australia

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/hqZGJXsiY_s&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0 I’ve always wondered why extreme metal bands don’t write more choruses. By “extreme,” I mean growling/screaming/etc. metal. Singing metal is often based on pop music, so choruses aren’t lacking there. But extreme metal is full of “the voice is just another instrument,” so entire songs and albums go by without the listener understanding a […]

If you know black metal, you probably know Debemur Morti. The French label, along with its distro Eitrin Editions, has been a bastion of quality, with bands including Horna, Archgoat, Spektr, and Old Wainds. It also handles European distribution for many Moribund releases. Debemur Morti recently put out five records which amount to an embarrassment […]

Illogium of Portal In the same way that old science fiction is retro yet futuristic, Portal‘s death metal seemingly spans decades. The oddball Aussies have gotten much attention for their recent album Swarth (Profound Lore, 2009). I interviewed guitarist Horror Illogium for the December ’09 issue of Decibel (#62, Converge cover, order here). Space constraints […]

Pictured: Let the Night Roar In metal, fast is glamorous, while slow is often overlooked. I get sent a lot of great slow stuff, so I’m starting this column to feature some of it. Doom, sludge, stoner, and post-metal are all fair game. Get off the lead foot, and get on those lead boots. Let […]

VaderPhotos by Chris Rowella With few exceptions, Connecticut’s metal scene lacks talent and cohesive support. People come out for Ozzfest and Emmure, but not much else. Thankfully, a variety of international bands temporarily buried that fact at Hartford’s Webster Underground last Friday. I arrived too late to see Rose Funeral, but their cookie-cutter deathcore holds […]

A book called Why AC/DC Matters (HarperCollins, 160 pages, $16.66) may seem redundant. The world’s second best-selling music act (The Beatles are #1) obviously matters to millions of people. But for Anthony Bozza, a writer whose portfolio includes Rolling Stone and autobiographies of Tommy Lee and Slash, that isn’t enough. He explains his motivation for […]

Until the end of the year, Hells Headbangers is offering a three-pack of EP CD’s by Victimizer, Cerekloth, and Hunters Moon for $15. You can also buy them individually for $7 each. Hells Headbangers favors black and death metal with punk leanings: think Venom, Slaughter (Can), Blasphemy, early Death and Autopsy. It’s all very old-school, […]

Profound Lore has two upcoming releases worth checking out. The first is Dimensional Bleedthrough, out November 10 from Krallice. Thanks to a formidable live reputation, the band’s profile has jumped. It often gets tagged as black metal, but evidently it does not really consider itself as such. I’d agree. While its mechanics (blastbeats, tremolo picking, […]

Everyone’s favorite furniture-headed death metallers are back. On October 20, Australia’s Portal will release Swarth on Profound Lore. (See album cover here.) Like its predecessor Outre (reviewed here), the album should delight, annoy, terrify, and polarize. For a taste, hear “Larvae” below. It exemplifies what makes Portal so fresh: turbulent dissonance, otherworldly vocals, and no […]

Diabolical things are afoot down under. Cult death metallers Portal just got confirmed for next year’s Maryland Deathfest. Shackles put out a phenomenal album (reviewed here) earlier this year. Funeral doomsters Mournful Congregation and blackened thrashers Deströyer 666 recently released solid full-lengths (though the latter is now based all over the place). Asphyxiate Recordings remain […]