3486 results for "1"
Massacre - Back from Beyond
I experienced an erection lasting longer than four hours when I discovered that Massacre was coming out with a new full-length for the first time in 18 years (and with a spoiler-alert title like Back from Beyond, potentially their first good full-length in 23 years). However, I did feel an…
Omnizide - Death Metal Holocaust
When you see an album called Death Metal Holocaust, you can be reasonably sure that you’re not getting Power Metal. Omnizide is a Death Metal band in the Swedish style and though this is their debut LP (their only previous release was the 2011 Pleasure from Death EP, the songs…
The Kennedy Veil - Trinity of Falsehood
As usual, there’s very little guesswork involved with what you’re getting from Unique Leader. Yet this sophomore outing from Sacramento’s The Kennedy Veil isn’t so much a technical Death Metal album for the sake of a technical Death Metal album as it is a half-hour long blastbeat assault for the…
Mystica Girls - Gates of Hell
After being completely blown away by 2011’s stunning Metal Rose album (perhaps EP would be more accurate, as it was only 25 minutes long, but let’s not stand on formality), I was somewhat concerned about the subsequent lineup changes. I’m not sure if Alice (drums) and Sofia Renie (vocals) both…
Tengger Cavalry - Ancient Call
Tengger Cavalry is one of a very small handful of bands that mixes Chinese and Mongolian Folk music with Metal. Of all of the groups I’ve heard, Tengger Cavalry integrates the Folk music aspects into their music the most. Chthonic is known to use Chinese Folk rhythms and song structures…
Carnifex - Die Without Hope
Huge congrats to Carnifex. New year, new record label, and a new album that has penetrated the Billboard 100 (circa piracy age) via pure brutality alone. This accomplishment must feel all the sweeter done in the face of so many bitter haters. These overnight Metal authorities who bash Deathcore because…
Babymetal - Babymetal
Only in Japan could anyone think of combining “Death Metal” with little girls singing and dancing. But before you dismiss this completely out of hand, take a moment to consider what it means. In America, Metal is looked down upon. Most sheep people listen to totally worthless, disposable bullshit, such…
Drudkh / Winterfylleth - Thousands of Moons Ago / The Gates
Much like getting that semi-hot bar slut home for the first time only to find out her cavernous vagina is where they filmed The Descent, there’s a slight degree of disappointment involved when getting this ultra-rare split from Drudkh and Winterfylleth undressed. Unless, of course, pussies so large there’s graffiti…
Van Canto - Dawn of the Brave
I like checking out bands that are odd or different in some way. Even if the vast majority of music I end up hearing sucks Godzilla’s giant mutant reptile penis, there are times when checking out a new or different band pays dividends and I get to hear a truly…
Prostitute Disfigurement - From Crotch to Crown
I must confess to not keeping up with Prostitute Disfigurement at all since 2001’s Embalmed Madness. I know… shame on me. I don’t really have an excuse or a logical explanantion as to why its been a baker’s dozen worth of Braves’ calendars since I last checked in on these…
Acheron - Kult des Hasses
Acheron has a long and storied past. Formed by ex-Nocturnus member Vincent Crowley back in 1988, Acheron has been part of the Death Metal scene since its very earliest days. While the band never achieved the much-deserved fame or recognition that bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, or even Vital Remains…
Behemoth - The Satanist
To say that I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of The Satanist would probably be the understatement of the year. I was practically camping out in front of the record store waiting for this to come out. I’ve followed Behemoth since their The Return of the Northern Moon demo tape…
Warfather - Orchestrating the Apocalypse
To say that Morbid Angel’s 2011 comeback LP was perceived by the Death Metal multiverse as a dismal flop is putting things rather lightly. I once publicly admitted to liking four songs from Illud, and came home that night to a burning cross in my lawn and a banner that…
Wolvserpent - Perigaea Antahkarana
As with most record labels, Relapse has had its share of duds over the years, but in theory, Wolvserpent shouldn’t be one of them. The band plays dark and punishingly heavy music, which is normally something that I love. Where Perigaea Antahkarana fails is in the songwriting. At 82 minutes…
Demonomancy - Throne of Demonic Proselytism
When you know that Yosuke Konishi of Nuclear War Now! Productions is a huge fan of Blasphemy and bands in that style, it’s no surprise that he would release an album by Italy’s Demonomancy. While they aren’t a clone of Blasphemy or a direct descendant of the band like Revenge…
Incantation / Archgoat - Rehearsal & Live 1990 / Jesus Spawn
Let me begin this review by saying that this release is for die-hard devotees of Incantation and Archgoat only. If you’re merely a casual fan or someone who is curious about the bands on this split, I recommend checking out their other work instead. This material was, up until now,…
Exhumed - Necrocracy
