Music elitists and humorless arseholes may as well stop reading now. Those of you who have been blessed with grand observational skills may have guessed from the album title and the cover art that this piece of work is about pirates. Let’s face, it’s a pretty amusing subject to dedicate an entire album to, and a fair few people believe that humour has no place in music ...Read all

There are two sides for every story; in the case of what we know now as thrash metal, there are two sources from which the modern more well known sound is derived from; one is the NWOBHM sound of bands such as Iron Maiden, Def Leapard and Saxon and the other component was the early hardcore sound of the late 70’s and early 80’s; and that sound is what’s important ...Read all

After the departure of lead singer Lance King, it seemed that Pyramaze lost a big part of their core, but the winds of fortune brought something better to the band, at least for a while. Famed vocalist Matt Barlow, who is known as the true voice of Iced Earth, decided to make a return to the metal scene after five years of absence, a time in which he focused on a career ...Read all

Here is an interesting, out of the ordinary, peculiar musical creation from the mind behind Swedish (dissolved) band Silencer, Nattramn; an album as he describes it “Diagnose: Lebensgefahr should not be considered as Silencer part two but rather “face too”; so without having enjoyed Silencer this doesn’t say anything to me, (but it might speak to those who have ...Read all

I really, really, really want to give this album a perfect ten. But that’s only because of the truly brilliant album and track titles, it’s like a Dungeon and Dragons rule book written by a madman on PCP. Alas, from a musical perspective the album does not deserve a perfect ten ...Read all

Listening to Daylight Dies’ Lost to the Living is like eating a pound of a good cheese. At first you are excited because of the lukewarm enjoyment you got from the last time you ate said cheese. The record spins, you take your first bite, Cathedral, the first track, is a delicious morsel mixing overt Dark Tranquility-esque melody with the art of old school British death/doom...Read all

It is a common trend in metal for bands to release an amazing album followed by an album that isn’t as good as their previous efforts but still pretty decent; most of the time bands tend to fall from grace and release really pathetic albums such as In Flames. Canada’s Kataklysm are one of the few exceptions to that trend, as not only do they match the intense...Read all

After ‘Gretchen Goes To Nebraska’ was placed in my CD player many years ago I became attached to King’s X and found myself frequently citing them as an example of Christian rock that didn’t suck. In fact, they were the example of Christian Rock that didn’t suck. Songs like ‘Summerland’ and ‘Over My Head’ from the above record displayed an artistic creativity ...Read all

Year after year, I keep expecting a good heavy metal record that would proudly put the Judas style back into full motion; and every year (starting just last year actually!) Benedictum has given me that hope, so when I received another heavy/power/rock album like ANSOBFTS (A New Shade Of Black For The Soul… I love acronyms!) ...Read all

HornoKracy is an album that concentrates so much power, energy, and brutal force that is hard not to pay attention. Following that world wide remarkable way of revitalizing death metal the polish scene gives us the first production by Hell United, and yes they do share and can be compared with names such as Behemoth and Azarath, there is only one problem with...Read all

Do you like death metal? If so, you’ve entered a brief sanctuary that’ll tickle your limbic system until you feel pumped and ready to fight: Blind Beyond’s “Out of Faith.” Frankly, hundreds of bands affiliated with the harsh genre just copy whatever they find satisfactory and call it a release; however, this Polish faction can simply add enough cover to protect...Read all

Since I started listening to black metal, I've encountered all sorts of atmospheres within the genre: vicious, inspiring, depressing, grim and frostbitten, etc. Before listening to Woodtemple's Sorrow of the Wind, however, I had never really encountered anything I could call soothing.
To be fair, to...Read all

Ambient black metal can be hard to pull off well. It leans heavily on repetition and relatively simple parts for the sake of atmosphere, yet the repetition can easily become repetitious and thus dull. It also helps to have some sense of melody, so as to give the listener something to latch onto. Too much melody, however ...Read all

Now where in the frosty hell did something like this come from? Over and over again, there flies in a locust-like flight of blackened death metal bands doing their specific sound because Behemoth makes them horny, but Epping Forest has not one trace of violation or inconsistency throughout this nifty offering that other sub-par acts would normally succumb to within ...Read all

I do have a big problem with split albums, a huge problem, and even bigger when all they do is play cover songs from their favorite bands and throw us a miserly pair of original tracks! If at least this was a tribute record to lets say the German thrash scene of the 80’s then, I could see the “beauty” in it, but just recording an album for the heck of putting out something that has ...Read all

