death metal

My reviews of The Faceless and Born From Pain are up at Metal Injection. The Faceless – Ghost of a StrangerBorn From Pain – Scorched Earth

Plead Not Guilty Crash Landing2006 Massive Assault party like it’s 1990, unleashing old school Swedish death metal that sounds like outtakes from Left Hand Path. Surprisingly, the source is not Stockholm, but the Netherlands. The ingredients are familiar – massive guitars, volcanic bass tones, Motörhead-on-speed grooves, and good old-fashioned death growls. Death Breath and Repugnant […]

Vermin – Falling Deathwards (live)Grimland – Melena (demo) Alpha Prime2006 Speaking of Dutch metal, here’s a compilation with an interesting focus – bands from around the city of Breda. The title is Gratis naar de Tering, which translates to “Down the drain for nothing” or “Fucked up for free,” depending on whom you ask. The […]

Belphegor – Hell’s AmbassadorSanctus Perversum Nuclear Blast2006 Belphegor’s blackened death metal hasn’t changed much over time. This Austrian band flirted with black metal imagery and frosty sounds on its earlier albums, but the ingredients have largely remained constant – blastbeats, tremolo picking, growls with the occasional rasp, double bass as if paid by the bpm. […]

Reefer Stashed PlaceI Cum Bud Forcefield2006 Why didn’t anyone think of this earlier??? Maybe people did – the idea just never got past the half-baked stage. Cannabis Corpse is Philip Hall (“Landphil”) from Municipal Waste on guitar and bass, his brother Josh (“Hallhammer”) on drums, and Andy Horn (“Weedgrinder”) on vocals. As the name states, […]

One of my highlights of 2006 was interviewing Cannibal Corpse drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz for Hails & Horns, the metal offshoot of AMP magazine. For being in the world’s biggest death metal band, Paul was amazingly gracious and down-to-earth. He candidly answered burning questions I had – was the band being funny with its artwork and […]

It’s a minor miracle that I’m writing about this demo. I picked it up at an Animosity show in SF earlier this year. The CD was free off a spindle, with no sleeve or case. All it said was “Remorseless Demo 2006.” No track names, no contact info, not the best first impression. I listened […]

For picking up girls, Lecherous Nocturne isn’t the best band name. It does have a selling point, though – Nile guitarist Dallas Toler-Wade played drums on debut album Adoration of the Blade (on Deepsend). Toler-Wade recently left to concentrate full-time on Nile, and current Nile touring bassist Joe Payne did time in the band as […]

Today marks five years since the passing of Chuck Schuldiner, so I’d like to revisit my favorite Death album, Individual Thought Patterns. ITP came out in 1993, an amazing time for Florida death metal; Cynic’s Focus, Atheist’s Elements, Pestilence’s Spheres, and Morbid Angel’s Covenant all came out that year. Scott Burns produced the album, Death’s […]

Few female vocalists approach Arch Enemy’s Angela Gossow in brutality. However, Sufferage’s Jasmin Fleiner does, and then some. Without knowing her identity, I would have sworn that the vocals on Bloodspawn (on Remission) came from a man. In real life, that would be bad, but in metal, that’s awesome. Her voice is no joke; I […]