Colossal April 23, 2015

Koloss
by Meshuggah

The most common complaint I hear about Meshuggah, from the monotone vocals to the djent-spawning guitar crunch, is repetitiveness. It is true that a passing listen yields a surface-level of uniformity that some may find unappealing. However, there was an interview with the band stating something tha...

Poised For Greatness April 1, 2015

Gateway to the Antisphere
by Sulphur Aeon

Sulphur Aeon are a blackened death metal band from Germany. Finding some success with the debut LP, Swallowed By The Ocean's Tide, they have returned two years later to share some new Cthulu-inspired tunes and breath-taking album art in Gateway To The Antisphere. After hearing the first single, "Dil...

MeloSymphTechDeath March 31, 2015

Infinite Fields
by Irreversible Mechanism

There must be something in the water in Belarus that is turning a new generation of youth into amazing metal musicians. That whole region of the world is killing it this year, but I think this is the second solid group out of that actual country to have a stellar release in the past two months. Taki...

Blackflesh? Godblack? March 30, 2015

The Architects of Extermination
by Kommandant

Kommandant, despite the very European-sounding name and album art (KMFDM? Is that you?), are a black metal band based out of Chicago. Sporting a few releases since 2008, The Architects of Extermination is their 3rd full-length album. New to the group, I was interested enough after hearing their s...

Return of the 2nd Wave March 27, 2015

Palemoon
by Corpus Christii

Corpus Christii caught my eye when perusing the March 2015 release list via bandcamp. The 3 tracks available on their page seemed destined to satisfy my need for the occasional black metal that one needn’t think about; only smile while burning in its flame. I was unfamiliar with the group, so seei...

Hard Work Pays Off March 27, 2015

Veritas
by Dekadent

Hailing from Slovenia, Dekadent play a unique brand of melodic death and black metal. Seemingly fed up with record labels they describe on their page as having screwed the group over more than once, they have taken it upon themselves to record this album without such restraint through crowd-sourcing...

Aztec Black Metal March 8, 2015

Aq'Ab'Al
by Volahn

It was the excited conversation in Metal Storm's very own shoutbox along with Mr. Doctor's enthusiastic review that brought me to this album. I must say, my initial impression was strong. I have been less than impressed by a lot of recent black metal I have heard, and I am especially wary of any fro...

Accessibly Weird March 3, 2015

Scar Sighted
by Leviathan

I’m not quite part of the inner-circle when it comes to Wrest. People have recommended plenty Leviathan to me and I have always walked away fairly indifferent. Sure, I think he is talented, but he also just fails to fully engage me. However, I do feel that Scar Sighted has managed to take me at leas...

From Chile with Love March 1, 2015

Testimonia
by Animus Mortus

It’s rare that I find a group that would be equally as at home touring with Hopesfall as Taake. Sure, there are plenty of post-black outfits that inject some indie and hardcore ethos into their blastbeat-driven sound, but the pure spacey post-rock riffs of tracks like “Hyperbole of Senses” forego t...

Ferocious March 1, 2015

Consolamentum
by Ascension

According to the bandcamp page: "'Consolamentum' is a concept album, divided into 5 chapters, dealing with the spiritual journey and transformation of a human soul towards salvation." Out of context, this could be a description for some acoustic, hippy type stuff. I guess it could be...provided that...

Monotheist Meets Consolamentum March 1, 2015

Nothing But The Whole
by Emptiness

From the twisted mind of Enthroned, and equal parts Ascension and Tryptykon, Emptiness is a sick wonder to behold. Rarely is metal so simultaneously mellow and scathingly fierce at the same time. Riffs are slow dirges of echoey tremolo and minor chords sprinkled with perfectly sparing use of crunchy...

Sandstorms and Oases Feb. 27, 2015

Enki
by Melechesh

I am a self-admitted, total noob to Melechesh. Somehow it is 2015 and I had never heard a single album. Disgrace, I know. But don't go anywhere just yet. I find it useful to have both objective and subjective reviews of an album, and given that I have not yet been tainted by previous releases, my ou...

Move Over Moonsorrow Feb. 23, 2015

Mach Dich Frei
by Finsterforst

I listen to a lot of music, a good 5-8 hours a day. If I could, I would buy any decent album that passes my ears. But alas, I don't make that kind of money, and I have mouths to feed. As a result, I do a lot of weeding out through redundancy. With that in mind, I was less than enthusiastic going int...

Blackish, Punkish, Deathish Feb. 1, 2015

Flesh Assimilation
by Zom

Zom is a blackened death metal band from Colorado. Another tasty surprise from Dark Descent Records, it was the first one to catch my ear in 2015. If you liked what you heard from the last Malthusian EP and are dying like me for a full length release, this may help scratch that itch in the meantime....

We Are GODS! Feb. 1, 2015

Phenomena
by Within the Ruins

Do you like guitar shredding? How about time signature changes? Comic books? If you answered yes to all three of these, then this is the album for you. There are a number of likely reasons this album flew under the radar in 2014: the dismissive deathcore/djent/metalcore labels, the lack of marketing...

Mmm.. Reese's Jan. 31, 2015

From Parts Unknown
by Every Time I Die

Like the figurative peanut butter in my chocolate, someone has put Converge in my Every Time I Die. This should come as no surprise, given that From Parts Unknown is produced by none other than Kurt Ballou. A big fan of both groups for many years, I'll admit that I was excited at the prospect of thi...

Still Above the Rest Jan. 23, 2015

In Dreams
by After the Burial

I hate the term djent. It is a gross overgeneralization that creates a bias against plenty of strong musicians who just happen to favor the low end and focus on groove at times. While there are plenty of lazy, no-talent clowns falling into this category, I argue that After the Burial is one of the d...

You Win This Round, U.K. Jan. 18, 2015

Demons
by Bloodshot Dawn

Much like the opening moments of this album, I’m going to dive right in. As far as the production goes, this is very similar to what I heard on Aspherium’s Fall of Therenia. The mix is very heavy on the treble end with a highly compressed crunch to the guitar. I’d say it falls somewhere between Chil...

Ometh Orgasm Jan. 12, 2015

Rareform
by After the Burial

This review is in reference to the reissued, black and green version of the album. For those who do not know the difference, this version is the first to feature then-new and still-current vocalist, Anthony Notarmaso. His inclusion was a pretty big step forward for the band, as the previous vocalist...

Third Favorite Jan. 9, 2015

Hordalands doedskvad
by Taake

The consensus almost everywhere seems to be that this is not only the best Taake record, according to Best Black Metal Albums, it’s in the top 5 of all time (number 2 at the time of this writing). While I doubt many people here would agree with the latter, the reviews on this site still herald this ...
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