BATUnder The Crooked Claw Nuclear Blast (2024)Rating: 7/10 Under The Crooked Claw is the first full-length studio outing in eight years for this Richmond, Virginia-based trio. What really turned me on to this clan was the music video I saw a few months back for the song ‘Rite For Exorcism’. The track is so damn […]
ROTTEN TOMBThe Relief Of Death Death Division Rituals (2024)Rating: 8/10 As with a majority of Chilean extreme metal bands, Rotten Tomb strips flesh with sophomore full-length effort, The Relief Of Death. The band have become somewhat stalwarts of the South American scene having been around since 2016, although it was only two years ago that […]
WARLORDFree Spirit Soar High Roller (2024)Rating: 8.5/10 Forty-three years after their formation, Los Angeles heavyweights Warlord release their fifth full-length studio opus, albeit an album featuring just one original member in the form of drummer Mark Zonder (aka Thunder Child). Having been with the band since 2013, bassist Philip Bynoe is now somewhat of a […]
SEBASTIAN BACHChild Within The Man Reigning Phoenix Music (2024)Rating: 9/10 Forget about the youths going wild, the glorious return of former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach in his mid-50s causes the same tingle down the spine as his solo monster Angel Down from 2007 as well as signalling another raucous step back into the fold. […]
RIOT VMean Streets Atomic Fire (2024)Rating: 7.5/10 The moniker may be modified, the cover art more contemporary and the line-up bereft of original members, but New York City’s Riot V (who began life as Riot in 1975) continues to rock hard, even if lead single ‘Feel The Fire’ is a bit of a mid-tempo plodder […]
UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATSNell’ Ora Blu Rise Above (2024)Rating: 9/10 Continuing their strange journey, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats still prompt me to sort through my 60s and 70s VHS horror selection, only this time drawing my attention to the giallo genre via Italian master Dario Argento. With this, the Cambridge, England-based band’s sixth […]
SIX FEET UNDERKilling For Revenge Metal Blade (2024)Rating: 4/10 Six Feet Under just cannot catch a break and over the span of their career they have become somewhat the Nickelback of the death metal genre. Every time the guys release an album I almost feel sorry for them because there always seems to be a […]
NECROPHAGIAMoribundis Grim Time To Kill (2024)Rating: 5.5/10 I honestly don’t know how I feel about a posthumous Necrophagia opus. The album is basically haunted by the last vocal recordings of founder Killjoy (who passed away in March 2018), the result being a somewhat patchy affair littered with rough but certainly not ready demo recordings where […]
VATICINAL RITESCascading Memories Of Immortality Everlasting Spew (2024)Rating: 8/10 After a solid start in 2021 with their self-titled debut EP, London, England-based death metal throng Vaticinal Rites finally embarks on a full-length. Of all the UK acts within the genre doing the rounds these guys are one of the more overlooked, but after giving this […]
GRAVE GHOULThe House Of Dead Flesh EP Dismal Fate (2024)Rating: 7/10 Ryan Wills (Blood Rage / Seven Doors / Bludgeoned Beyond Reason) is turning into a one man death metal machine. His creative juices continue to flow with this, the second EP from his gore-crusted Grave Ghoul project. After last year’s Living Burial Ground, Wills […]
