Reviews Archive

Napalm Death

Coded Smears and More Uncommon Slurs

By Simon Milburn | 14 May, 2018

I think if I had to describe Napalm Death to someone, I’d describe them as a loaded freight train with 2 speeds – fast, and fastest. There truly seems to be no stopping for these guys. Since forming in the very early ‘80’s ...

Anthrax

Kings Among Scotland

By Simon Milburn | 14 May, 2018

In the 37 years that Anthrax have been around in one form or another, they’ve released 11 studio albums up to and including 2016’s excellent For All Kings. In and around all of that, they’ve also released six live albums...

Light the Torch

Revival

By Chris Gibbs | 14 May, 2018

Devil You Know went through a bit of turmoil in 2016. Drummer John Sankey was heavily focussed on his Legion Festival following the collapse of the annual travelling Soundwave Festival in the hopes of giving Australian metal heads something else t...

Marginal

Total Destruction

By Simon Crawley | 08 May, 2018

To say anything is ‘old school’ has gotten a bit tired, but when it comes to Belgium’s Marginal who kicks it seriously old school with their brand of grindcore/crust punk, it just seems fitting. This is a sound, whilst fully bene...

TesseracT

Sonder

By Michael O'Brien | 19 April, 2018

Even though I wouldn’t really consider myself to be a fan of progressive metal generally, I have enjoyed my share of TesseracT’s material over the years, and especially so their second full length album, 2013’s Altered State<...

Soldat Hans

Es Taut

By Michael O'Brien | 27 March, 2018

Over the years, I’ve found it to be beneficial to be sceptical of the descriptions that are contained in the promotional blurbs for the promos that are sent my way. Though they’re clearly intended to be a guide and to pique interest (t...

Primordial

Exile Amongst the Ruins

By Michael O'Brien | 26 March, 2018

Despite having been around for over 20 years now, I have to admit to being pretty late to the party with Ireland’s Primordial. In fact, it wasn’t until I took the chance on seeing them at a festival in 2015 that their idiosyncratic fol...

Holy Terror

Total Terror

By Simon Milburn | 24 March, 2018

<p>Holy Terror were truly an underground thrash band. Sure those heavily in the scene in the mid to late ‘80’s knew of them, and whilst their output was put out by Under One Flag and Roadracer Records back in the day, the...

Mournful Congregation

The Incubus of Karma

By Michael O'Brien | 02 March, 2018

In the nearly 20 years since the release of their debut full-length album, Tears from a Grieving Heart, South Australia’s Mournful Congregation has been an exemplary example of funeral doom done right, and with the exception of the ...

Machine Head

Catharsis

By Chris Gibbs | 28 February, 2018

I have been a die hard Machine Head fan since I stumbled across Burn My Eyes in January 1997. Now, just because my all time favourite band releases a new record, this does not mean it is automatically a faultless masterpiece. Ever since <...

Corrosion of Conformity

No Cross No Crown

By Chris Gibbs | 28 February, 2018

It has been 18 years since the classic Deliverance line-up of North Carolina’s Corrosion of Conformity last made a record together. That was 2000’s somewhat mediocre and commercial leaning America’s Volume Dealer

Morbid Angel

Kingdoms Disdained

By Michael O'Brien | 30 November, 2017

Though I personally think the lasting legacy of the first Tucker era of Morbid Angel is that it produced a lot of the patchier material in the band’s catalogue, the unmitigated disaster that was 2011’s Illud Divinum Insanus (w...

Godflesh

Post Self

By Simon Milburn | 22 November, 2017

After an absence of a dozen odd years, the return of U.K. based industrial pioneers Godflesh was welcomed with open arms by fans and many reviewers alike. Three years ago, after the release of a teaser EP dubbed Decline and Fall, mastermi...

All Pigs Must Die

Hostage Animal

By Simon Milburn | 21 November, 2017

You know how there are many artists out there, across the many splintered genres of metal, that like to ease you into an album? It might with some acoustic guitars, the fading in of drums, or some kind of atmospheric intro of sorts. Whatever it mi...

Cannibal Corpse

Red Before Black

By Michael O'Brien | 07 November, 2017

Cannibal Corpse will always hold a special place for me, because they were one of my primary gateways into heavy metal many moons ago; hearing "Hammer Smashed Face" on the local community radio metal show back in the day was nothing short of a rev...

Gnaw

Cutting Pieces

By Michael O'Brien | 25 October, 2017

I like to think of myself as being a pretty adventurous listener with an eclectic range of tastes, but there are limits to that adventurousness. One band that stands at the edge of those limits is the now long defunct New York drone/doom project, ...

Currents

The Place I Feel Safest

By Andrew McKaysmith | 25 September, 2017

When I had the chance to converse with Currents vocalist and front man, Brian Wille, for an interview, I was struck by how young he sounded. That’s a compliment as the musical output on The Place I Feel Safest belies both the band's...

Chelsea Wolfe

Hiss Spun

By Michael O'Brien | 21 September, 2017

Ever since I got my hands on her Unknown Rooms acoustic album back in 2012, I’ve been a pretty big fan of Chelsea Wolfe. Of the many things that draw me to her as an artist, her unpredictability is very high on the list, but that ca...

Eluveitie

Evocation II - Pantheon

By Andrew McKaysmith | 21 September, 2017

What can one possibly write about an album such as Evocation II – Pantheon by a band possessing as unique and distinct a sound as Swiss folk-metal titans, Eluveitie? Well, it’s good. Damn good. When I started writing the revie...

Contrive

Slow Dissolve

By Simon Milburn | 19 September, 2017

Melbourne (Australia) metal act Contrive aren’t exactly the most productive band around. Forming in 1999 by twins Paul and Andrew Haug who then recruited bassist Tim Stahlmann to complete their line-up, it be another six years until their ex...