Album Reviews

Otargos are a French black metal band, and their latest offering, Apex Terror, contains 9 tracks of intense and well-produced extremity. Aggressive, clear, fast, bleak, and highly negative, it’s vaguely reminiscent of fellow Frenchmen Antaeus. “For Terra” slows down enough to really groove; “Remnant From A Long-Dead Star” continues that …

Master, the former Chicago – now Czech band, are alive and well! These guys rose through the same ranks that acts like Slayer and Metallica did. With The Witchhunt, they play through some of the most bludgeoning riffs of their career. A variety of moods and tempos offer something to …

Pennsylvania’s Incantation channel quintessential classic mid-90s deathmetal / grindcore with this reissue of 1994’s Mortal Throne of Nazarene. This band is one of the forerunners of what became brutal deathmetal. John McEntee and crew perfected the doom-to-blast atmospheric mood, alternating slow segments with ‘breakneck pace’ grindcore blastbeat licks. In eight songs, …

For me, the highlight of Firefest 8 (2011) was without a doubt Coney Hatch, I had resigned myself to never seeing this band live, however the people behind Firefest have an unnerving knack of pulling rabbits out of hats, so this was very much a magic moment for me, and …

Now the dust from the public lawsuit between Kyuss Lives! (John Garcia, Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri) and the remaining ex-Kyuss men Josh Homme and Scott Reeder has died down, the newly named Vista Chino can do what they do best. And damn, do they do it well. Named after, …

Once upon a time Ministry were the leaders in their field with imitators a long way behind. With a career that spanned 25 years + until they decided to call it a day a few years back. They now appear to be hellbent on tarnishing that solid gold reputation with what …

This album is Sammy Hagar’s first album since 2008, and he’s chosen to fill this ten track opus with award-winning artists from across the musical spectrum. So this could go either of two ways, be self indulgent enough to alienate his fans, or be open enough to please his existing …

Whole is 2013’s release by Chicago modern metallers Soil. The nicely-produced disc is well balanced, with the full band audible and appreciable. A natural progression from (and successor to) 2001’s Scars, the disc stays true to the band’s downtuned, crunchy, catchy form. I hear two cross-disc highlights: the emotive, powerful, …

Badmotorfinger, an Italian hard rock band, released It’s Not The End, a brazen 13-track disc. It’s straight-ahead, catchy, anthemic, guitar-driven hard rock. Modern, confident, and in-your-face music. With no frills, keyboards, or ‘studio effects’, it’s loud, crisp, flashy music for the guitar-friendly audience. With gruff, gritty, lower-register vocals strongly reminiscent …

On “Satyricon”, Satyr and Frost have realized their own roaring declaration of ambition.

Annihilator re-release two of their earlier albums ‘All For You’ (2004) and ‘Schizo Deluxe’ (2005), along with the ‘Live Annihilation’ live recorded album. I decided to look at these three albums with fresh eyes and discuss the relevance it has to date. ‘All For You’ was the first on my list. …

Battlecross is an American modern death metal band showing European flar. With War Of Will, they offer a bit more melody and atmosphere then most. There’s a crisp, punchy sound with a triple vocal tone attack – from a hatecore screech to a brutal low growl. Battlecross offers unusually inspiring …

Veteran German thrash mongers Protector scorch a blazing trail of old-school death-thrash through Swedish woods, taking no prisoners. They channel all that is good from thrash metal into tunes like “Reanimated Homonculus” and “Antiman”, snapping necks furiously and without remorse. The competent, tight band delivers blood-curdling goods on this disc, …

Eternal Torture is a young death metal band from Munich (Bavaria), Germany. This band is part of the “we are faster and more extreme then anyone else” movement, with hyperspeed double-bass drumming, low guttural (and unintelligible) vocals, and downtuned guitars. Their twist on this pun intended, done-to-death schtick is that …

What would happen if you repackaged trendy pop music with a little bit of emo, and some of burlesque subculture’s image? You’d end up with something like Bad Pollyanna. Sugary sweet, digitally perfect female vocals merged with a litany of electronica sounds and effects comprise 2013’s release, Monstrous Child. The …

A bizarre, mellow blend of alternative rock mixed with electronica and industrial elements make up 2013’s Asymmetry, by Australia’s Karnivool. Moods range from a free-floating ambient to an ‘industrial meets emo-pop’ tangent. The oddly sequenced record of longer-length songs seems to take pride in dissonance. There are many quirks and …

Equilibrium‘s Waldschrein is an interesting twist on the folk or pagan metal subgenre. This five-song EP, released in 2013, runs the gamut from entertaining folk metal, to an epic movie soundtrack type tune. This Bavarian band’s rapid ‘riff factory’ idea shifts tend to be jarring or choppy – in the …

Scythe is a three-piece heavy metal outfit from Chicago which was founded by former Usurper front man Rick Scythe in 2010. Old school in their approach, they state on their official website that their sound “incorporates the style of 80’s thrash/black/speed metal, combined with elements of dark atmosphere, classic heavy metal …

#PlanetMosh reviews the debut release from Holland's Pelgrim

If ever the name of a band can describe their music then Onslaught certainly fit the bill judging by the ferocity of the material on their 6th studio album aptly titled “VI”. There have been some excellent thrash metal albums released in 2013 and “VI” is a worthy addition to …