Metal

Review - Six Feet Under: Graveyard Classics IV: The Number of the Priest

Posted by

SixFeetUnder-GraveyardClassicsIVSlider
It’s been about six years since Six Feet Under unleashed their latest cover album, a trend that seems to have been established following the release of their second Graveyard Classics offering back in 2004. While the group has covered a mixture of rock and metal songs in the past, and an entire AC/DC album in 2004, we’re now given a collection of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden covers not long after their last original full-length, Crypt of the Devil, which dropped in May of 2015. With interest beginning to wane with fans who often look at this now as an abused series with good intent, can this new venture take the classics into a brave new world, or does this fourth installment fail to leave you hellbent for leather?
Read Article

Review - Gruesome: Dimensions of Horror

Posted by

Gruesome-DimensionsOfHorrorSlider
Everyone’s newly discovered favorite early Death clone, Gruesome, have skyrocketed in popularity since storming onto the scene with 2015’s debut album Savage Land, which was released through Relapse Records. It’s been about a year now, and the four-piece of well established musicians from Dekapitator, Murder Suicide, Possessed, and Exhumed among many others present a brand new six song EP titled Dimensions of Horror. But does the blatant, unhidden worship continue within its ranks, or is this homage act looking to break the shackles in favor of a more original sounding affair?
Read Article

Review - Poison Headache: Poison Headache

Posted by

PoisonHeadache-PoisonHeadacheSlider
Following the demise of Internal Affairs, the three-headed beast known as Poison Headache was forged from the depths of San Diego, California. Featuring vocalist/guitarist Andy Kukta, vocalist/guitarist/bassist Phil Sgrosso (Wovenwar), and drummer Kyle Rosa, the new outing takes a violent look at the crossover thrash and hardcore world. To preach their brand of bedlam, they recorded their self-titled debut at The Pit, run by Taylor Young of Nails and Twitching Tongues
Read Article

Review - It’s Not Night: It’s Space: Our Birth is But a Sleep and a Forgetting

Posted by

ItsNotNight-ItsSpace-OurBirthIsButASleepAndAForgettingSlider
It’s Not Night: It’s Space was formed back in 2010 by guitarist Kevin Halcott and drummer Michael Lutomski, eventually joined by bassist Tommy Guerrero. Since their formation, the trio unleashed an EP in October of 2011 titled East of the Sun & West of the Moon, and their debut full-length Bowing Not Knowing to What in 2012, both of which were released independently. Over the years, the band had been fine-tuning their chemistry inspired music, evolving into more than just jam session material both behind the scenes, as well as through plenty of live dates, “averaging about fifty-sixty” per year according to the accompanying press release. But does this instrumental effort’s follow-up album Our Birth is But a Sleep and a Forgetting, which is set for release through Small Stone Records, present anything all that tangible to fans of the style, or is it something best left sailing through the vast cosmos undisturbed?
Read Article

Review - Feared: Reborn

Posted by

Feared-RebornSlider
Feared is easily one of Sweden’s hardest working metal acts today. The group came together in 2007, unleashed a demo a year later, and released their self-titled debut album in 2010 themselves. Since then, they have been unstoppable in the stuio, unleashing five more full-length efforts, one per year with exception of 2014 and their contribution to the Elemental Nightmares - II split with Satyros, Dead River Runs Dry and Montecharge. Like clockwork, 2016 sees another new creation, titled Reborn, due at the start of June in digital format. But has this four-piece begun to show signs of exhaustion despite the fresh blood of bassist Jocke Skob (ex-Clawfinger) and drummer Kevin Talley (Suffocation, Dååth) having joined the fray back in 2013, or is this romp through familiar territory one that didn’t need to exist?
Read Article

Review - Gorguts: Pleiades’ Dust

Posted by

Gorguts-PleiadesDustSlider
Easily one of the most important figure heads in the death metal realm, Gorguts contributed heavily to the influence of a number of bands over the year, not to mention the success of the genre as a whole. The impact, of course, wasn’t exactly felt immediately when Considered Dead (now a collector’s wet dream of owning a complete copy of) and The Erosion of Sanity initially dropped. It wouldn’t be until Century Media picked the Canadian act up to release Obscura in 1998 that they would start their rise to death metal glory before disbanding briefly in 2005. 2008 saw them return with full force, but it wouldn’t be until 2013’s The Colored Sands that fans would get something new. Fast forward to 2016 and the beast awakens once more with a brand new one song thirty-three minute EP titled Pleiades’ Dust. But is it one worth taking the trip with, or is it nothing more than a collection of songs loosely connected like so many extensive track efforts that came before it?
Read Article