Death Metal can be presented in various iterations: grimy and old school; melodic, and technical; symphonic and gothic. Each offshoot augments further exploration and daring.
Tag Archives: OSDM
ALBUM REVIEW: Undeath – It’s Time To Rise… From The Grave
Leaning on everything from horror movies to medical science and general human nastiness, New York death metallers Undeath return with the much anticipated follow-up to their 2020 debut Lesions of a Different Kind. Using the lockdown period during the pandemic to (de)compose new material, the band pays homage to the past as well as mining from the present on murderous second full-length release It’s Time… To Rise From The Grave (Prosthetic Records).
CONCERT REVIEW: Immolation – Demolition Hammer – Black Anvil – Mortician – Funeral Leech Live at Irving Plaza
This is the most New York show I’ve been to in a long while. It felt like one big local show. That’s what happens when all five bands come from here. That being said, this show started earlier, doors at the renovated Irving Plaza were at 6 pm. or 1800 for non-Americans. Every few steps you ran into someone you knew. I saw a lot of faces that this was their first show since you know what. It’s rare to see in metal shows nowadays but this show had a host! Bassist extraordinaire, Dan Lilker from Nuclear Assault and Brutal Truth fame. MCed the whole night.
ALBUM REVIEW: Deathcollector – Times Up
Musicians are masochistic creatures. Never truly happy unless their schedules are recklessly overstuffed with writing, studio work, live shows and promotion, guest appearances and side-projects are just two more ways to ensure life outside of music consists of nothing but eating, sleeping, the occasional TV show and visits to the pub.
ALBUM REVIEW: Genocide Pact – Genocide Pact
The guitars are mud caked in a morass of molasses. The vocal performance is, dare I say, a clinic on how to spew the wretched filth that is old school Death Metal. The omnipresent drums never interfere but simply carve out the route for the rest to follow. Stir all that up in a cauldron with a hint of disgust and a touch of revulsion and the end result is Genocide Pact’s newest self-titled album (Relapse Records), and with it, eight tracks of nineties-era muck and grime.
Death Metallers Cetragore Releases Their Debut EP “Chancellors of Death”
South Shore of Massachucetts-based Death / Thrash metal band Cetragore has released theri debut EP “Chancellors of Death”. Recorded from August to September 2021, the EP shows off their penchant for crushing riffs and killer grooves. The impressive young band ranges from Old-school Death Metal to thrash influences and will find fans from bands such as Obituary, Immolation, and Jungle Rot, as well as more modern sounds. Stream the EP here!
ALBUM REVIEW: Aeon – God Ends Here
While it seems strange to refer to a sound that has been around for over two decades as “modern”, it feels completely accurate to describe the sonic barrage of Aeon as Modern Death Metal. Renowned for keeping the intensity levels up – backed by a production to level small towns with its ripped, lean torso – for their fifth release Swedish violence-dealers have shown no relenting despite lockdown, No extra inches have been added to their waist-bands, and no sign of flabbiness added to their carb-free sensory assault.
CONCERT REVIEW: Black Label Society – Obituary – Prong: Live at Ace of Spades
Getting fully back into concert mode has been fun, but also scary on some levels as a fan. I need live music in my life, bad, but I am nervous around small clubs and tons of people right now, since the pandemic is still a thing. Nevertheless, I got the opportunity to cover legends like Black Label Society, Obituary, and Prong all at the same show, no less, and so I had to handle my emotions and nerves (I have pretty bad anxiety on the reg) and trooped out to Sacramento’s respected Ace of Spades club.
ALBUM REVIEW: Graveslave – No Center
It takes a lot of blood, sweat, beers to make it in the music business. A lot of bands form around a good idea, some beers, mutual bands, or a few riffs, heat up, run cold and call it day. Few bands have the temerity to overcome real adversity with all the music industry shit that crushes your soul. If you know, you know. Graveslave has overcome the death of their original vocalist Don “Doombringer” Durkee in 2019, and are still here. Putting out a killer EP during the lockdown Devotion, and now a new album, this is far above what most others could muster. No matter what happens in their career, they have defied the odds for the love of music.
ALBUM REVIEW: Inhuman Condition – Rat God
While all things toxic (waste; holocausts; um, waltzing) have long been a regular bedfellow for the lyric writers and album cover artists that inhibit the pungent worlds of Thrash and Death Metal, it also lurks in another sense; behind the scenes and pervading the environment of many bands relationships. Escaping the cryptic realms of one such biohazard of a relationship was a necessity for legendary bassist Terry Butler (Obituary, Death, Six Feet Under), guitarist Taylor Nordberg (Wombath, Ribspreader), and vocalist/drummer Jeramie Kling (Venom-Inc, Goregang, The Absence). Continue reading