Let me just start off by saying England's MASTIFF are heavy as fuck. If you need to read on, by all means do so. But really, that's all you need to know. After a couple of ep's, a demo and a live album, "Plague" is the band's second studio album. Mixing sludge, a little hardcore and a tinge of doom, MASTIFF have composed an album full of crunching guitars, aggressive vocals and thudding drums leading to monstrous breakdowns and riveting moshpit-inducing riffs. Opening track '

It's a little hard to believe that Pennsylvania's CRUCIFIER have released more compilation albums than regular full-lengths (3 to 2). And it's also bizarre to think the last full-length was from 2003 ("Stronger Than Passing Time"). And fuck if time hasn't passed. But that's okay. Because Cazz Grant (drums, vocals, other shit) and company haven't lost any of their putrid, ugly, blasphemous, disturbing brutality that CRUCIFIER is known all too well for. "Thy Sulfur Throne On Hi

If you've ever seen KOMMANDANT live, you've truly witnessed a spectacle. Dressed in some military-type uniforms and donning gas masks, or maybe even resembling some bizarre, fucked up mad scientists in a war-torn land, Chicago's KOMMANDANT deliver a machine-gun blast of metal to pulverize the senses. Now, with fourth full-length "Blood Eel", the band continues its blitzkrieg of hatred and annihilation. 'Absolutum' opens up the album with faint, ominous keyboards, tribal drums

Let's be honest for a minute. Finland's ARCHGOAT can do no wrong. Every song, every EP, every split, every fucking album is an abhorrent, blasphemous, brutal assault to the senses. If you're hoping for a diverse sound from album to album, if you want your bands to grow and take on new challenges, if you want the albums to have an array of highs and lows, then, my friend, ARCHGOAT just isn't for you. With four albums (including the new one) and a shitload of EP's and splits, A

Technical death metal isn't necessarily a genre that's consistently thought of as brutal or aggressive. We are, after all, more inclined to listen to the bands for their musicianship predominantly more than the primitive raw power of normal death metal. For a tech-death band to accomplish the task of sheer heaviness is an impressive feat. And Boston's REVOCATION do just that. If the six albums before "The Outer Ones" prove anything, it's that the guys have consistently drop-k

Poland's CONVEYOR, consisting of Bartek Domanski (vocals, guitars, bass) and Damian Jaworski (drums), produce the sound of a full band, which is sometimes not prevalent with other duos. The technical death metal in their delivery is a rapid, chaotic mass of head-spinning vertigo. With no demos or EP's to precede it, "An Incarnated Abstraction" is an impressive first full-length. First track 'Conveyor Between Worlds' consists of ladder-like technical guitars spiraling out of c

The self-titled debut album from Milan's MASCHARAT has a somewhat bizarre concept. According to the band, their name means "joke, prank, trick" and "immoral and chaotic situation". They're also inspired by "mask and traditions of carnival"....A somewhat odd concept for a black metal band. However, the diversity of the ideas behind the band don't hinder the focus of the album. Pianos open up the intro with mild atmospheric auras in the background. The black metal kicks in on '

Let's be honest. Feeling the need to review a VOIDHANGER album is like feeling the need to question if sex with a supermodel is worth your time. Both are guaranteed to send shivers down your spine in sheer bliss. Let's just observe the facts, shall we? Warcrimer (vocals) and Zyklon (guitars) make up two-fifths of the mighty INFERNAL WAR. MASSEMORD'S Priest (drums) pounds the skins like his fucking life depends on it. Both VOIDHANGER and INFERNAL WAR have never released an alb

Hailing from Los Angeles, VAELMYST have released an EP titled "Earthly Wounds", their first proper release outside of a single in 2017. It's rare when a fairly new band can get it right early on. But VAELMYST hit the bloody nail on the head with a melodic death metal delivery that'll fucking stunt your growth. Ok, so the pianos and keyboards in 'Prologue' isn't typical gut-wrenching metal obviously. But 'A Smothering Of Moths' smashes through with a steady smattering of guita

Portugal's ANNIHILATION, after six years, have released their second full-length titled "The Undivided Wholeness Of All Things", a blistering, staggering, throttling cauldron of death metal with a little tech thrown in for good measure. Although new vocalist Sofia Silva (Neoplasmah) has joined their ranks for future releases, she does not appear on the new album. It'll be interesting to see how the brutality evolves with her leading the pack. In the meantime, "The Undivided W

