Death Metal Underground

The Mythic and the Mystic

by Staff on July 1, 2016

Article by Lance Viggiano.

Burzum and Beherit each represent two summits of black metal’s many perspectives – in particular its looking back to look ahead ethos. The work of Laiho is exploratory and spiritual while the work of Varg is seeking and religious. Each composer followed a similar trajectory of mapping this landscape through metal first, then ambient. Each phase reveals strengths and weakness in each of their aims which results in a somewhat complementary synthesis between two highly individual bodies of work.

(more…)

12 Comments

Tags: Ambient, ambient music, beherit, Black Metal, burzum, composition, musical analysis, mystic, mysticism, mythic, mythic imagination

Sadistic Metal Reviews: Taste the Rainbow!

by Staff on June 30, 2016

Coming soon to a used CD bin near you!

(more…)

64 Comments

Tags: acanthrophis, Age of Agony, Aggressive Mutilator, Arktogäa, beer metal, Black Metal, blackened death metal, Cranial Engorgement, Dawn of Disease, Dead War, deathcore, folk metal, Garroted, gothenburg metal, Hardcore, Hardcore Punk, hipster bullshit, In the Court of Nyarlahotep, melodeaf, national socialist black metal, nsbm, nu-metal, pseudo-prog, pseudo-progressive, sadistic metal reviews, sludge, stinking shit, techdeaf, tek-deth, Tennger Cavalry, Victorian Whore Dogs

Morte Macabre – Symphonic Holocaust (1998)

by Staff on June 29, 2016

Article by Johan P continuing Death Metal Underground’s progressive rock coverage.

Morte Macabre is a collaboration between members of the Swedish prog revivalist groups Landberk and Anekdoten, who joined forces to create progressive rock that is equal parts beautiful and disturbing. Their only album – Symphonic Holocaust – is a real treat for those who enjoy creepy music in general, especially 1970s Italian horror movie soundtracks. It is a tribute to the darker side of 70s progressive rock, with reference to Italian groups and composers like Celeste, Goblin, Museo Rosenbach, Fabio Frizzi and Riz Ortolani. An explicit Red-era King Crimson influence permeates the album as well.

(more…)

14 Comments

Tags: 1998, covers, hard rock, Horror, horror film, horror films, horror movie soundtracks, keyboards, mellotron, Morte Macabre, movie soundtracks, prog rock, progressive, progressive rock, review, Sweden, Symphonic Holocaust

Hate Mail (#4)

by Staff on June 25, 2016

Article by Lance Viggiano

“T” left a comment on my recent Sadistic Metal Review of Xoth’s Hostile Terraforming :

Well, clearly you have no idea what a GREAT musician consists of. And you have no idea who these musicians are, how much they put into their performances and recordings, and how passionate they are. Pretty outrageous review. I don’t think I’ve ever read something so angry about a group of talented musicians. I’m curious… have you ever seen them live? Have you ever met any person in Xoth? I think not. Or you would have never written this disgusting and embarrassing review. (As in you should be embarrassed for writing something so dispicable).

The commenter couldn’t mount a defense of Xoth’s artistic merits; nor did it bother to point out where the review’s criticism was actually inaccurate. It makes me think that not even the band’s defenders think the band has any point worth pointing out. As usual, the responses are simply about the character of both the reviewers and the bands. “Xoth is a good guy who likes his music, therefore his music is good!” Okay, great logic T.

14 Comments

Tags: Hate Mail, Hostile Terraforming, techdeaf, tek-deth, wanking, Xoth

Blood Incantation – Starspawn (2016)

by Staff on June 20, 2016

Article by Lance Viggiano.

Blood Incantation give birth to a star which rapidly dissipates its vibrant material into a pale dwarf by exhausting concise songwriting early in its lifecycle to leave only the raw core of extended jam sessions which cause the dead to be grateful for their passing. Each proper song begins with a clear objective but rapidly loses focus through descents into ill-fitting random pastiches of mosh riffs, doom, beer horn ready chug or atmospheric atonal ambience. By and large, the latter half of these songs are used to adroitly drift in the vacuum of purpose wherein it makes its residence. Unlike Altars of Madness which similarly abuses the listener by stretching the limits of tolerance towards virtuosity, this group lacks the voracious songwriting that is necessary to avoid wandering by achieving focus to force the captive into loving punishing bouts of self-indulgence.

(more…)

14 Comments

Tags: 2016, beer metal, blood incantation, dark descent, dark descent records, death metal, modern metal, review, Starspawn, techdeaf, timeghoul, wanking

Sadistic Metal Reviews: 6-20-2016

by Staff on June 20, 2016

Article by Corey M. Apparently, our staff ate too many tacos this weekend.

(more…)

2 Comments

Tags: Black Bleeding, Cryptic Realms, death 'n' roll, death metal, groove, hard rock, Hidden Pride, modern metal, novelty metal, Pekla, piece of shit, sadistic metal reviews, Speed Metal, wanking

Possessed by the Moon

by Staff on June 18, 2016

Article by David Rosales.

A legendary time and place for underground metal, the Norway of 1993 is an esoteric landmark (1994 being the exoteric) in time and space in black metal history. It saw the rise of a mythology of its own, the mythology of black metal, and an eventual catastrophic demise worthy of a saga of its own.

(more…)

25 Comments

Tags: 1993, Black Metal, burzum, darkthrone, Det Som Engang Var, gorgoroth, norway, pentagram, Under a Funeral Moon

Historical Rhapsody of Fire Concert in Tel Aviv

by Staff on June 17, 2016

Article by Jon Faugustus.

Poser power metal band Rhapsody of Fire made history on July 10, 2016, by playing their first concert in Tel Aviv, Israel. This took place at the traditional ‘Rock the Havana Club’ and probably attracted many a power metal connoisseur from the deconstructionist school.

(more…)

14 Comments

Tags: false metal, homosexuality, Israel, news, non metal metal pop crap, poser, posers, poseur, poseurs, rhapsody, rhapsody of fire, stinking shit, symphonic power metal, vocal driven power metal, vocal-based power metal

Contrarian Gay Trolling

by Staff on June 17, 2016

1magodeozoficial

Article by Gonzalo Gallina.

In 1996, Spanish rock band Mago de Oz released their most acclaimed latin-rock-underground albums, Jesus de Chamberi. Like most things coming from modern Latin countries, it has difficulty defining itself. Representative of the modern cultural confusion of Hispania, Mago de Oz presents the audience with a mixed bag of rock ala Dio, reggae, and eighties bar heavy rock, while borrowing some metal riffs and melodic leads here and there, and ocassionally overlaying folky tunes on a violin.

(more…)

12 Comments

Tags: Español, glam metal, hard rock, homosexuality, language-spanish, Mago de Oz, reggae, troll, trolls

New Adagio Album Available Whenever You Pay

by Staff on June 17, 2016

Article by Jon Faugustus.

Adagio, the French progressive metal band lead by Stephan Forte, has announced a fundraiser campaign to record and produce their fifth album to be titled Life. Throughout their history, the band has evolved from a mystical power metal band with contemplative overtones, to a decent but understated prog metal surpassing the likes of Symphony X, to a progressively more obvious selling out with pop songs covered with their dark progressivisms.

(more…)

3 Comments

Tags: Adagio, crowdfunding, glam metal, homosexuality, news, non metal metal pop crap, pop metal, poser, poseur, poseurs, pseudo-progressive, scam, stinking shit

Classic reviews:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z