3486 results for "1"
Rest In Peace
Lemmy is gone, but never forgotten. His influence will live forever. Rest In Peace. Lemmy and me (looking stupid with my eyes closed, of course) from 1999 in Chicago.
Thyruz - Svik
This band has been active in the Norwegian Black Metal underground for fifteen years, having formed in 1999. After five demo recordings and two previous full-length LPs, Thyruz is back with their latest release, Svik. The riffing on this album is very reminiscent of post-Euronymous Mayhem, though it takes a…
Metal Clone X - Louder Than Your Mother
In Japan, the most popular form of music is currently a form of Idol Pop that involves a large number of girls in a chorus troop. The phenomenon isn’t new, but of late there are a lot more of them than there used to be. Fueled by the success of…
Ulvegr - The Call of Glacial Emptiness
This is my first time hearing Ulvegr, but this is their third full-length album. The reason I wanted to check them out was because the two guys in the band are longtime members of the Ukrainian scene. Odalv, the drummer, is a member of Elderblood and has also spent time…
Taekaury - Spirit of Koguryo
It’s not very often that I hear Metal from South Korea, so I look at it as something of a novelty. There are probably a lot more bands out there than you would think, but because they don’t have any internationally recognized acts, most Metal fans would be hard-pressed to…
Ptahil - Born Against
Indiana’s Blackened Heavy Metal horde, Ptahil, is back again with their third full-length LP and if you liked their brand of massively distorted and reverb-laden Black Heavy Metal before, you’re getting more of what you love. Ptahil has always used the “giant ball of Satanic noise” style of production, which…
Albion - Campanula
This is the debut album from Japan’s Albion, a relatively new all-girl Metal band that plays a keyboard-heavy form of Power Metal that sounds somewhat like a Gothic Metal version of Cyntia. Like Cyntia, the keyboards provide the bulk of the heavy lifting, delivering both the atmospheric elements as well…
Demonic Slaughter - The Haunted
[Editor’s note: The CD and “digital” versions of this album have somewhat divergent tracklists, and even slightly different titles, with the “digital” officially being The Haunted, while the CD is simply Haunted, no “the.” Why anyone thought that would be a good idea is open to discussion…] I’ve quietly become…
Mardelas - Daybreak/Phantasia
Mardelas is the new band featuring former Destrose vocalist, Marina Hebiishi. After what appears to be a less than amicable split from her previous band, Marina has bounced back with all the fire and passion she brought to Destrose intact and maybe intensified. Though this EP only has two songs…
Weightlessness - Of Lachrymose Grief
Exactly how much you will (or won’t) enjoy the debut recording from US Doom merchants Weightlessness hinges solely on one singular question, and just in case anyone from Massachusetts is trying to read this, I’ll dumb the question down a little: Does it bother you when bands sound exactly like…
Arathgoth - Dark Like Space
This is my first time hearing Arathgoth, and the Sci-Fi nerd in me likes this band a lot. Their music isn’t especially groundbreaking, but anybody that can reference Battlestar Galactica, The Running Man, Captain Harlock, Dune, Transformers, and Alien on one record is cool in my book. As a music…
Rage Nucleaire - Black Storm of Violence
Lord Worm (ex-Cryptopsy) is back again with his Black Metal band, Rage Nucleaire. Though I was never much of a Cryptopsy fan, I do find myself liking Rage Nucleaire a lot more. I missed their first LP, 2012’s Unrelenting Fucking Hatred, but after listening to Black Storm of Violence, I…
Empyrium - The Turn of the Tides
I’ve been following Empyrium for quite a while. I first heard about the band back when they were playing a form of Black Metal that was similar to early Ulver, mixing acoustic and atmospheric elements in with the harsher stuff in a way that was pretty interesting to me at…
Savn - Savn
This is the debut full-length release from Norway’s Savn, a group composed of ex-The Sins of Thy Beloved members (Stig Johansen and Anders Thue, though Anders was only a live musician) and Carmen Elise Espenaes (the sister of ex-Theater of Tragedy member Liv Kristine, who guests on the song “I…
Ancient Vvisdom - Sacrificial
Well, I guess it had to happen eventually. Ancient Vvsidom has gone full-on electric. It seems to be the inevitable outcome of every project that starts out as an all-acoustic affair. Is it a feeling of inadequacy, or perhaps vulnerability, in the live setting? Peer pressure? Fan request? Boredom? Musical…
Destrose - The Prologue
2014 was rough for Destrose. Early in the year, longtime vocalist Marina Hebiishi left in what appears to have been a less than amicable split. The band quickly recruited a new singer, stabilizing their lineup long enough to record this EP. No sooner was The Prologue released, though, when it…
Burzum - The Ways of Yore
I must be a masochist because I keep reviewing Burzum albums knowing that Varg’s musical heyday is over. That said, The Ways of Yore isn’t that bad. Sol Austan, Mani Vestan, Burzum’s previous LP, was about as musically exciting as watching paint dry without the benefit of inhaling the fumes.…
