Metalheads love going to the post office. This is established fact; we are either sending off dubs or trades, or going there to receive a package full of music. Like most anti-social types, we do not trust centralized authorities like iTunes or major labels, so mostly our music comes in physical form. We like it that way.
27 CommentsTags: Black Metal, eremita produzioni, infamous, Kshatriya, solitudo, solitvdo, vsque ad sidera vsque ad inferos, warnungstraum
Florida death metal band Eulogy has re-issued its discography as a limited edition CD and vinyl album on Dark Symphonies Records. The recording features the 1993 EP The Essence, which is both heavily bootlegged and even more insanely overpriced than normal on eBay, and the 1992 demo “Dismal.” Both releases have been remastered from the original analog tapes.
The CD is available from the Dark Symphonies online shop.
In times of chaos, the primordial appeal of Slayer comes forth as the vision of clarity that it is. This metal fan chose to meet the winds head-on, whether as tribute to the power of the storm or resistance to it, or both. The result proves entertaining, including the possibility that the video cut off before Matthew hurled a six-ton SUV with irritating family stickers on the back into the fan, leaving a very Slayer-esque red spot on the pavement.
21 CommentsTags: hurricane matthew, slayer
Article by David Rosales
Marduk has never, with the exception of the laudable Opus Nocturne, boasted of a deep mystical aura imbuing their music and has rather been known for the sonic onslaught which is their music. The present work sees a band that appears to have long settled for a style and seem content to reproduce it for the benefit of an expecting audience. That is, a very palpable pop mentality has settled in, even if the music has not completely degenerated in form. The artistic vision nonetheless has affected, as is the rule, the manifested aesthetic of the music, and will predictably continue to corrode its quality as it has been doing for the past twenty years or so.
12 CommentsTags: Black Metal, Frontschwein, marduk, pop metal, re-review, review, War Metal
The leading representative of Swedish industry around the world, Ikea, sells furniture of styles from a dozen nations. It has a housewares section, a full-service cafeteria, a donut shop and a grocery store. You can pick up electric lights, tools, houseplants and home decor there.
But conspicuously absent are the most important items from Sweden in recent memory: Swedish death metal and black metal.
16 CommentsTags: ikea, Sweden, Swedish Black Metal, Swedish Death Metal
Continuing a prolific streak of distinct and high-quality recordings, Sardinia’s Infamous summons up the dormant spirit of black metal on this recently released and apparently untitled split album with Gratzug from Bavaria.
9 CommentsTags: Black Metal, gratzug, infamous, rac/oi, sardinia
Death Metal Underground constantly receives new batches of rock music masquerading as “blackened death metal” for the scenester, “buy everything” market. We microwave these promotional materials inside the homes of people we hate.
11 CommentsTags: alternative rock, Atanor, black 'n roll, Black Metal, Bolzer, Chhinnamasta, Cross Vault, crypto-indie, Heavydeath, Hero, hipster bullshit, Iron Bonehead Productions, metalcore, Mouth of Madness, Phrenelith, sadistic metal reviews, Spectral Voice, stoner doom, Temple Nightside, Verberis
Article by Anton Rudrick.
One clear sign that a band’s direction is compromised can be seen through unity of style. In this case, we see Gorgoroth lacking a clear voice of their own, in place of which Instinctus Bestialis offers three main ways of constructing sections and a rather pop-oriented way of building whole songs. The first is a bare bones neoclassical melodic method using two guitars, which is an interesting addition to traditionally more modal and harmonically chromatic genres such as death and black metal. Due to the foreign nature of these, the incorporation can be quite delicate and ought to be treated with the utmost care. The second is a collection of standard modern metal tropes ranging from the rhythmic intonations of deathcore with a low-string chug riff, probably inherited from the most prosaic speed metal. Last is the most important of the three in a rather unexpected choice in anthemic heavy metal, which happens to be the customary choice for commercial metal acts which have become barren of inspiration and direction.
19 CommentsTags: 2015, deathcore, gorgoroth, Heavy Metal, Instinctus Bestialis, mainstream metal, modern metal, pop metal, review, stadium metal
Dead Congregation‘s Sombre Doom EP is coming out October 20nd on CD from the band’s own Martyrdoom Productions label. The EP will be available for purchase on their upcoming European tour. From Dead Congregation’s Funbook page:
3 CommentsTags: dead congregation, death metal, EP, greece, Martyrdoom Productions, Sombre Doom, upcoming release
Article by Anton Rudrick.
Now that a thorough overview of Sodom’s career has been completed, and a short analysis from that overview has provided us with new insights, we can be more confident in our evaluation of their new album, Decision Day, in a way that allows us to tentatively explain the origin of its strengths and faults. This becomes especially useful with an album displaying averageness on all levels, showing no prominent ideas that distinguish it neither in the abstract nor the actualized, and furthermore, certainly not being more than the sum of its parts. The situation is one in which all that remains are the references that these streamlined and pre-fabricated pieces meant in their original contexts, and how this commercial product attempts to play on them for maximizing revenue.
Sodom has earned a solid reputation among the metal crowd through the years. Most fans of the metal underground will probably have heard about Sodom, or that of Tom Angelripper, and will express respect at the mere mention of either name. Their newest album displays traits which one would associate with their own brand of speed metal (a.k.a. thrash metal, incorrectly dubbed), but these seem filtered through mannerisms borrowed from styles acquired over the last two decades and a half while Tom Angelripper explored the mainstream side of metal. Decision Day is catchy, and every step and turn is a hook optimized for comprehensibility and mass consumption.
18 CommentsTags: 2016, decision day, German Speed Metal, hard rock, mainstream metal, pop metal, review, sodom, Speed Metal