There is one characteristic you must have before embarking yourself down the path of Orthodox’s music, and that is patience… patience and the attention span of an 100 year old turtle, yes that’s how focus you have to be in order to grasp the rudimentary occult ways of this Spaniard doom/drone band.
As to try and test our stamina, our willingness to actually hear...Read all

Black metal and Satan. Two tastes that go great together and which, some would argue, are completely inseparable. Of course, you have bands that love Satan, and then you have bands that love Satan. Watain falls into this latter category, a fact made readily apparent by their latest album Sworn to the Dark ...Read all

Music was intended to calm beasts and conquer women’s hearts! Or so did many believed before a bunch of hairy kids revolt and created rock n roll; later taken to the extreme of showing us just how good, brutal, loud and heavy music could be if played by the right people… “The Cataclysm” is nothing like that; I mean brutal or heavy, it is just beautiful and depending ...Read all

It took me a while to actually reach into the bag of albums to review to find The Quintessence, but when I did, that old feeling of hope and discovery every time I get a promo package came back, just as it did the first time I got an album to review for Leviatan 3 years ago (man how fast time goes by!). Non Opus Dei is not your regular black metal outfit, their music is...Read all

As the sacred flames burn bright, a red-headed figure slowly emerges with a signature suffix that screams of Iced Earth: Matt Barlow. Yes my children, everyone’s favorite vocalist has finally budded into John Schaffer’s ribs once again, forging “I Walk Among You” as result; however, their reunion can be quite rocky at times. Three tunes – including Barlow’s returning...Read all

Hail K. remembers browsing through a back issue of ‘Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles’ and finding near the bottom of a page this tiny, few-inches-in-length article on the upcoming Testament album, which at that time was still a work-in-progress.* This was BW&BK’s last issue for 2006 and Chuck Billy was quoted describing it as a mix of ‘Ride the Lightning’ and ...Read all

Former Dream Theater vocalist Charlie Dominici has kept himself relatively exiled ever since his departure from Dream Theater 15 years ago. After a special reunion show with Dream Theater, Dominici returned to music with his own band simply called Dominici. Starting with the acoustic solo album “O3” in 2005, Dominici has now moved back in the neighborhood of...Read all

Some might want to deny the clear progression and “maturity” process black metal has gone through this last years; and I don’t mean the incorporation of female singers, operatic antics and the “exploitation” of folk music and histories; I mean the musical, maturity that younger bands are focusing on, so it doesn’t matter if they want to play the crudest, most evil ...Read all

Old school heavy metal blended with modern textures is what makes Brainstorm stand above your average speed/power metal band. The band creates a melting pot of elements to come up with an old sound that feels fresh and rejuvenated. The German’s seventh album “Downburst” is a fiery explosion of riffs, pounding drums, insane guitar solos and anthemic choruse...Read all

I have to admit that Severe Torture has some nice “groovy” riffs splattered all over this record, way more so than their previous effort, that focused more on aggression than in memorable songs. But for some reason all the songs despite the nice riffs and interesting tempos, lack that final touch that could pushed then beyond the “nice” realm and into the “fucking awesome”...Read all

First impressions can be curious things. On my initial listen of Baskiria's Onogur, I was thoroughly underwhelmed. Faced with what seemed rather unremarkable black metal with some odd folky parts mixed in for the sake of variety, I did not exactly anticipate listening to the album further. However, with a few more listens, the music definitely started to grow on me. While it's far ...Read all

Deicide’s last album “The Stench of Redemption” was a smash-mouth punch in face when it comes to death metal, but if for any reason it didn’t ignite in you the least bit of headbanging, then I guarantee you Vital Remains’ latest offering “Icons of Evil” will most definitely give you a glimpse of hell.
Following the tradition of their albums, “Icons of Evil” is full of...Read all

Well it’s finally happened; after years of flirting with nu-metal and more mainstream material In Flames has now strayed completely away from the melodic death metal they help create with unique and monstrous albums like “Whoracle”, Colony” and the career defining “Clayman”. The band fell under the microscope of their fans and the ...Read all

If you make an overview of global history, you’ll notice how it tends to do the same thing in individual ways, whether it’s illogical genocide, war, or Bill Clinton getting some hanky-panky from a walrus; case in point, it all happens again, just in different forms. In death metal, we’ve often seen Ripping Corpse’s Erik Rutan aim at modernizing the genre with Hate ...Read all

I believe The Essence arrived 3 or 4 years late to the date in which the album and this band would have been recognized, appreciated and maybe even respected. It is true that this Swedes don’t play the typical Gothenburg based mellow death, but they don’t do a very good job at trying to insert thrash riffs or even perfecting and ...Read all