One thing the USA does very well is export high quality heavy metal to all corners of the globe. Louisiana’s masters of extreme metal, Goatwhore, just released their sixth studio album, entitled Constricting Rage of the Merciless. The band then went on tour in the USA with the Summer Slaughter …
Read More »BLASTFEST announce first round of bands
At the peak of the summer festival season, one particular festival has only just begun to make its first announcements. Opting to bring a legion of the worlds finest extreme metal to the masses in the heart of winter, it can only be one such festival we’re talking about… BLASTFEST! Held …
Read More »Haerken – …Of Warriors and Kings
Haerken are a new European band, and their ten-song debut album, …Of Warriors and Kings, released in 2014, is a fresh face on the monolith that is extreme music. (At least for Latin, the ‘ae’ is pronounced “i”.) Modern, technical, crunchy, and fairly dry, the band’s sound could be described …
Read More »Skinlepsy – Condemning the Empty Souls
Downtuned, digital, distorted, and defiant. That’s the first impression of Brazil’s Skinlepsy, who released their debut, Condemning the Empty Souls, on Shinigami Records. Nicely balanced, the recording is listenable even at low volume, but packs more punch “cranked up” a bit. This nine-song (with one intro) full-length album is nothing …
Read More »Triptykon – Melana Chasmata
Tom G. Warrior (of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost fame) and his newer incarnation, Triptykon, will be performing at select festival dates in 2014 and will be embarking on a full European tour with reunited extreme metallers At The Gates in December 2014. The band has a new platter on offer: 2014’s Melana …
Read More »X-Mantra – Pralaya 2012
X-Mantra are a four-piece thrash metal band from Kathmandu, Nepal, who formed in 2000. In 2012, they released Pralaya 2012, a disc containing eight songs. X-Mantra is very fortunate to have signed with British label King Slam Records. The signing and subsequent distribution will hopefully greatly increase their international reach …
Read More »Conquering Dystopia – Conquering Dystopia
Check this out. The new American band, Conquering Dystopia, has their eponymous instrumental debut album on sale for about $10. Fans and listeners can legally stream the album from the band’s official website for the huge price of FREE though. Yes, in our time of “no free lunch”, this professionally …
Read More »Animus – Fall Of The Elite
Animus are a new Scottish “progressive metal band who draw influences from Djent, Tech, and Death metal bands.” On the cusp of their maiden tour, Animus, widely characterized as “Djent”, have released their nicely produced, four-song EP debut, Fall Of The Elite. They stick nicely to an extreme theme throughout …
Read More »Ferocity – The Sovereign
Ferocity, a Danish death metal band, focuses on truly ferocious vocals, thick buzzsaw stringwork, and solid percussion in a variety of tempos on their second and latest release, The Sovereign. Deep, guttural vocals are “mixed high”, tending to blot out what’s happening underneath. That said, the band seems to have …
Read More »Oranssi Pazuzu – Valonielu
Finland’s Oranssi Pazuzu presents fans with six original, genre-expanding, no-frills good tunes. Music replete with creativity sparks interest. Valonielu blends sparse industrial with rock, insanely running it through an extreme metal filter, resulting in a crazy chimera. The long, well-crafted songs feature guitars utilizing some of the heaviest, thickest “breakup” …
Read More »Protector – Reanimated Homonculus
Veteran German thrash mongers Protector scorch a blazing trail of old-school death-thrash through Swedish woods, taking no prisoners. They channel all that is good from thrash metal into tunes like “Reanimated Homonculus” and “Antiman”, snapping necks furiously and without remorse. The competent, tight band delivers blood-curdling goods on this disc, …
Read More »Arx – Ordo Ab Pax
Ordo Ab Pax, released in 2013, is the debut album from Gauteng, South African progressive thrash metal outfit, Arx. The band has an engaging, melodic extreme metal sound, a bit reminiscent (but not derivative) of Dark Tranquillity or later In Flames. The album ranges from instrumental, to thrash, to ‘hatecore’ …
Read More »Whitechapel – The Somatic Defilement
Whitechapel are a fairly young band, forming in 2006. They are a death metal band, with four releases under their belt, from Knoxville, Tennessee. The band have returned with their newest offering, for Metal Blade Records: the re-release of The Somatic Defilement (their 2007 debut album), which has been re-mastered. Overall, the record …
Read More »Cradle Of Filth – The Manticore and Other Horrors
As bands always do in the lead up to a release of their new album, they make a lot of predictions and comments on how they think or what they think the album will sound like. In the running up to the release of The Manticore and Other Horrors, Cradle …
Read More »The Everdawn – Poems – Burn The Past
There’s a lot to be said about the musical elitism that follows extreme metal around like a third wheel, but damn it if it isn’t sometimes completely justified. If not for elitism, Deicide would still be taken seriously, Cradle Of Filth would be seen as the epitome of black metal …
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