I talked with Serena Cherry and Liam Phelan of Svalbard. What unfolded was a conversation about the sexism that exists within music publications, sketches of the band members as dogs, the final shows before the Covid lockdown, and the spectacular graphics of video games in 2001.
Aversio Humanitatis – Behold The Silent Dwellers
Coming in hot to celebrate a decade of evolving and growing, we have reach a point of maturity and perfection, as Behold The Silent Dwellers is nothing short of a masterpiece.
MrKill – The Day Of Reckoning
A concept album by a concept band based on a concept character. Concept inception? Conception?
VIDEO PREMIERE: Code Noir – Supersonic
Today, Code Noir presents us with a surprise drop of a new video for ‘Supersonic’.
EXCLUSIVE ALBUM STREAM: Temple of the Fuzz Witch – Red Tide
The key ingredient on this darkly majestic album is riffs.
FEATURE: Feed Them Death – A Subjective Tragedy
It is our great honor today to present to you A Subjective Tragedy, the first track from the upcoming EP.
Gelkhammar – The Sword of Gelfiser
Each listen leaves me simultaneously fulfilled and wanting more. Perhaps that is the sorcerous power of the sword.
Yovel – Forthcoming Humanity
“May this work be a guide to action – a wall against despair.”
Anaal Nathrakh – Endarkenment
…strap in and listen up as Hayduke X (MoshPitNation), VUK (The Metal Wanderlust), ProgCaveOgier (The Metal Wanderlust), Gos (Black Metal Daily, MoshPitNation, Order ov the Black Arts) and Dex (Black Metal Daily) perform a surgically precise track-by-track dissection and give this apocalyptic beast the attention it deserves… for we have entered the age of ENDARKENMENT.
Luctus – Užribis
All the pieces melt together like shadows in the forest, seemingly shifting and moving so that you can never get a true grasp of what’s around you.
Oceans of Slumber – Oceans of Slumber
What has been wonderful is, even though it was Cammie’s vocals that drew me in, it’s the entire package that keeps bringing me back, and making this album one of my most listened to this year, on a playlist stuffed full of black metal, death metal, and grindcore.
Xythlia – Immortality Through Quantum Suicide
The best way I can describe it (and this falls short of what it really is) is Napalm Death mixed with Cognizant.
When I Die, I Will Get Better? – Svalbard
If you are looking for songs that are a middle-finger to misogyny and apathy, then this album will strike all the right chords within your warm, but battered heart.
