Reviewed: March 2021 Released: 2021, Lifeforce Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Demitri Levantis Age of Woe, hailing from Sweden’s death metal capital, Gothenburg, have released their third full-length album, Envenom. This, along with their previous ventures into the worlds of doom, sludge, and crust punk, has made the band stand out…
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Altered Dead – Returned To Life
Reviewed: January 2021 Released: 2021, Memento Mori Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Kira Levine Five years after their self-titled debut, Canadian old-school death metal duo Altered Dead have Returned To Life with their sophomore full-length, which will see its initial physical release through label Memento Mori. A doom-esque introduction announces “Mental Suicide”…
Benediction – Scriptures
Benediction – Scriptures Reviewed: January 2021 Released: 2020, Nuclear Blast Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz Despite sporadic touring and the occasional festival appearance, it’s been 12 mother loving years since we’ve had a proper new Benediction LP. In that time we’ve had 3 US Presidential election cycles, 3 new…
Church of the Dead – Church of the Dead
Church of the Dead – Church of the Dead Reviewed: October 2020 Released: 2020, Stay Heavy Records Rating: 4.5/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz I was a huge fan of Church of the Dead’s collection of EPs from a few years back. Spread across 5 volumes between 2013 and 2015, the Helsinki…
Cardiac Arrest – The Day That Death Prevailed
Cardiac Arrest – The Day That Death Prevailed Reviewed: August 2020 Released: 2020, Memento Mori Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz Chicago’s Cardiac Arrest are like that mosquito from Jurassic Park – stuck in amber, frozen in time while the world evolved around it. And you remember how much crap that…
Fire for Effect – Artillery Unleashed
Fire for Effect – Artillery Unleashed Reviewed: January 2020 Released: 2019, Independent Rating: 4.5/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz Cancer is a Motherf@#ker. Originally conceived as a solo project for former Malevolent Creation guitarist Gio Ceraca, Fire for Effect really started to gain some legs after Brett Malev Hoffman joined the band…
Cianide – Unhumanized
Cianide – Unhumanized Reviewed: January 2020 Released: 2020, Hells Headbangers Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz Sometimes you just need some good ol’ fashioned, knuckle dragging mid-west death metal in your life. Long running Chicago scene vets Cianide are back to fill that void with their first collection of new tunes…
Deiformity – Corpse Stomper
Deiformity – Corpse Stomper Reviewed: January 2019 Released: 2018, Self Released Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz Here’s the thing about new bands playing Old School Death Metal – you’re not expected to break new musical ground, and it doesn’t even have to be played all that well if it’s done…
Pyrexia – Unholy Requiem
Pyrexia – Unholy Requiem Reviewed: November, 2018 Released: 2018, Unique Leader Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz The phrase “Return to Form” is one of the most hacky statements you can make when reviewing a record, but then again, I’ve never be mistaken for an English Lit major. But instead…
Internal Bleeding – Corrupting Influence
Internal Bleeding – Corrupting Influence Reviewed: November, 2018 Released: 2018, Unique Leader Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz From adversity comes strength. Such a statement has rarely been truer for a band than it has for Internal Bleeding. Rewind to last April – the band had regrouped with a new…
The Grotesquery – The Lupine Anathema
Reviewed: July, 2018 Released: 2018, Xtreem Music Rating: 4.0/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz Rogga Johansson may not be the most innovative guitar player in death metal, but dammit, the dude’s a machine. Considering that in the now almost 7 months of 2018, he’s released new music with Down Among the Dead…
Angerot – The Splendid Iniquity
Reviewed: April, 2018 Released: 2018, Black Market Metal Rating: 4.5/5 Reviewer: Andrew Cook After a lovely little creepy intro section, South Dakota’s Angerot leave you in very little doubt as to their whole purpose on this fine planet, that being the HM-2 soaked worship of old school Swede Death Metal.…