Ill Omen is a one-man Black Metal project from Australia and Slaughtbbath are a Black Metal band from Chile. Teaming up for this split release, they each offer one track.
Ill Omen’s contribution is up first and is the longer of the two tracks at 8 minutes in length.
The song Continue reading “Ill Omen/Slaughtbbath – Pestilential Hierophanies – Split (Review)”
This is the latest EP from Austrian Symphonic Power Metal band Visions of Atlantis.
This is bright and energetic music with a strong Power Metal base that the band build symphonic elements onto. It’s relentlessly upbeat and mercilessly colourful, so much so that it’s hard to dislike a band playing with Continue reading “Visions of Atlantis – Old Routes – New Waters (Review)”
Abnormality are a Death Metal band from the US. This is their second album.
Abnormality’s 2012 début album Contaminating the Hive Mind was a standout slab of unrelenting brutality, really placing them highly in the extreme Metal hierarchy in my mind.
Well, it’s been four long years, but now Continue reading “Abnormality – Mechanisms of Omniscience (Review)”
This is the début EP from this Brazilian Death Metal band.
This is old-school Death Metal that rumbles and chugs its way through the playing time, but is not without melody or nuance as it goes about its gory business.
The production is Continue reading “Vulture Wings – Funeral Grounds (Review)”
Godless are a Death Metal band from India and this is their début release.
Godless play Death Metal with traditional muscularity mixed with a bit of thrash and groove. It’s well-recorded and has a solid sound overall, making for a good impression.
Continue reading “Godless – Centuries of Decadence (Review)”
This is the début album from First Fragment, who are a Canadian Technical Death Metal band.
Upon pressing play, my first impression is a jaw-dropping one. This is Technical Death Metal and then some. As it turns out though, there’s even more than just complex craziness going on here.
First Fragment can certainly play. At first glance it could seem as if all of the instruments are all over the place. Although that’s a good thing in many ways, crucially on Dasein, they’re all reined in appropriately for the needs of the song, rather than just let loose to roam and explore where they see fit, (although it does feel like that in some places).
Sov are a Black Metal band and this is their début album.
Sov play underground and honest Black Metal that might superficially seem like the standard fare at first glance, but a deeper scrutiny reveals a band with impressive creative power and a lot of raw talent.
This is an interesting release in that it manages to cultivate an air of both natural forest-dwelling and sophisticated blackened art. The music is suspended between the more naturalistic elements and the modern, progressive influences so that these six tracks are a pleasing blend of the early second-wave style and a more up-to-date interpretation of the genre, à la Watain and Deathspell Omega. Continue reading “Sov – Aklamerad Kalamitet (Review)”
This is the début album from Norwegian Death Metal band Killing for Company.
Killing for Company’s music seems like it has congealed from a pool of blood that’s seeped out of the corpse of old-school Death Metal. To get an idea of the band’s sound, think Bolt Thrower and Autopsy; mix this with a bit of, (old), Hypocrisy and then add in some atmosphere and coloured melody. Continue reading “Killing for Company – House of Hades (Review)”
Dominhate are an Italian Death Metal band and this is their latest EP.
Dominhate play Death Metal that’s dark, dingy and full of sinister auras.
Featuring a classic style and enough grim riffing to get anyone to sit up and pay attention, it’s easy to get on board with the band’s ugly aggression.
This short EP is a relentlessly brutal foray into the underground of Death Metal, where it’s all about crushing your enemies with a vice-like grip and then beating their corpses with their own broken limbs. Continue reading “Dominhate – Emissaries of Morning (Review)”
Astral Path are an atmospheric Black Metal band from Canada. This is their début album.
This is the kind of modern, expansive Black Metal that so many bands seem to do so well these days. If you’re a fan of bands like Wolves in the Throne Room, Chaos Moon, Midnight Odyssey, Krallice, Mare Cognitum, Deafheaven and their ilk, then you should also like this.
Astral Path’s music combines this type of stargazing, cosmic Black Metal with ambient soundscapes to create atmospheric Black Metal that seems to roll out of the speakers in a pool of spectral fog. Continue reading “Astral Path – An Oath to the Void (Review)”
Wonderbox Metal 