Well, what a lineup. Even though the formidable Venom Prison were forced to pull out of the show, that still leaves us with four extreme metal bands that are each draws in their own right. It’s a diverse bill, one that I couldn’t afford to miss. Bring on the METAL! Continue reading
Gloam and Obscure Evil are both black metal bands. The former are from the US and the latter are from Peru.
I was first introduced to Gloam on 2017’s Death Is the Beginning, which ably showcased their doom-infected brand of grimly majestic black metal. Continue reading
Maligner are a Swedish death/thrash metal band and this is their debut album.
On Attraction to Annihilation Maligner offer up 30 minutes of savage death/thrash metal. This is some quality stuff. Continue reading
This is the debut album from Gravewards, a Greek death metal band.
I have fond recollections of 2017’s Subconscious Lobotomy, so was pleased to see this band’s debut album appear. It’s 43 minutes of old-school death metal that’s influenced by the death metal greats from the 90s, while Continue reading
Ultra-Violence are an Italian thrash metal band and this is their third album.
Ultra-Violence play ripping thrash metal, pumped up to the max with a love of extremity and good tunes. Yep, this is fast, sharp, and energetic stuff. Continue reading
Mutilate are a death metal band from the US and this is their debut album.
After enjoying All Life Ends so much I simply had to hear Tormentium. Another 38 minutes of old-school death metal that sounds so authentically 80s it could have been buried in a tomb until now? Count me in. Continue reading
This is the sixth album from Skeletonwitch, a blackened metal band from the US.
Well, this is not what I was expecting to hear from Skeletonwitch. I confess that I’ve only ever really heard a small amount of the band’s prior material, and what I did hear was kind of a thrash/melodic metal affair, from what I recall. I approached this Continue reading
This is the tenth album from US death metal veterans Jungle Rot.
Although Jungle Rot aren’t a band I’m intimately familiar with, I do know, (and enjoy), some of their previous work, so it’s with great interest that I listen to this self-titled album as it’s a bit different from what I’ve heard from the band before. Continue reading
Carchosa is a one man Swedish thrash/death metal band. This is his debut album.
Featuring seven long songs and clocking in at just under an hour in duration, this album contains a blend of thrash and death metal, alongside a good helping of melodic and progressive elements. Continue reading
This is the fourth album from Russian blackened melodic death metal band Second to Sun.
Apparently this is a rerecording of the band’s 2016 release Blackbound, with added vocals, and other differences. I was totally unfamiliar with Second to Sun’s work prior to listening to The Black, so I can’t comment on how this relates to Blackbound, other than to say that it does. Continue reading