If you’ve been around the Bay Area Metal scene for any length of time, you will know who Matt Harvey is. You will also know one or more musicians who have been in Exhumed at some point. The one constant in the band is Matt, and at this point he’s…
Dwell - Ash Tombs
Dwell is a side project of Church Bizarre members Allan B. Larsen (listed as ABL here) and Jens B. Pedersen (listed as JBP) to explore the realms of slower and heavier Death Metal. This is actually a fairly short release as far as Doom/Death Metal is concerned. Though there are…
Valdur - At War With
At War With has a dark and murky sound. The guitars are very bass-heavy and this whole LP reminds me of old Disembowelment and Corpse Molestation, but the music has an early Swedish Death Metal feeling. Valdur is a band that isn’t afraid of mixing in some melody in with…
Numenor - Colossal Darkness
Though this band seems to have been originally influenced by Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga in much the same way that Summoning was, the content of Colossal Darkness appears to be entirely inspired by Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion series. The Eternal Champion concept was interesting in that it wasn’t…
Thy Emptiness - Crowned Under Cascade Rain
The Superchi brothers (Jake and Nick, aka The Witcher and OldNick) are back again, but this time under the name of Thy Emptiness. Instead of the Symphonic Black Metal style that they usually write with their main band, Ceremonial Castings, they’ve decided to do something in the Doom/Death Metal direction,…
Metal Church - Generation Nothing
Metal Church is a band I haven’t kept track of very much since the ’80s. I was a big fan of The Dark and the self-titled debut, but after David Wayne left the band, they kind of dropped off of the radar for me. Occasionally I’d hear a track or…
Throne of Katarsis - The Three Transcendental Keys
I’ve never been to Norway, but the winters there must be brutal for the country to produce so much dark, bleak, and cold music as it does. Throne of Katarsis is a band that embodies all three of those characteristics. The Three Transcendental Keys is as dark, as bleak, and…
Hell - Curse & Chapter
While Hell’s 2011 debut, Human Remains, was a tribute to the deceased founder of the band, David Halliday, Curse & Chapter marks a new phase. Human Remains featured only old material, and while the new lineup took some liberties with those songs, they were essentially faithful to the originals. Curse…
Death Angel - The Dream Calls for Blood
Having grown up in San Francisco, Bay Area Thrash is something that I’ve known about and followed for most of my life. While I was never one of those people who religiously went to The Stone or to Ruthie’s Inn, I did know about and listened to most of the…
Astaroth (Norway) - Chaosatanas
I always hate researching a band with a name like Astaroth. Going online and searching for the right one is always a pain because there are literally dozens of groups out there with the same name or some variation of it. This particular Astaroth comes from Oslo, Norway, and they’re…
Ad Baculum - Abstract Abysmal Domain
Ad Baculum is a band that, in theory, should be pretty good. The sole member, Meugninousouan, was the vocalist for one of Brazil’s earliest Black Metal hordes, Mystifier. He’s been in the scene for ages, and having been in and around extreme music for most of his life, he should…
Cult of Fire - मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान
Though Cult of Fire hails from the Czech Republic, their influences are not what you would expect. This isn’t your typical Black Metal LP by a long shot. The band’s basic Bathory-esque assault has been copiously augmented by inspirations culled from Hindu mystical traditions, literature and music. There’s lots of…
Eye of Solitude - Canto III
Canto III, the latest LP by England’s Eye of Solitude takes a bit of getting used to. Unlike their previous output, the band goes for a more varied approach this time around. While everything is still mostly in the realm of Atmospheric Doom/Death Metal, there are times that a faster…
Avatarium - Avatarium
I’ve listened to Candlemass since their 1986 debut LP (Epicus Doomicus Metallicus) and while I would never consider myself a rabid fan of the band, I’ve always found something worthwhile in each of their releases. When I heard that bassist Leif Edling had a new project that was in the…
Ghosts at Sea - Hymns of Our Demise
Sometimes all the pieces come together exactly the right way and the whole is inexplicably greater than the sum of its parts. This happens when Ghosts at Sea slows down and gets gloomy, as in the flawlessly ominous dirge “The End of Days.” I always listen to whatever I’m reviewing…
Ekove Efrits - Nowhere
Ekove Efrits hails from Tehran, Iran, and is the primary band of Count De Efrit, who is also the sole member of Silent Path. The difference between the two is that Silent Path is more depressive and droning, where Ekove Efrits is far more experimental. I’m tempted to call the…
Kataklysm - Waiting for the End to Come
I consider myself to be a big Kataklysm fan, and despite not being completely blown away by the band’s previous album, 2010’s Heaven’s Venom, I was still very anxiously awaiting this new release. A few seconds into the first play-through and my mind wandered, without anything drawing my focus again…
Satan’s Wrath - Aeons of Satan’s Reign