Shores of Null - Quiescence
Given that Quiescence is the debut LP from these Italian Melodeath upstarts, I suppose it’s excusable that I know virtually nothing about them. The members of this quintet all moonlight in various other projects, but I’m assuming names like Zippo, The Orange Man Theory, and Noumeno aren’t going to ring…
Clouds - Doliu
Doliu is the debut album from Clouds, an Atmospheric Doom band with an all-star, international lineup. One of the main reasons I wanted to hear this was because Daniel Neagoe of Eye of Solitude is in this band. He wrote the music and most of the lyrics for this album,…
Abigor - Leytmotif Luzifer (The 7 Temptations of Man)
Though Austria’s Black Metal stalwarts, Abigor, have been around for a long time, it’s only after their reformation that I’ve really been into their music. I liked their old stuff well enough, but I always thought that they were one of those bands that could have been better. I was…
Bridear - Light in the Dark / No Salvation
Fukuoka’s Bridear isn’t the most prolific Japanese all-girl Power Metal band. It’s been roughly a year since they released their debut LP, Overturn the Doom, and though they’ve played a bunch of shows, they haven’t really produced much new music. This EP is their latest release, and as the title…
At the Gates - At War with Reality
The expectations surrounding At the Gates’ first new record in 19 years were insurmountable, inescapable, and downright unfair. I say insurmountable because no Death Metal band short of Carcass can (or should be able to) just flip the switch and pick up where they left off two decades ago. I…
Deep Mountains - Lake of Solace
When I initially researched China’s Deep Mountains, they were described as Folk/Black Metal. Having heard Tengger Cavalry, another band that is described as Folk/Black Metal, I was kind of expecting something similar. Deep Mountains isn’t even close to sounding like that. Even calling them Black Metal is a bit of…
Babymetal - Live Legend 1999 1997 Apocalypse (video)
Babymetal has only one full-length album to their credit, but they now have two (soon to be three) live videos out there. The thing about Babymetal is that each concert video that they release is considerably different. Even though they only have one LP, part of the draw that these…
Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden
Perfection. The vast majority of music critics —yes, I’m talking to you, any living human being with a computer— don’t believe it’s possible. A perfect score is considered by most to be an anomaly at best, while others suspiciously find such an aberration downright sacrilegious. I vividly remember some cunt…
Mordbrand - Imago
This is the debut full-length release by Sweden’s Mordbrand, but this is by no means their first time to the dance. The members of this band have been part of the Swedish Death Metal scene for quite some time. They’ve been active as a band since 2006 and have released…
Mefisto - The Megalomania Puzzle
This band has been split up since 1987, and this recording isn’t anything new or previously unreleased. In fact, this compilation was released under a different name (and cooler packaging) back in 1999. That version was called The Truth, but it’s the same music as on here. Mefisto only had…
Black Cult - Neo-Satanism
This band was created as a side project by two of the most prominent members of Croatia’s Black Metal scene (Insanus and Morbid, both of whom were/are involved in many bands), to play Black Metal the way they thought it should be played. That said, I had mixed expectations for…
Loudblast - Burial Ground
Although Loudblast is huge in their native France, their releases have been ridiculously hard to find in the United States. The last time I remember seeing any domestic release from this band here in the USA, it was the Century Media compilation, In the Eyes of Death, which also featured…
Cannibal Corpse - A Skeletal Domain
I’ve delayed the review of Cannibal Corpse’s 13th full-length album for a multitude of reasons. There’s the whole slavery thing. Got to put in 40 hours a week to ensure that the money from my employers gets properly transferred from one master to another. Then there’s that sloth/gluttony angle. Most…
SS-18 - Nuklearpteryx
There are those who are going to see the “SS” in the beginning of this band’s name and immediately write them off as NSBM, but please don’t make that mistake. For those still reading, this is not NSBM. The band’s name, according to what I’ve read, comes from a Russian…
Dead Congregation - Promulgation of the Fall
A number of people have been pushing me to listen to Greek Death Metallers Dead Congregation for a while now, and while I’ve looked around for their music, my local indie record store never seemed to have any. Either they’ve sold out immediately (distinctly possible) or the buyer just never…
Godflesh - Decline & Fall
For me, the album that I compare any Industrial music to is Godflesh’s Streetcleaner. If there were any LP that, to me, defined dark and heavy Industrial, that was it. Nothing has been able to top it. Even the almighty Godflesh was never able to exceed the sheer evil and…
Bloodbath - Grand Morbid Funeral
