described as black metal with a turkish touch, i knew i had to at least check this out but couldn't tell whether it was gonna rule or suck ass. in the end, i LOVE ÚPAL!!! i really do! obviously, what first caught my attention was the turkish influence which is primarily audible in the gizzardesque, anatolian guitar tones. i immediately connected kostnatění to king gizzard and the lizard wizard cuz a.) they're the most popular recent example of a band embracing the #anatolianvibes ... read more

i hold show no mercy near and dear to my heart so it's kinda hard to rate this EP above that album, but i understand why so many hold haunting the chapel above slayer's debut. don't let The Haters fool you--show no mercy, for as primitive as it was, still established slayer as one of the heavier and more extreme bands of their time (especially in the california thrash scene). haunting the chapel, however, was the record which fully established the band as trailblazing luminaries of extreme ... read more

i really loved this album, if u couldn't tell. arctic flowers have a great punk sound; melodic and sharp, but with a gritty edge about 'em. if you're of the gothic persuasion, this album's deathrock veneer is sure to please as well. this was my first listen but i can see reveries growing on me a lot. it kinda reminds me of white lung...y'all remember white lung? deep fantasy? this album often dips its toes into garage-y, kinda dense, alternative-sounding punk which reminded me of the song wrong ... read more

super brutal 90's deathgrind outta ohio ... this EP knows what's up. off-the-rails grind madness, heavy-ass bdm riffs, and vocals that sell the whole thing like a walk-off homer at the bottom of the 9th. it's only a 10 minute sample size, but as i listened to it i just got more and more into it. this shit had riffs that made me go "hell yea" yknow . fuckin awesome

swedish band neverending...'s second demo is an extremely ahead of its time fusion of emo and metalcore, and by golly is it somethin' else. the melodies, heavy guitars, layers of sound...i was reminded of underoath, deftones, a metallic version of the first placebo album, and tons of 2000's mallcore and melodic metalcore bands whose names elude me. it's lo-fi and very, very chunky. incredibly cathartic, too, as one would hope from a release of this caliber. i'm a big emo fan, and this obscure ... read more

as a resident of bucks county, pennsylvania, i'm automatically compelled to review any music that comes from our easy-to-overlook corner of PA. enter deteriorate and their hometown of penndel (my grandma's former place of residence, may god rest her soul). penndel, like much of its surroundings in bucks county, doesn't have much going for it. it's a thoroughly unexciting little place resting in the suburban armpit of northeast philly and south jersey. i doubt many bands have launched successful ... read more

just as i hoped, branikald's lauded sophomore effort Рдяндалир is a massive step up from varg fjerne a tornet, which i enjoyed on a surface level but failed to connect with. interestingly enough, this LP fully embraces atmospheric black metal to an even further extent than its predecessor, which was fairly atmospheric but still heavily indebted to second wave bands of scandinavia. i saw people compare it to darkthrone's transilvanian hunger a lot, and it is pretty much a rawer, more ... read more

every time i think i like atmospheric black metal more than i used to, an album like this comes along to correct me (and i know it's not 100% atmoblack but large chunks of it are). this was an entirely pleasant listen but not an exciting or remarkable one; i'm willing to concede that maybe since i don't "get" atmoblack i don't listen to it in the "right way," but i actually listened to varg fjerne a tornet in a few different contexts--engaging directly with it, letting it ... read more

yea ima need a full length . man oh man

youtube recommended me this two-track EP by mexican stenchcore act tormentum, who serve up impeccably tasty, death metal-influenced stench with a balance of punk propulsion and crunchy riffs in large quantities. i don't listen to much stenchcore so maybe this isn't that impressive by the genre's standards, but i heavily fuck with it nonetheless

envision split their time between philly and south florida, and you can hear it; the melodic yet metallic parts are definitely reminiscent of 2000's florida metalcore, but that northeastern hardcore sound rears its head often to keep this LP rooted in punk. it's good, with the quality of the tracklist picking up around tracks 3-5, although i must admit; this one didn't do a great job at really grabbing me. i paid attention to this thing, read the lyrics, blah blah blah--ENGAGED with it in every ... read more