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Satan’s Wrath, mostly from folks who missed the campiness of old Heavy Metal. Perhaps he best way to describe this band is to say that this is what Grim Reaper would sound like if Cronos from Venom took over vocal duties and…
Shadecrown - Chained
When I heard the self-titled demo from Finland’s Shadecrown, I was seriously impressed. It isn’t often you find a band that takes the time and the effort to create a demo recording that has both well-crafted songs and excellent sound. While I enjoyed the music immensely, I was disappointed that…
Ihsahn - Das Seelenbrechen
As much as I respect Ihsahn for his work with Emperor, Peccatum and Thou Shalt Suffer, his solo material has always been tough for me to review. I say this because Ihsahn was one of the guys who were at the very point of the Black Metal spear that pierced…
The Meads of Asphodel - Sonderkommando
I’ve never been a big fan of England’s The Meads of Asphodel. The best way to describe these guys is to say that they are Experimental Black Metal. Everything about them is a bit odd, from their “We escaped from the set of Monty Python and the Holy Grail” outfits…
Empyrium - Into the Pantheon
This is the CD version of Into the Pantheon, which is a live concert recording. There is also a DVD/BD available, and if there is a choice, I recommend getting the video because a live performance is usually 50% audio and 50% visual when it comes to the experience. As…
Profanatica - Thy Kingdom Cum
I’ve always had mixed feeling about Profanatica. They were one of the early US Black Metal bands, spearheading the movement along with Masochist, Necrovore and Demoncy. Sporting an obviously Death Metal-influenced style (Profanatica’s original lineup had all been members of Incantation), they were sort of unique among the other groups…
The Ruins of Beverast - Blood Vaults - The Blazing Gospel of Heinrich Kramer
Some consider The Ruins of Beverast to be one of the best kept secrets in Black Metal right now. Though former Nagelfar (the German one, not to be confused with the Swedish Naglfar) member Alexander von Meilenwald has been writing and recording music under the name of The Ruins of…
Tiger Junkies - D-Beat Street Rock ‘n’ Rollers
This is a Punk/Thrash Crossover band that was formed by Joel Grind (Toxic Holocaust) and Yasuyuki Suzuki (aka Barbados) of Abigail as a side project that recorded new material every time that Joel was in Japan. This record was originally released back in 2008, but this version was remastered by…
Secrets of the Sky - To Sail Black Waters
I don’t know what causes so many people in the East Bay (across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco, for those not from the Bay Area) to want to play Doom-infused Metal (Doom/Death, Black/Doom, etc.), but there seems to be a lot of bands in that vein coming from that…
Chalice of Doom - Into Hypnagogia
2013 was an interesting year for Middle Eastern Metal music. While there has always been a small scene over in that area of the world, this year saw a number of bands come forward with releases that were good, and some great. Seeds of Iblis and Theoria come immediately to…
Graveland - Tunderbolts of the Gods
Though overtly NS, Graveland still remains one of Poland’s most recognizable and well-known bands. I sometimes wonder why they continue to have so much notoriety, but you can’t deny that the band has achieved a level of fame that few others have. The music of Graveland has evolved into something…
Fleshgod Apocalypse - Labyrinth
Fleshgod Apocalypse isn’t a band I’m intimately familiar with. This is my first actual exposure beyond the usual “one track on the cover-mounted compilation CD from Terrorizer magazine.” I’ve heard mixed things about them, ranging from good to crap and just about everywhere in between. This is a band people…
The Mezmerist - The Innocent, the Forsaken, the Guilty
The Mezmerist is one of those bands that few, if any, remember from back in the ’80s. The group only had one official release, a 4-song EP, the original version of The Innocent, the Forsaken, the Guilty (1985). Most of the copies of that EP were kept by the band,…
Leila Abdul-Rauf - Cold and Cloud
Leila has been a fixture in the Bay Area music scene for quite a while. I’ve seen her perform with a bunch of different bands (Saros, Amber Asylum and Hammers of Misfortune, to name a few) over the years, and I was surprised to see her release a solo album.…
Deranged - Morgue Orgy
Deranged were kind of an anomaly when they first came out. I remember them being one of the only Brutal Death Metal bands out of Sweden back in the early ’90s. Back in those days, it seemed as if every Swedish band wanted to sound like Entombed, Dismember or Unleashed.…
Warrion - Awakening the Hydra
I went into my initial listen almost completely ignorant about this band other than a vague notion of them being Heavy/Power Metal, and having song titles such as “Adversary,” “Victim of Religion,” and “Lucifer My Guide.” The wailing, piercing singing kind of put me off that first play-through, until the…
Demonic Slaughter - Downfall
This is the fourth full-length LP for Poland’s Demonic Slaughter and their debut for Pagan Records. There are also three EPs and a split with their fellow countrymen Deception (Worshippers of the Darkness, on Hellthrasher Productions), for those who are interested in tracking down the back catalog. Having heard a…