Doomy 90's Nihilism June 18, 2015

Malice
by Decibel

Decibel approached me interested in a review. I never shy away from a chance to listen to a group I have never heard. Death doom? Why not. Then I saw it: 3 albums. Which one would I choose? Where would I begin? Then the OCD vortex took hold. I listened to them all in a single marathon. My s...

Tasty Sludge June 16, 2015

Apnee
by Valve

Blackened sludge. What would be a repellent descriptor of my lunch translates to one of my new favorite genres. French group, Valve, represents my most recent foray into the misanthropic world of thick, heaving riffs and shrieked vocals. So what does Apnee have to offer? Quite a bit, actually....

Plant a Seed, Watch the Metal Grow June 16, 2015

Path to Ruin
by Path to Ruin

It was around “Stitched Shut” that I realized something: these guys can really play their instruments. This ain't some watered-down Cannibal Corpse with a few kids playing power chords to 4:4 time. Path to Ruin seem particularly fond of 3:4, actually, but the technical f#$kery happening on most o...

Drone Yourself to Death June 15, 2015

Autokrator
by Autokrator

Sorry about all the death puns. I watch a lot of Metalocalypse. Anyways, remember the climax to Raiders of the Lost Ark? Just put that on loop and it would be a fitting music video to this album. Extreme drone. Two things that shouldn't work together, but do when done right apparently. It's li...

The Gift of Death That Keeps On Giving June 13, 2015

Hail Mary
by iwrestledabearonce

Alright, I didn't want to take up any weekday slots for the little guys, so it's time for a special weekend edition review. Slipping in another major label act here, but like with Vattnet Viskar, it's for good cause. Ask the average person for a mathcore band and 9 times out of 10 it will be Dilli...

Brutal and Consistent June 12, 2015

Woes of Mortal Devotion
by Mefitic

It used to be that if one wanted some cavernous, black-hole of a death metal album, the only real option was Portal. But competition continues to grow stauncher as more and more groups emerge from the depths: Abyssal, Malthusian, Gigan, Ulcerate…and now, Mefitic. From Italy, this is another group ...

Nightmares June 11, 2015

The Dreaming I
by Akhlys

Atmospheric black metal is a bit of a mixed bag in my opinion. While this can be said of most genres, I find there to be a particularly large number of bands that seem to think they can just howl over 3 tremolo notes and a few chords ad nauseum and call it “atmospheric.” If you allow me to get on ...

Grim Grindcore June 10, 2015

Romantic Love
by Dendritic Arbor

Make no mistake, there is nothing romantic about this album. I am still in the process of truly digesting all that is going on. What genre is it? At times I feel like I am listening to a particularly grimy grindcore act, others I am thinking about black and death metal in the vein of Malthusian or P...

Form Voltron June 9, 2015

Barús
by Barús

Ever wonder what would happen if Meshuggah and Nero di Marte had a baby? Just me? Well the answer to my personal fan fiction is Bars. Throw in a dash of Triptykon and perhaps even a touch of Living Sacrifice's The Hammering Process and you have yourself a recipe for some truly unique progressive dea...

Almost Perfect June 7, 2015

Settler
by Vattnet Viskar

Okay, so I’m cheating a little today, as I will occasionally do. Vattnet Viskar may be signed to Century Records, but they are still far from entering the mainstream metal lexicon. But that may change soon, as this group has seen a pretty quick rise to the spotlight. After a brief demo in 2011 an...

And Then There Was One June 5, 2015

Rescue & Restore
by August Burns Red

Writing a review for August Burns Red is a bit of a challenge. It's not so much that their sound is difficult to describe. Rather, the group's extremely consistent output of technically-inclined metalcore lends itself to redundancy from reviewing one album to the next. But while it may not be the ba...

Overcoming Depression...with Depressive Black Metal June 5, 2015

The Promise Of Oblivion
by Deadspace

I'll admit that I initially checked this out because I confused Deadspace with Darkspace. I'm special. Luckily, my herp led to something far more than a derp. Something about this album left me absolutely floored. From those first tortured post-black screams and perfectly implemented keys of the...

The Black and the Brutalful June 4, 2015

Nemesis
by The Hudson Horror

From the opening intro, with the epic guitar leads and pounding drums, I knew I was in for a treat. The instrumentation here is pretty glorious in scope. There is a strong foundation of melodic death metal and thrash metal, but there are brutal and blackened death influences as well. I tend to as...

Slayer Meets Black Flag June 3, 2015

Mvtter Vicivm
by Profanator

Fancy some blackened crust? Mexico has you covered. This is some violent, lo-fi metal that is equal parts Venom, Kreator, and Toxic Narcotic. Like the sample says, "I hate happy music...just shut (TFU)." Profanator have a mission: kill the hippies, shave mohawks on their corpses. I was initia...

The Beautiful Macabre June 2, 2015

In Cauda Venenum
by In Cauda Venenum

Submitted for your approval: In Cauda Venenum. Hailing from France, this act is here to bring “atmospheric black metal inspired by life, art, utopism, fatalism, & inheritance.” There is a superb layering of instrumentation happening here that is full without becoming an amorphous blob. The produc...

Melodeath, plain and simple June 1, 2015

Dysnomia
by Dysnomia

If you're like me, you grew up during the heyday of melodic death metal. From Slaughter of the Soul to Damage Done, I ate that stuff for breakfast. Those albums were probably the defining moment of my transition into the more extreme forms of metal. Sadly, all things must end. After a good decad...

I'll have my Doom heavy on the Death, please May 31, 2015

Wrath Monolith
by Doomed

I have always been quite choosey about my doom metal. Or, as the hardcore doomers might say, I just don't “get it.” I think a lot of it comes down to guitar work. A player myself, this tends to be the first thing that my ears go to. While I agree that I am somewhat missing the point of funeral doom ...

Another Welcome Surprise May 31, 2015

Land of the Grim
by Skydancer

Whether it was intentional or not, Skydancer really suckered me in for a listen with their name. A HUGE Dark Tranquillity fan, my eyes were immediately drawn to the name while visiting the label for an entirely different promo. Fortunately, they can back up the click-bait name with some really exc...

Fuck Yngwie May 31, 2015

Oblivion (Mendel)
by Mendel

Let me start by getting some cursory stuff out of the way: Mendel is a virtuoso for people who dont normally go down for the usual wankery. Sure, you could easily put Oblivion on shuffle with Yngwie, Satriani, and Vai; but I dont even keep those guys in my iTunes. While the hardcore fans of such mon...

A Fugazi Possessed May 31, 2015

Erasure, I Realized The Fix Was In
by Annakarina

I've had quite a bit of post-black and post-metal offerings with which to whet my beak this year, but not a whole lot of post-hardcore. There is the new Bosse-de-Nage, but more on that another day. In the meantime, I was made aware of creepy-title, creep-artwork Erasure, I Realized The Fix Was In ...
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