Despite signing with a big-name label, it’s extremely refreshing to find out that hardcore-influenced death metallers 200 Stab Wounds have retained everything that makes their sound great: pounding, catchy riffs; a rancid atmosphere; and thrashy guitar fills when necessary.Continue reading
I’m searching for an analogy on this one. Guess the only thing that springs to mind on this humid evening is when you’re watching Anthony Bourdain (RIP) on No Reservations and he goes to a Tapas place or some fancy small plate restaurant. The micro bites seem delicious, and the chef is eager to share the details behind the dishes but can’t help to think that Bourdain must’ve helped himself to a sandwich afterwards. No way he was just satisfied with the doll-sized portions, right? Continue reading
If Death Metal on the extreme end of the heaviness meter is your thing, then Cutterred Flesh’s Love At First Bite (Transcending Obscurity Records) is worth a listen. Continue reading
After a five-year gap between albums, Arizonan quintet Gatecreeper are back with Dark Superstition (Nuclear Blast). Their third album sees their heavy, Death Metal roar wed to more melodic and concise metal. A heavy band embracing melody like this might raise some metalheads’ hackles, afraid their band going soft, but fear not. Their heft and aggression is still alive and kicking, but just married to more accessible metal. Continue reading
At now around a decade since their inception, Italy’s SYK have been garnering a, perhaps understated, but certainly formidable reputation with a penchant for complex and dissonant Death Metal. Continue reading
When it comes to American influences in Metal, it’s far from out of the ordinary to find European acts adopting a more U.S.-friendly sound to grow musically or widen their fan base. It is a little more unusual, however, to find American bands who look to Europe for inspiration. Especially when that influence goes back thirty years.
After 13 years, Dååth has returned with their new album, The Deceivers (Metal Blade records).
The band, helmed by sole founding member Eyal Levi, returns to a different musical landscape. Metal has perhaps the most loyal fan base of any genre of music, yet the climate is much different than when the band released their self-titled album in 2010. Death Metal is now more regularly integrated with Black Metal and Metalcore. Record companies often market Pop acts as Metal, depending on the thought police of the internet to defend them with cries of gatekeeping, when voices rise against this.Continue reading
Maryland’s Full of Hell are not fucking about. 6 studio albums, 5 collaboration albums, 9 EPs, 8 splits, and 4 live albums in 15 years, and with their latest album Coagulated Bliss (Closed Casket Activities), the band continues to demonstrate their refusal to stand still. Continue reading
Death metal has always been a very hit-or-miss subgenre for me but most of it I do appreciate it. In good news, I have been listening to the new Engulfed album, Unearthly Litanies of Despair (Me Saco Un Ojo/Dark Descent Records), and it is certainly a hit and not a miss. Just shy of forty minutes, the four-piece from Turkey slams and shreds their way through your cranium. Just the right mixture of grimy OSDM and technical fretwork gives this album some replayability.Continue reading
Despite crust death metallers Necrot forming in 2011, the Oaklanders’ newest slab is only the trio’s third full-length in their brief-yet-inviting discography.
Essentially, the band doesn’t rush to put out a record, nor do they seem to want to release something before every “i” is dotted and “t” crossed.Continue reading