Chris Reifert (Autopsy, Death) and Greg Wilkinson (also Autopsy, Deathgrave) combined bring sixty-one years of experience to the death-metal scene, the former since 1985 and the latter 1998. It’s only fitting that the two would not only come together to form a new band, but to also unleash an album that immediately sounds simultaneously old-school and deep-rooted.
In the new “post-covid” era I have been hearing some awesome cuts coming from all kinds of artists. It makes me wonder how many took advantage of the downtime to hone skills and really dig into some songwriting.
This is an adrenaline junkie’s wet dream.
The New Jersey-based necromancing death metallers Sentient Horror break bones and summon the dead on their grueling new album, Rites Of Gore (Redefining Darkness / Testimony). Continue reading
The UK doom scene continues to pump out solid releases and the latest from Alunah is no different. Strange Machine (Heavy Psych Sounds) kicks right off with the album track and does not let up on the psychedelic rock/doom metal mixture. A lot of fans of the scene tend to just say things like “Oh it’s just more Sabbath worship”, but rest assure, these Birmingham natives are not here to hit copy and paste.Continue reading
Ever since 2003’s Inhumanity (Listenable), Finnish powerhouse Mors Principium Est have been meticulously perfecting their Melodic Death Metal craft at a time when the genre started to feel a bit overcrowded. Fast forward nearly twenty years later and they are not only at the top of their game, but stand as one of the linchpins of the scene.Continue reading
These days, with technology readily at our disposal, music isn’t always created directly by humans. Programming has significantly widened the plains of the musical landscape, for better or worse.Continue reading
From the swamps of Louisiana, legendary New Orleans sludgelords Crowbar return with another collection of songs so uncompromisingly heavy that each one arrives with its own gravitational pull. As entirely expected, Zero and Below (MNRK Heavy), the band’s twelfth full-length studio release pulls absolutely no punches, delivering even more high-quality riffage with the same single-minded determination that saw them smash their way onto the scene over thirty years ago.
Simply put: Allegaeon manifested 10 dizzying tracks of utter brilliance; gave (further) proof the band is profusely proficient as a whole and individually; and created a Technical Melodic Death Metal album packed with so much aggression and speed, it sounds like Monster fornicated with Red Bull.
Twenty-plus years into a career doing anything in the world might make you take your foot off the gas pedal, especially an industry as brutal as the music industry. However, Manitoba’s Comeback Kid continue to challenge themselves to keep refining their sound, and sharpening their focus over a series of releases. The bands’ new album Heavy Steps (Nuclear Blast/New Damage) shows the veteran band of the scene lifting up the rest of us up with defiant music set on highlighting what makes life worth fighting for. uniting us.
If you are missing some new Thrash Metal then I would gladly invite you to give the new album from Bay Area Thrashers Infex a listen. I came into this review with no idea at all who Infex was, but now I know! This album is in a word, thrashtastic. I love to write about a band that’s all about riffage and crafting around said riff. This album took me back to when I was playing in a “Threath band” (thrash/death metal), a term coined by my former singer.