Released on the 16th of November, Mentor's second album Cults, Crypts and Corpses is a late entry in the race for Album of the Year 2018, but it has quickly made up for lost time, sprinting past Wrathrone's Reflections of Torment to take the lead. Mentor are a Polish band whose 2016 debut Guts, Graves... Continue Reading →

Every year, no matter how hard you try, some real gems are going to slip past you. With thousands of new metal albums coming out each year, missing something good the first time around is a statistical certainty. Terrifier's 2017 album Weapons of Thrash Destruction is a perfect example of a Top-Ten-grade release that I... Continue Reading →

I don't pay a whole lot of attention to modern-day traditional metal. My tastes have gradually gotten more and more extreme over the years, and I honestly don't have much interest in anything but death metal, black/hybrid stuff and a bit of thrash anymore, unless it's an album that I grew up loving. Nothing against... Continue Reading →

This complete re-work of FNI's 2005 debut LP, Fellatrix Discordia Pantokrator, is another frontrunner for 2018 Album of the Year. As soon as the first track starts, you know exactly what you're in for. If you draw a triangle between the black/thrash of Nocturnal Breed, the black/speed of Midnight, and a strip-club house band that... Continue Reading →

Wrathrone's most recent release, Reflections of Torment, is my current frontrunner for 2018 Album of the Year. This is the second full-length release from these Finnish death metallers, and it is an ass-kicking ten-track slab of old-school death metal. In style, it reminds me more of early 90's Swedish death metal than the typically-more-chaotic older... Continue Reading →

It's halfway through 2018, and a few albums have emerged to lead the race for Album of the Year. Beyond the Reach of Flame, the latest offering from Wisconsin's Micawber, is one of them. On 2015's The Gods of Outer Hell, they were a three-piece with a take on technical death metal that reminds me... Continue Reading →

2017 was another good year for new metal releases... this is what it looked like from where I sit:  1. Midnight - Sweet Death and Ecstasy. Midnight plays blackened speed metal that's a coked-up cross between Venom and Motörhead, with an extra side of Satan and a manic, gleefully blasphemous feel that's all their own.... Continue Reading →