Zax Record Reviews

Last year, Dessiderium released not only one of 2020’s best tech death records, but also one of its most underrated. I wasn’t the only one who recognized this either, as the album started gaining some buzz in the underground death metal scene. That buzz paid off too, because just over a year after the release of Shadow Burn, they’re back with a new record, which is being released by one of my favorite labels of all time, The Artisan Era. […]

I feel like you don’t hear a lot about Italian extreme metal on an international level, but man, every year I wind up with a handful of badass Italian records. This record in particular is one of the nastiest things I’ve heard all year. […]

When discussing the best modern death metal, I don’t hear Aeon’s name pop up nearly as often as it should, and as I was listening to this new record and rekindling my love for their previous ones, I couldn’t help but wonder why that might be. These guys can craft a groovy, hard-hitting riff like nobody else; they just generally release some of the most kickass, straight up death metal out there, but they don’t release it very often. […]

The new wave of OSDM revival has been good all around in my opinion. Of course you have the all stars like Tomb Mold and Blood Incantation who are killing it, but if you dig just a little deeper, there’s a subset of bands who are grinding out this ultra esoteric, authentic brand of OSDM, type of shit where you could tell me it came out in ’89 and I’d believe you, that’s what you really want to look for. What we’re also seeing a lot of is actual OSDM bands from the early 90s coming back from the dead to unleash ungodly amounts of brutality, such is the case with California’s Ruin. […]