Sodom's 'Genesis XIX' Is a Thrash Metal How-To

Published Nov 26, 2020

Thirty-nine years, 16 albums, eight million record sales and countless lineup changes in, Sodom are easily still one of the most belligerent...

Toronto's Völur Transcend the Boundaries of Metal on 'Death Cult'

Published Nov 11, 2020

The saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" can be applied to a lot of metal music. There are bands who have built entire 30-plus year care...

DevilDriver Sound Like a One-Man Show on 'Dealing with Demons I'

Published Oct 01, 2020

The new wave of American heavy metal (NWOAHM) was one of the most exciting music movements of the '00s. There are certain bands who grew pas...

Kataklysm Are at Their Tightest and Most Aggressive on 'Unconquered'

Published Sep 22, 2020

During these tumultuous and unpredictable times, fans of Kataklysm were able to breathe a sigh of relief when frontman Maurizio Iacono decla...

Marilyn Manson Isn't Shocking Anymore, but 'We Are Chaos' Proves His Staying Power

Published Sep 09, 2020

It's hard for an artist like Marilyn Manson to not been considered a has-been. The Antichrist Superstar made his name in the '90s as a shock...

Black Crown Initiate's 'Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape' Is an Extreme Metal Triumph

Published Aug 07, 2020

The biggest names in metal have been pretty quiet this year, at least where new studio material is concerned. There have been albums release...

Septicflesh's 'Infernus Sinfonica MMXIX' Is a Live Album with Purpose

Published Jul 31, 2020

Live albums sometimes feel a little pointless. It's too often they're used as gap-fillers for bands who haven't released anything in too lon...

Ensiferum Bring Extra Vigour to Their Finnish Folk Metal on 'Thalassic'

Published Jul 09, 2020

It's easy to argue that Finland's premier folk metal band have perfected a formula that doesn't ever need to be changed. After a couple of m...

Carach Angren Embraces Black Metal's Inherent Goofiness on 'Franckensteina Strataemontanus'

Published Jun 25, 2020

Nearly two decades into their career, the Netherlands' Carach Angren have earned themselves a respectable reputation in the world of extreme...

Lamb of God Have Plateaued — but Their Self-Titled Album Proves That's Not Such a Bad Thing

Published Jun 16, 2020

It was a shame for one of 2020's biggest and most anticipated metal albums to be delayed by over a month just before it was set to be releas...

Behemoth's 'A Forest' EP Distills the Band Down to Their Essence

Published May 26, 2020

A new Behemoth EP announced only a couple of weeks before its release is a nice surprise for everyone stuck at home these days — not that th...

Like a Cask of Rum, Alestorm's Merry Pirate Metal Gets Stronger with Age on 'Curse of the Crystal Coconut'

Published May 25, 2020

At a time like this, a reminder from Scotland's merry "pirate metal" crew Alestorm that nothing can be taken too seriously has never been mo...

Havok's 'V' Is the Gold Standard for 21st Century Thrash Metal

Published Apr 30, 2020

Calling your band's fifth album V may be a little on the unimaginative side, especially for a band like Havok, whose politically charged lyr...

Vader Deliver Another Straight-Up Death Metal Ripper on 'Solitude in Madness'

Published Apr 30, 2020

It's hard to believe Vader are nearly 40 years into their career. The band have been a leading force in Polish extreme metal for decades, an...

'What the Dead Men Say' Keeps Trivium's Hot Streak Going

Published Apr 24, 2020

After a 15-year career of hits and misses, 2017's The Sin and the Sentence seemed like the album that could bring an end to the inconsistenc...

Warbringer Prove They're One of Modern Thrash's Best on 'Weapons of Tomorrow'

Published Apr 24, 2020

California neo-thrash heavyweights Warbringer have ridden high the past few years on the rush of 2017's Woe to the Vanquished. At the time t...

Abysmal Dawn Continue Down Their Death Metal Path on 'Phylogenesis'

Published Apr 16, 2020

It's been six years since Abysmal Dawn unleashed their last record, Obsolescence, making this gap the longest wait between any two of their...

Symbolik Emergence

Published Apr 10, 2020

It's almost unbelievable that Emergence is only Symbolik's debut record, even though it was nearly a decade in the making. While Symbolik's...

Akurion Come Forth to Me

Published Apr 09, 2020

Akurion are somewhat of a Montreal metal supergroup, made up of current and past members of established outfits like Cryptopsy, Neuraxis and...

WVRM Colony Collapse

Published Apr 01, 2020

As if anyone expected anything different, WVRM's Colony Collapse is an unrelenting, bludgeoning assault on the ears from start to finish, in...