Reviewed: [August 2020] Released [2020 Rise Records] Rating [4/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Massachusetts brutes The Acacia Strain seem to be full of surprises these days. First, there was the unannounced Christmas time release of the epic EP It Comes In Waves, a single 30-minute song split into seven individually named…
666 (Norway) – 666 (Norway)
Reviewed: [August 2020] Released [2020 Nuclear War Now! Productions] Rating [3/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson If Mayhem were the literal and figurative poster children for early Norwegian black metal’s dead seriousness way back in the day, the ironically named and short-lived 666 were perhaps just the opposite. Despite the satanic connotations…
Vampiric – Supernatural Tales
Reviewed: [August 2020] Released [2020 Self-released] Rating [3.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Supernatural Tales is the second full-length from Arizona-based one-man band Vampiric. Self-released less than a year after 2019’s The Magic Of The Night, it shows some notable and impressive growth and lessons learned by master-mind and sole studio member…
Abramelin – Never Enough Snuff
Reviewed: [August 2020] Released [2020 Self-released] Rating [3.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Abramelin may have helped pioneer Australian death metal way back in the day, but after doing so they essentially did an epic mic drop and fucked off into The Outback or somewhere. The band issued their second album, Deadspeak,…
Ulthar – Providence
Reviewed: [July 2020] Released [2020 20 Buck Spin] Rating [3.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson With tracks like “Churn” and “Cudgel,” the Bay Area underground all-star team trio Ulthar paint a pretty accurate picture of the material on their second album. A leaner, meaner, more potent offering than 2018’s meandering Cosmovore –…
Khthoniik Cerviiks – Æequiizoiikum
Reviewed: [July 2020] Released [2020 Iron Bonehead Productions] Rating [4/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Take vintage Voivod and mash it up with old Behemoth, and you’ve got the rough and tumble but futuristic prog/death/black metal – and affiiniity for curiious spelliing! – of German odd-balls Khthoniik Cerviiks in something of a…
Inter Arma – Garbers Days Revisited
Reviewed: [July 2020] Released [2020 Relapse Records] Rating [4/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson As they wait like everyone else to see what the future might bring, Virginia’s Inter Arma offer a look to their past with an intriguing, and wide ranging, cover song collection that is named after their practice space…
Amorphia – Merciless Strike
Reviewed: [June 2020] Released [2020 Awakening Records] Rating [3.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Indian revivalists Amorphia do a more then credible job of capturing – if not outright re-creating – the sound and spirit of late ’80s thrash. And while “re-thrash” has been done to death over the last like 20…
Witchcraft – Black Metal
Reviewed: [June 2020] Released [2020 Nuclear Blast Records] Rating [3/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson So let’s start with the obvious. Despite its title, the sixth album from Swedish occult rockers Witchcraft may be “black,” but it is most definitely not “metal” by any stretch – at least in the execution. In…
Sxuperion – Omniscient Pulse
Reviewed: [June 2020] Released [2020 Bloody Mountain Records] Rating [4/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Matthew Schott has become something of his own extreme metal cottage industry in the mountains of northern California. When he isn’t busy drumming with cult heroes Valdur, Schott has several fairly active solo projects in Garden of…
Mountaineer – Bloodletting
Reviewed: [June 2020] Released [2020 Lifeforce Records] Rating [3.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson San Francisco sextet Mountaineer sound about the opposite of what one has come to expect of Bay Area metal – and the beefy thrash of vintage Metallica, Exodus, Testament, Death Angel, etc., that endures to this day. While…
Ulcerate – Stare Into Death and Be Still
Reviewed: [June 2020] Released [2020 Debemur Morti Productions] Rating [4.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson A common compliment applied to New Zealand’s Ulcerate is that “they do death metal right.” And it’s hard to argue otherwise. Over five previous albums, the trio’s clamor has become the total package, masterfully blending technicality, brutality,…
Korgonthurus – Kuolleestasyntynyt
Reviewed: [May 2020] Released [2020 Woodcut Records] Rating [4/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Since no one can fucking go anywhere these days, I had big plans to take an audio trip around the world this month and explore the most “foreign” promos that had turned up of late – bands from…
Monolith ZA – The Lord Conspirator
Reviewed: [May 2020] Released [2020 MMD Records] Rating [3.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Since no one can fucking go anywhere these days, I had big plans to take an audio trip around the world this month and explore the most “foreign” promos that had turned up of late – bands from…
Katatonia – City Burials
Reviewed: [May 2020] Released [2020 Peaceville Records] Rating [4.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson To pilfer from Dickens, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times for veteran Swedish mopes Katatonia to return from their brief hiatus – which the band used to recharge the batteries and recover…