WIZARD DEATHI Am The Night Wise Blood (2024)Rating: 7.5/10 What a high octane slab of metal this is. Three tracks of energy and power from a band fresh out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, but what makes Wizard Death even more interesting is that it’s the creation of father and son team Tim and Alex Kenefic. […]

DISSIMULATORLower Form Resistance 20 Buck Spin (2024)Rating: 8.5/10 20 Buck Spin is becoming one of the hottest labels around when it comes to extreme metal variations. The latest auditory orgasm to join the roster is Montréal, Canada-based act Dissimulator, an absolutely jarring sci-fi death-thrash explosion that harkens back to the late 80s and early 90s […]

SAVAGEDNight Stealer No Remorse (2024)Rating: 7/10 Let’s not worry about the blandness of the band name, let us instead concentrate on the album artwork and the music within. Savaged is a killer Spanish combo that delivers potent and pure metal that harkens back to Judas Priest and the likes while nodding towards today’s traditional acts […]

INQUISITIONVeneration Of Medieval Mysticism And Cosmological Violence Agonia (2024)Rating: 8/10 Here is the ninth full-length studio album from this peculiar Seattle, Washington-based band that started out in 1988. Responsible for some genuinely creepy releases, Inquisition is better known for the weird vocalisations emitted from lead man Dagon. His throaty burps are certainly an acquired taste […]

ORDERED TO KILLMetal Command EP Self-released (2024)Rating: 5/10 It looks like Municipal Waste and sounds like every other throwback thrash act that wishes they’d been around in the 80s. The latest mob of generic thrash ghouls is Brazilian band Ordered To Kill who even use vintage album titles in their lyrics. The novelty wears off […]

DRIPPING DECAYRipping Remains EP Satanik Royalty (2024)Rating: 8/10 Only six months ago these Portland, Oregon-based death metallers issued their superb debut full-length album Festering Grotesqueries, so I’m surprised they’ve re-emerged so quickly. But I’m certainly not complaining because one can never have too much grisly death metal to feast on and with Ripping Remains the […]

DISMORFIA Eclosion Repugnante (2024) Peruvian perversity abounds with the latest demo from unhinged death-grind band Dismorfia. I was a big fan of the band’s Immortal Echoes From The Unknown EP which emerged in June 2023, so it’s good to see they are back with another demo, this being their fourth in as many years. This […]

SHOW N TELLThe Ritual Has Begun No Remorse (2024)Rating: 8/10 The Ritual Has Begun is the debut full-length platter from Phoenix, Arizona-based metalheads Show N Tell who provide smoke machines, lightning strikes, thunderbolts and a whole host of nostalgic metal images. If you were around in the mid-to-late 80s then you would have revelled in […]

STONE FANGA Demonstration Of Soul Power EP Self-released (2024)Rating: 6.5/10 There has been some really striking album art in 2024 and here’s another to add to the list. A Demonstration Of Soul Power is the new EP release from Mississippi one-man band Stone Fang. This work follows on from 2023’s debut full-length album …Into The […]

REIGNFoul Territory EP Self-released (2024)Rating: 8/10 I’m blaming the bland band name for the fact I’ve not previously come across this Chicago, Illinois-based act. These thrashers formed in 2013 and have already released a brace of EPs, plus a live album – Live On WZRD 88.3 Chicago (2017) – and full-length studio outing – Destitute […]