and thus the world was introduced to SLAYER! SLAAAAAAAAYAAAARRRR!!!!! if you look at heavy metal as a borderline religious way of life, slayer are one of extreme metal's most venerated saints, spreading the blasphemous gospel of satanic horror across the land since the early 80's. while the era of 1984-1986 would more accurately be described as thrash metal's worldwide coming out party, 1983 was still a major year for the genre's emergence from the underground, with metallica and slayer both ... read more

this LP is classic metalcore to me--not to imply it's one of the most universally beloved or especially popular albums of the genre, but it really embodies a number of hardcore's many identities, from thrashing melodic metalcore to classic american groove metal and vaguely beatdown-adjacent metallic hardcore. it's a fluid release from this connecticut group who...hey, their vocalist bruce lapage is also in eyes of the lord! i dig those guys...anyway, i would get if you called this dated, but ... read more

these three truths can coexist:

1.) this is a massive downgrade from their 80's material

2.) it still has a handful of great, essential metallica tunes

3.) it shouldn't be over an hour fucking long

metallica sold out, ditched thrash n' hitched their wagon to the airwaves, though in fairness they did end up churning out some of the finest pop metal in the process. maybe i just think that cuz of how much nostalgia this LP instills in me--i was definitely bumpin' enter sandman, sad but true ... read more

this is an album no hardcore kid will wanna miss. thrashy metalcore with them desert-fried, bonafide texan grooves and the slightest undercurrent of death metal influence; vocalist sounds like john tardy if you turn your ears sideways. they ain't deathcore or anything, but texas does honor a pretty legendary tradition of local death metal down south, so it makes sense that skourge would carry trace elements of the genre in their hardcore DNA.

the most obvious comparison would, of course, be ... read more

the score for this demo is dragged down by the mediocre first song titled simply "decimate"; if by decimate u mean decimate my brain cells with boring zzzzz repetitive war metal then yes . and get OWNED, by the way.

last throes of humanity is a good cut tho. annihilation hammer are definitely on the death metal side of the war metal spectrum, which i can appreciate! that's like, one of my favorite things!!! obviously this two-track demo doesn't give ya much to sink your teeth into, ... read more

one of the most definitive brutal death metal statements of the 21st century, instruments of torture by brodequin is an album my opinion has shifted on. when i first listened to it i didn't really get the hype--thought it was pretty underwhelming to be honest. i've seen so many people sing its praises and call brodequin a top tier death metal band, and maybe i just wasn't properly tuned into their inaccessible frequencies, but i simply didn't see it. i understand a bit better now, though. i can ... read more

if you look at my ratings, you may note that my favorite death metal albums are generally of a simple variety; probably groovy or rhythmic in some way, mosh-friendly, headbangin' horns-up shit. for the record i never wanna say my taste in metal is like, the "RIGHT" way to do metal or anything, it's just what i personally enjoy the most. so, naturally, me approaching techdeath is...a mixed bag, to say the least. i always at least TRY to like what i listen to, and there are plenty of ... read more

goddamnit...it happened again. i got pulled into an album on the strength of one badass song and a cool cover, only to find otherwise solid albeit unremarkable music. one minute i was bumping some mercyful fate, and the next thing you know i'm listening to a weird hippie folk rock tune by a band i THOUGHT was supposed to be heavy metal. i swear youtube is designed to throw innocent appreciators of classic metal into rabbit holes of obscure and forgotten NWOBHM releases, and to be honest, i ... read more

listening to folk metal after years and years of never making contact with its weird, wispy walls is a disarming experience. to me, the genre is closer to power metal or something than...whatever you'd expect from folk metal, i guess. to be fair, if i had never heard of folk metal before, i'd struggle to guess what it's supposed to sound like cuz how do you translate folk music (a genre very often structured around acoustic instruments) into metal (a genre always structured around electric ... read more