Personal Top 20 01. Napalm Death – Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism Napalm Death is turning 40 this year. But time flies when you grind as hard as these guys have, in whatever shape or form the band has taken over the years – and its lineup…
Nervosa – Perpetual Chaos
Reviewed: [January 2021] Released [2021 Napalm Records] Rating [4/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson After the Brazilian thrash trio Nervosa imploded last spring when bassist/vocalist Fernanda Lira and drummer Luana Dametto quit, founding guitarist and lone remaining member Prika Amaral didn’t waste any time getting the band regrouped and rearmed. Eight months…
Parricide – Fascination of Indifference / Accustomed to Illusion / Crude
Reviewed: [January 2021] Released [2020 Awakening Records] Rating [3/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson While they ended their career in 2015 as essentially a grindcore band, Poland’s Parricide began life 20-some years earlier cranking out a death/thrash metal hybrid that echoed the likes of Obituary, Sepultura, Death, Massacre and Malevolent Creation. Formed…
Satanize – Baphomet Altar Worship
Reviewed: [January 2021] Released [2021 Helter Skelter/Regain Records] Rating [3.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Portuguese black metal duo Satanize missed a golden opportunity to piss all over Christmas this year, issuing their sixth full length in mid-January instead of a month earlier, during the holiday season. But that seems to be…
Arcanum Sanctum – Ad Astra
Reviewed: [January 2021] Released [2020 Self-Released] Rating [4/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson You don’t get much farther off the beaten path than Russia’s Arcanum Sanctum. The band hail from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, which is so far into Eastern Russia it is closer to Anchorage, Alaska, than it is to Moscow – by like…
PIGSTY – Pig Blood
Reviewed: December 2020 Released: 2020 Bizarre Leprous Production Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Peter Atkinson So last month it was “Swedish Beaver Grind,” this month its “Pig Metal” by way of the Czech Republic. And once again, just when you think you’ve seen or heard it all, the extreme metal world urps…
Depravity – Grand Malevolence
Reviewed: December 2020 Released: 2020 Transcending Obscurity Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Australian death merchants Depravity unleashed an utterly masterful debut with Evil Upheaval in 2018, setting the bar mighty high for themselves to follow up. Yet Grand Malevolence does not disappoint. Though it doesn’t quite inspire the sort…
WinterheartH – Riverbed Empire
Reviewed: December 2020 Released: 2020 Still Heavy Productions Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Peter Atkinson The third album from Newfoundland’s WinterheartH actually came out during the summer. But since we’re now staring the bleakness – especially this year, thanks to COVID – of winter in the face, it’s only fitting to catch…
New World Depression – Descent
Reviewed [December 2020] Released [2020 Fucking Kill Records] Rating [3/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Germany’s New World Depression offer a decidedly old school sounding groovy death metal on this their fourth full-length. Descent combines the determined chug of Bolt Thrower, the abrasiveness of vintage Swe-death and the vomitous nastiness of Cause…
Fuck The Facts – Pleine Noirceur
Reviewed: [November 2020] Released [2020 Noise Salvation Records] Rating [4/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Ottawa grind faction Fuck The Facts are back with their first album in five years, which is nothing too unusual for the band as their pace for pumping out full-lengths has slowed considerably since issuing six LPs…
Belarus Beaver – Planet of the Beavers
Reviewed: November 2020 Released: 2020 Grind to Death Records Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Just when you think you’ve seen or heard it all – pornogrind, pirate metal, pitbull metal, fucking parrot metal – you can now add “Swedish Beaver Grind” to the list. Indeed, Planet of the Beavers is…
Amongst the Ashes – Agonizing Awakening
Reviewed: [November 2020] Released [2020 Self-released] Rating [3.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson It’s not every day some Iranian metal music comes my way. Indeed, the debut EP from Amongst The Ashes, essentially a one-man band of Mohammad “Aelian” Hallaji, may be the first – the closest I can recall being Acrassicauda…
Spiritual Holocaust – Echoes of the Apocalypse
Reviewed: [November 2020] Released [2020 More Hate Productions] Rating [3.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson They may hail from Finland, but Spiritual Holocaust certainly have an ear for old school Swedish death metal. The band’s second album is awash in the classic buzz-sawing, HM2 pedal-powered riffs and d-beat battery championed by Grave,…
Mors Principium Est – Seven
Reviewed: October 2020 Released: 2020 AFM Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Peter Atkinson After 20 years and six previous albums, the one-time Finnish sextet Mors Principium Est have whittled themselves down to a mere duo for album number seven, which fittingly bears that as its title. In the time since 2017’s…
Demonical – World Domination
Reviewed: [October 2020] Released [2020 Agonia Records] Rating [4.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson While there have been some big changes in the Demonical camp since 2018’s Chaos Manifesto, the Swedish death metal brigade sound as surly and brutal as ever with their sixth offering. World Domination kinda puts it right out…