metal review

2019 Albums

Album Review: Gurt – Bongs Of Praise 7 (Stoner Doom)

September 7, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

Gurt are back, a sludgy UK band I’ve posted on IG in the past for their wonderful album covers, something they’ve kept consistent. Presentation is an important thing to Gurt and we are all rewarded for this. They have a unique style that’s difficult to pin down with elements varying between doom metal, death rock and punk and just a lot. They are a lot. Bongs Of Praise in particular is a weed fuelled doom/sludge album that will be a sure hit for stoner doom fans. […]

2019 Albums

Tape Review: Maggot Cave – Pub Full Of Maggots 9.69 (Grindcore)

August 28, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

I knew I was in for some grindcore but I wasn’t expecting it to be this good. The deal with this project is that if I can, I will listen to an album for the very first time on tape. It’s a great approach that leads to a lot of surprises and discovery. There’s things you just don’t notice or care about digitally because our attentions spans are just fucked when we’re given a screen. There’s quite a few vocal techniques used throughout the tape – even at one point offering a howling heavy metal scream which completely caught me off guard. Combined with the great use of comedic samples there’s a lot of appreciate here, most of which seem to be taken from films, sitcoms and Australian radio shows. They all sounded super familiar to me but I can’t quite place them, I suspect the opening one is from Reno 911.  […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Rotting Christ – The Heretics 8.6 (Black Metal)

August 23, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

On the list of countries with an extended history of black metal, Greece would definitely not be among the first options that would come to mind. Yet, their banner-raisers Rotting Christ, hailing from Athens for over three decades, have ever since been a solid name of estimable repute within the community. They recently released their 13th offering, so aptly named The Heretics. As the name suggests and as you might expect, the whole album revolves around the notion of heresy; kind of an accolade to those freethinkers and revolutionaries of enlightenment who have, through their payment in blood or at the cost of their own sanity, laid the foundations of modern free speech. From Nietzsche to Voltaire and everything in between. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Shadow Of Intent – Melancholy 8.5 (Deathcore)

August 23, 2019 zaxrecordreviews

After reviewing a few black metal records on this site I figured i’d change it up a bit, after all I enjoy all types of extreme metal, including deathcore. Deathcore is easily one of the most controversial extreme metal genres, because everyone has very strong opinions about it. I enjoy a great deal of deathcore myself, despite some of the more boring and generic bands and records in the genre. One of the biggest bands in the genre right now is Shadow Of Intent. Much like the genre they play, opinions on them are very divided. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Humanity’s Last Breath – Abyssal 9.5 (Deathcore)

August 8, 2019 destroyerhands

This album came out of nowhere and slapped me across the face. Prior to this being released, I had never even heard this band before. But over the past week or so since it came out, I’ve been listening to it nonstop and it has quickly skyrocketed to the top of my favorite albums from this year so far. I can’t see anything else topping it as the unexpected favorite of this year for me. […]

2018 albums

Album Review: Whoretopsy – Take My Breath Away 8.5 (Brutal Death)

July 30, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

Whoretopsy recently got a new vocalist and I have to say right off the bat that he sounds awesome. The style is far more hardcore influenced than a lot of the brutal and grind death still around, it’s a really nice blending of genres that doesn’t shift hard enough to ever betray what makes them so metal. From Australian accented hardcore shouts to full blown pig sequels, it’s all here and it all feels valid. Musically they are technically proficient and playful, just down-tuned to hell. They often qualify under death metal and grindcore in equal measure, some more purist metalheads might not enjoy this offering but I consider it refreshing and a heap of fun. They embody “Australia” in a lot of ways – often sarcastically which in it’s self is very Australian. Nothing here is done without anger coated humor or humor coated anger. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Hate – Auric Gates of Veles 8.3 (Black Metal)

July 27, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

Despite having formed a year earlier than Behemoth, Hate has always been in the shadow of their more distinguished compatriots. As it is very common within this domain, they have undergone several (read many) personnel changes. But approximately three decades into their career, they have established themselves with stumping iron feet and bellowing screams of triumph. It was in 2017 that they released Tremendum, a paradigm-shift in their long career and a praiseworthy album for certain. 2019 marks a second step toward their new destination; it is Auric Gates of Veles that further emphasizes their trajectory away from the so frequent themes of sacrilege and toward a more deeply pagan sphere, in particular probing and reflecting the Slavic rituals and folktales, at the same time having an eye on lesser known tales of other parts of the world. […]