Much like every instrument Anders Nystrom and Jonas Renkse have ever picked up, and every song the duo has ever recorded together, the publicity stunt regarding the new Bloodbath vocalist was played perfectly. Subtle clues were given, and months of guesswork and speculation followed. A team of NASA scientists were…
Aldious - Dazed and Delight
Though they aren’t the longest running Japanese all-girl Metal band out there (Destrose has been around considerably longer), Aldious is among the most prolific. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that the band founder, Yoshi, was able to find a stable lineup early on, and for…
Bombs of Hades - Atomic Temples
With a one-and-done stint as vocalist for The Crown behind him, Jonas Stalhammar can now focus all his attention on endeavors closer to his Old School heart. Namely resurrected Swedeath legends God Macabre, and of course Bombs of Hades, his Death/Crust outlet since 2002. Although on album #3, that genre…
Wormreich - Wormcult Revelations
Formed from the ashes of Blood Stained Dusk, Wormreich is a band that revels in complex and chaotic arrangements. Their brand of Black Metal is heavily influenced by the likes of Deathspell Omega (they even do a cover of “Malign Paradigm” on this album), but with a few twists and…
Dizastor - After You Die We Mosh
Dublin, California’s Dizastor is a band that isn’t going to get critical acclaim anytime soon. Most will pan After You Die We Mosh as unimaginative and trivial music that’s essentially the special-ed version of old Exodus performed by a bunch of guys who are a few tacos short of a…
Belphegor - Conjuring the Dead
It’s easy to take this Austrian Black/Death duo for granted. I don’t know of too many middle-aged-and-above Metalheads who flutter with anticipation at the mention of a new Belphegor release. Perhaps that whole scary makeup schtick loses its affect on the withered and souldying as we become slaves of time?…
Inferi - The Path of Apotheosis
I was initially interested in checking out this band because I’ve never heard anything that is both Technical and Melodic Death Metal before. Technical Death Metal bands are rarely melodic in any sense of the word. Inferi might have been more melodic on their earlier releases, but the technical aspects…
Crematory - Antiserum
Germany’s Crematory is a band that has changed quite a bit over the years. They started out as an Atmospheric Death Metal band, adding Dimmu Borgir-esque keyboards to the standard Death Metal formula. After a short period of this, they morphed into Gothic Metal, incorporating increasing levels of Bauhaus and…
Darkest Hour - Darkest Hour
If you haven’t been paying attention, the haters are having a field day bashing the living shit of Darkest Hour’s new self-titled LP. I haven’t seen an underdog take a pounding like this since Captain America inhaled a warehouse full of Heisenberg and beat Daredevil’s ass blue-black until his face…
Aldious - District Zero Tour - Live at Shibuya-O East (video)
My name is Ychoril and these are my confessions. You may know that I’m a huge Japanophile. I love Japan and all things Japanese. The only thing that turns me on more than a hot Japanese woman is a hot Japanese Metal chick. That said, I watch District Zero Tour…
Those Who Bring the Torture - Piling Up
When it comes to Death Metal’s perverse and unholy backyard barbecue, there are those who bring the potato salad and Those Who Bring the Torture. Yes, I know that joke was stupid, but reviewing anything from the mighty Rogga Johansson is never an easy task. One has to get things…
Slough Feg - Digital Resistance
Mike Scalzi has been in and around the San Francisco Metal scene for a long time. He’s played in a number of groups over the years, but Slough Feg (also known as The Lord Weird Slough Feg) has always been his main band. I started listening to Slough Feg shortly…
Electric Wizard - Time to Die
I’ve grown to appreciate Electric Wizard over time. When they initially burst onto the scene, my first impression was a small band hiding behind a big sound. I don’t feel that way anymore, but let’s be honest, how often have you reached for Come My Fanatics in the last 17…
Septicflesh - Titan
Being somewhat swept up in the nostalgia surrounding the long overdue reissues of their first two albums, I kinda forgot that Septicflesh is still an active kicking ‘n’ screaming unit. This is their 3rd full-length since hooking back up in 2007, but I must confess to it being the first…
Cemetery Fog - Towards the Gates
Tell me it’s “recommended for fans of Katatonia” and you could probably end up selling me a mason jar of albino midget semen. (At the very least I’m going on YouTube to verify the albino authenticity; wouldn’t wanna get tricked into buying the seed of regular midgets.) I guess I’ll…
Aborted - The Necrotic Manifesto
It dawns on me every time I pop The Necrotic Manifesto in… Aborted has made it. They’ve actually made it. Granted, “making it” in the world of Death Metal isn’t nearly as glamorous or profitable as making it as a surgeon, or as a lawyer, or a politician, actor, athlete,…
Vader - Tibi et Igni
In a way, I feel a bit bad for Vader. At one time, they were the preeminent Polish Death Metal band. When anyone said “Polish Death Metal,” the first group that came to mind was Vader - and for good reason. Now, what comes to mind when someone says “Polish…