Matt Harvey's been a very, very busy man recently. With his DEATH-inspired death metal band GRUESOME, along with his grind supergroup EXPULSION, it's hard to fathom how he has any time to squeeze a new EXHUMED album into the mix. Newest album "Death Revenge" throws the band into new territory with a concept album, of all things. Inspired by events concerning brutal murders, grave robbery, and the underground trading of dead bodies, the tracks evolve around 1820's Edinburgh, S

SATANIC "Architecture Of Chaos" Canadian death metallers SATANIC, hailing from Trois-Rivieres, Quebec are described in their bio as "spawned by the alliance of three evil souls obsessed with old school death metal". And that sums it all up, really. Oh, except for the fact they originally named themselves SATANIC GLUE SNIFFERS. Thankfully, they decided to shorten it down to one word. But aside from that, SATANIC deliver a simple, yet nasty, filthy form of thrashy death metal t

GRAVEWARDS "Subconscious Lobotomy" Athens, Greece's GRAVEWARDS have released their first cassette demo entitled "Subconscious Lobotomy" containing four tracks of old-school, foot-stomping death metal. A three-piece including members Nikos (vocals, guitars), Fotis (bass) and Vasilis (drums), GRAVEWARDS deliver high-octane putridity in the form of consistently good tracks. Nikos barks his vocals out like a rapid dog on opener 'Casket Entrapment', as the guitars chug and gallop.

It may seem like MYRKUR (Amalie Bruun) has something to prove in the black metal genre, but she doesn't. If her self-titled EP, first full-length "M" and recent live album "Mausoleum" haven't won you over, then nothing will. Mixing furious screeching vocals with melodic, gorgeous singing, she stretched the boundaries of what we consider black metal. "M" was a tag-team of two enormously different genres melding nicely into one. "Mausoleum" threw a wrench in the socket with no

Listening to Texas' drone/doom outfit CRAWL's "This Sad Cadav'r" is like standing in front of an oncoming tidalwave as it smashes into you full-throttle with the force of one thousand tons of bludgeoning death. Black Bow Records' re-release of this 30 minute opus is a must for listeners of everything dreary and monolithic, monstrous and despairing. After around four and a half minutes of ambient wanderings, first track 'I' bleeds into a shallow, sweltering ambivalence of dr

When you've been around for thirty years, maintaining a level of excellence is sometimes difficult for any band. However, INCANTATION have not slowed down in all this time. Well, unless you count their doom-infused form of death metal. In that case, the doom crushes us album after album with a two-ton boot of bloody steel spikes. Is it any wonder John McEntee's filthy, sludgy guitars and guttural regurgitations have enveloped us in its rapture? Eleventh studio album from thes

Brooklyn's Kevin Caputo has created a project of industrial and drum and bass music to shake the soul on the dance floor and cause you to bang your head at the same. The chaotic, pulsing, pounding, crushing beats don't hold back as you're held down and bludgeoned repeatedly in this aura sensation. First track 'Funeral For A Viking' begins innocently enough with a female choral atmosphere before knocking down the walls and breaking into a fast-paced drumbeat and ferocious voca

New Orleans' GOATWHORE consistently deliver their brand of excellence album to album, along with their blistering live shows. Louis B Falgoust II (vocals), Sammy Duet (guitars), James Harvey (bass) and Zack Simmons (drums) are a lumbering mass of muck-encrusted abomination treading its way through the swampy mass of metal destruction. Just when you thought "Blood For The Master" (2012) couldn't be topped, along came "Constricting Rage Of The Merciless" (2014) to prove us wro

Philadelphia-based LOR have followed up two prior demos with their first full-length, "In Forgotten Sleep", with a blend of progressive, folk and power metal. Melodic tunes, folky rhythms and furious musicianship propel this album forward in a blast of polyphonic symphony while calming down at just the right moments in anticipation of monumental bliss afterward. Opener 'Dusk' introduces the album with flute-enhanced folk with just a hint of keyboards in the background, waitin

Gloson started their journey into post-metal sludge doom metal in 2012 with the firm intention of destroying any small glimmer of hope left in this already dark world. From the first note from their 2017 release (Grimen), I knew I was entering another plain of doom metal. It lures you in with its dense and suffocating sound and crushes you from the inside… and you ask for more. The atmosphere of the entire album is consistent with a peculiar darkness that will eclipse the sun