Contrarian are a progressive/technical death metal band from the US and this is their fourth album.
I wasn’t expecting a follow up to last year’s Their Worm Never Dies so soon, but I’m not complaining. Along with 2015’s Polemic and 2017’s To Perceive Is to Suffer, I’ve really enjoyed all of Contrarian’s material so far. Continue reading
This is the second album from Australian death metal band Faceless Burial.
Speciation contains 38 minutes of classic, old-school death metal. The formula for this sort of music may be tried and tested, but that doesn’t lessen its impact any when it’s done as effectively as it is here. Continue reading
Dark Divinity are a melodic death metal band from New Zealand, and this is their debut EP.
The promo blurn tells us that “Following in the footsteps of genre originators At the Gates, The Haunted & Dissection, the band also take cues from death/black metal acts such as Immortal, Morbid Angel & Death.” Bold words, but backed up by 18 minutes of music that cuts like a serrated knife, you’ll find no complaint from me. Continue reading
Obscene are a death metal band from the US and this is their debut album.
Obscene play Floridian USDM, spiced up with aspects of the UK and European styles. There’s a touch of thrash here too. Imagine a mix of Obituary, Death, Cancer, Bolt Thrower, Asphyx, Slayer, and Master, and then get quite excited by how good The Inhabitable Dark is. Continue reading
Exhumed and Gruesome are both US death metal bands, and they’ve teamed up for this split release.
We start with the bloody Exhumed, a band that are quite legendary in gore metal circles. Continue reading
Cryptic Shift are a death metal band from the UK and this is their debut album.
Cryptic Shift play death metal that fuses elements of the technical, progressive, and thrash metal styles into its sci-fi-themed self. Continue reading
Shards of Humanity are a US death metal band and this is their second album.
2014’s Fractured Frequencies was an enjoyable Death-inspired death/thrash album, played with precision and skill. Continue reading
This is the second album from Live Burial, a death metal band from the UK.
Featuring current and ex-members of Horrified, Live Burial play old-school death metal, and Unending Futility provides 41 minutes of engaging material for fans of the style to lose themselves in. Continue reading
Burning Witches are a heavy metal band from Switzerland and this is their third album.
2018’s Hexenhammer was an enjoyable slab of traditional heavy metal, and now the band are back with a new album, and a new singer. Continue reading
Plague are a Greek death metal band and this is their debut album.
Plague are an old-school death metal band that take influence from the 90s American scene, but do so in such a way that they seem to make it their own. This is ultimately a chunky slab of timeless death metal, shot through with classic influences, as well as some modern ones too. Despite an obvious debt to the mighty Death, the music has its own personality and brutal charm that can’t be denied. Continue reading
