News, Reviews and Interviews
Heavy Metal Around the Globe
EXCLUSIVE TRACK STREAM: Aterrima – Lily of the Valley
Enjoy every jolt, reprieve, attack, and sharp turn.
EXCLUSIVE FULL ALBUM STREAM: Sepulchral Curse – Abhorrent Dimensions
The next time someone asks you to explain what death metal sounds like, just play them this album. They will likely be hooked. I know I am.
Tulus – Fandens Kall
Smiles, jamming, and shredding are offered to entice the audience, and with a band like Tulus, it worked like a charm.
Tumultuous Ruin – An Abscess on the Heart of the State
The vision of the world seen between the riffs is bleak, but there is strength and spine there too – enough to rise up with each cadence to move inexorably forward and fight back!
Ôros Kaù – Thanatos
Thanatos isn’t casual, and it shouldn’t be treated as such.
Bihargam – Executioner Star
Though it’s only three tracks long, and one of them is a Soundgarden cover, this EP still feels like a meaty offering.
Altari – Kröflueldar
Putting all of these experimental tendencies together, we have an album that you will return to regularly.
Body Void – Atrocity Machine
Atrocity Machine is a revelation – an evolutionary leap forward for a band that has essentially a perfect discography prior to this album.
Critical Defiance – Misconception
I hear a resurgence of the past with a spiked fist clenched on the future.
EXCLUSIVE TRACK STREAM: Dyssebeia – Black Swarm
The album is elegant, flowing seamlessly from traditional heavy metal riffs to djent worthy chugs to tremolo riffing to soaring melodies to…well, you get the idea.
EXCLUSIVE FULL ALBUM STREAM: Seraphic Entombment – Sickness Particles Gleam
It lives within the boundaries of the style (with some blackening, but that’s not so abnormal), but does so with a unique putrefaction that makes it stand out above the rest.
Cannibal Corpse – Chaos Horrific
Don’t mistake their longevity for complacency: This Cannibal Corpse is still hungry. VERY hungry.
Riversleem – A Second Release By Riversleem
In just two short EPs, Riversleem has joined the ranks of some of my favorite currently active bands with a short but unrelentingly intense genre-spanning style of hardcore.
Sacral – Three of Cups
Make no mistake. This is legitimate black metal music. It just chooses to follow a different path than the grim, corpse-painted, spike laden creature of the night that so many black metal musicians cosplay as.
Terminalist – The Crisis As Condition
These songs are catchy, brutal, and groovy all at the same time.
REVIEW + INTERVIEW: Dismal Aura – Imperium Mortalia
Though the album is explosive, there is plenty of room for nuance
EXCLUSIVE TRACK PREMIERE: Yatsu – Appomattox
It’s a scathing powerviolence attack with elements of grind, death metal, groove, and noise filtered through a lens of pure, unadulterated rage.
Cavalcade – Evergreens
There is genuinely never a dull time on this album.
Białywilk – Zmora
This is one for the dark hours.
REVIEW + INTERVIEW: Nixil – From The Wound Spilled Forth Fire
“Calling ourselves antifascist by no means takes away the ferocity of this music. Our teeth are just bared in a different direction, and dripping with different blood.”
Dethklok – Dethalbum IV
…beautifully crafted riffs, brutal vocals, and tight, clean recording quality.
EXCLUSIVE TRACK PREMIERE: Warcrab – The Howling Silence
I’m a pretty huge fan of the band’s output to date, but this track tops the pile for me.
Witches Forest – Sitting on Stardust
Witches Forest is a perfect example of someone who was actually showing indigenous musical characteristics.
Iskandr – Spiritus Sylvestris
I really love songs that sound like they’d work as a pop songs too and this absolutely does. Bravo!