Blood Incantation – Hidden History of the Human Race (Review)

Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human RaceThis is the second album from US death metal band Blood Incantation.

2016’s Starspawn was a very notable album, making it onto my end of year list for that year too. As such, there’s been plenty of excitement and expectation for Hidden History of the Human Race. Despite only having four tracks, this new release has not disappointed at all. Continue reading “Blood Incantation – Hidden History of the Human Race (Review)”

Haunter – Sacramental Death Qualia (Review)

Haunter - Sacramental Death QualiaThis is the second album from US black/death metallers Haunter.

Sacramental Death Qualia is a mutant, constantly-shifting hybrid of progressive black/death metal. Mixing impenetrable dissonance with grim blackened melody and classic progressive beauty, the music combines darkness and light in such way that it can be almost jarring on Continue reading “Haunter – Sacramental Death Qualia (Review)”

Eternal Storm – Come the Tide (Review)

Eternal Storm - Come the TideEternal Storm are a melodic death metal band from Spain and this is their debut album.

The band’s first release in 2013 – From the Ashes – showed a lot of promise, and they then followed this up in 2014 with a split that contributed a single track, showing even more promise. And then…nothing. Fast forward to 2019, however, and we now get an imposing 59 minutes of new material. The band have been busy, it seems. Continue reading “Eternal Storm – Come the Tide (Review)”

Victims of Contagion – Lamentations of the Flesh Bound (Review)

Victims of Contagion - Lamentations of the Flesh BoundVictims of Contagion are a death metal band from the US and this is their debut album.

Victims of Contagion play death metal that mixes brutality with technicality, resulting in songs that aren’t overly technical just for the sake of it. Instead, the technicality is used to forge tracks that place the song at the heart of what the band do. Continue reading “Victims of Contagion – Lamentations of the Flesh Bound (Review)”

Barús – Drowned (Review)

Barús - DrownedThis is the debut album from Barús, a progressive death metal band from France.

Although we’ve met the mysterious entity that is Barús before on 2015’s self-titled EP, I’ve only just recently been privileged enough to listen to Drowned, despite it being released in 2018. Well, I’ve missed out, and I can’t help but feel that Drowned would have graced my end of year list for 2018. Continue reading “Barús – Drowned (Review)”

Inanimate Existence – Clockwork (Review)

Inanimate Existence - ClockworkInanimate Existence are a US progressive death metal band and this is their fifth album.

Inanimate Existence have always impressed. Their blend of progressive, technical, and atmospheric death metal has always been well-written, inventive, and thoroughly enjoyable. So far, they have a prolific streak of high quality work, and Clockwork only adds to this, I’m pleased to report. Continue reading “Inanimate Existence – Clockwork (Review)”

Allegaeon – Apoptosis (Review)

Allegaeon - ApoptosisThis is the fifth album from US death metallers Allegaeon.

This is the eagerly awaited follow up to 2016’s Proponent for Sentience, and what a follow up it is. Apoptosis ramps up the band’s impact to maximum and delivers an extremely impressive record. Continue reading “Allegaeon – Apoptosis (Review)”

Monthly Overview – the Best of March 2019

March proved to be this year’s strongest month for metal releases yet. I was hard-pressed to keep this list as short as it is, and any of the albums listed below are worthy of your attention. Continue reading “Monthly Overview – the Best of March 2019”

Contrarian – Their Worm Never Dies (Review)

Contrarian - Their Worm Never DiesContrarian are a death metal band from the US and this is their third album.

So far Contrarian have a solid track record of delivering quality progressive/technical death metal albums; both 2015’s Polemic and 2017’s To Perceive Is to Suffer are records that I really enjoy. Continue reading “Contrarian – Their Worm Never Dies (Review)”

Fallujah – Undying Light (Review)

Fallujah - Undying LightThis is the fourth album from US progressive death metallers Fallujah.

I’ve been waiting for this one. Both 2014’s The Flesh Prevails and 2016’s Dreamless were superb albums, so the bar is set high for Undying Light. A change in singer and loss of a guitarist can potentially be a challenge for a band, but when I saw them live recently it sounded as if Fallujah’s new vocalist had easily made his mark. So now we have the new album in full, how does it all manifest? Continue reading “Fallujah – Undying Light (Review)”