Reviews
Welcome to Reviews, where you'll find 4408 reviews for albums & demos, band & concert DVDs, and films. Some are fun, some are informative, some are just downright mean, but they're all uncensored and untainted by outside elements. In other words: you can trust them to be honest.
Latest Album Reviews
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Harlots Betrayer Lifeforce Records 2007 |
Uggh, spazzy deathcore. Harlots aren’t going to be winning my heart over with their latest effort, Betrayer. For the last couple of years I’ve become convinced that this style of metal has caused the scene to become extremely watered down and far less credible. Though by no means is Harlots responsible for the birth of this sound... Read More » |
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Volition Volition Total Rust 2008 |
Volition’s self-titled debut comprises eight tracks of heavy doom/death that span nearly a full hour. Unlike many in the scene, however, these guys don’t reach for any bleak black metal influences and avoid songs longer than ten minutes, which makes a world of difference in digestibility and variety on the disc. Sure, there’s plenty of pain and suffering... Read More » |
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Highgate Untitled Total Rust 2008 |
Following in the vein of Burning Witch and Thorr’s Hammer, Kentucky’s Highgate punish us with their one-song, self-titled debut. Nearly 54 minutes of agonizing, heavy, screamed, slow doom awaits and if you’re patient enough, have a penchant for masochism and an ear for scarily heavy sludge/doom/death, you may even get a kick out of the bleakness captured here. ... Read More » |
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Zero Hour Dark Deceiver Sensory Records 2008 |
It’s on Sensory, so you can almost expect to have someone’s dick about eight feet inside your ear, fucking your brain to absolute mush. That’s to be expected from this label, and the aural-cock-lobotomy you’ll experience on Dark Deceiver comes from none other than Zero Hour (who?). Yeah, I’d never heard of these guys before either, but with... Read More » |
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The Ghost Inside Fury and the Fallen Ones Metal Blade 2008 |
Whereas I would normally relish the chance to rip The Ghost Inside a new orifice for playing derivative metalcore, Fury and the Fallen Ones has something to it that puts my disgust on hold just long enough to enjoy a few of their tasty riffs before becoming frustrated with their rote breakdowns and simplistic song structures. Yeah, you’ll recognize... Read More » |
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IXXI Assorted Armament 2008 |
IXXI are a thrashy black metal outfit from Sweden. The best description I can think of would be a cleaner Carpathian Forest, at least for the first two thirds of the album. The vocals are akin to a raspier Tom Warrior, right down to the occasional *EUGH!*, do not regard that as a complaint. The riffs have... Read More » |
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Incarnate Exist to Extinct Independent Release 2006 |
Finland’s Incarnate release their second demo-like, self-financed album, Exist to Extinct. Aside from the clumsy album title, the eight tracks that make up this disc totally rip. The band seamlessly mix deathy thrash with vocals that land somewhere between black metal and gore for maximum effect. Sounding like a blend of Sodom or Kreator with Exhumed but... Read More » |
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Unleashed Hammer Battalion SPV 2008 |
In the old school of Swedish death metal, most of our favorite icons can be separated into convenient sub-genres such as the Gothenburg melodic death and Stockholm rough 'n' tumble. In the midst of these figures stands an uncompromising abberation--Unleashed--led by the incomparably boisterous archetype of the blond Viking metal bloke, Johnny Hedlund. His is a name no less iconic... Read More » |
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Kult ov Azazel The World, The Flesh & The Devil Arctic Music Group 2004 |
Kult of Azazel is up to their usual tricks, namely tons of blastbeats, raspy vocals and chainsaw guitars. However they are kind enough to also throw in enough bass to keep the album from hurting your ears. That said you already know this album well if you're a fan of the band as it sounds pretty much like... Read More » |
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Day Without Dawn Day Without Dawn Independent Release 2006 |
About 7 years ago (before researching I was thinking it was only 4 or 5 maximum), I stumbled across the song "Amputees Make Bad Swimmers: Chapter I" by a band called The Postman Syndrome. I swear I must have played that song a few thousand times over the next few months, but sadly the band fizzled out and I never... Read More » |
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Paradox Heresy 2007 |
MetalMind has done it again! Another great, but largely underappreciated gem unearthed for those of us that weren't around the first time or just need a fresh copy!
Heresy is Paradox's second album and follow-up to their solid debut, Product of Imagination. Heresy more or less takes the mix of speed, thrash and power metal of their debut and intensifies... Read More » |
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Paradox Product of Imagination 2007 |
Originally released in 1987, Product of Imagination has now been re-issued by the folks at MetalMind 20 years later!
Product of Imagination is the debut full-length from German thrash mongers, Paradox. It is a high-energy affair that finds the middle ground between Kreator's scathing attack and the more melodic leanings of Helloween. You get bits and pieces of thrash, speed, and... Read More » |
Latest Video Reviews
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At the Pulse of Kapitulation - Live in East Berlin 1990 SPV 2008 |
Kreator and SPV did a real bang up job with this reissue here. It not only contains the reissue of the old VHS Hallucinative Comas and Live in East Berlin, but they also include a documentary about the East Berlin show and an audio disc of the Live in East Berlin set. They spared no expense or pain... Read More » |
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Metal Mania 2007 Metal Mind Records 2008 |
Spanning black, folk, thrash, death and traditional metal across one DVD and even another CD, the latter featuring the smaller acts from the side stage, Metal Mind Productions' MetalMania 2007 collection offers up a bit of everything for a bit of everyone. Featuring footage from Sepultura, Korpiklaani, Vital Remains, Destruction, Blaze Bayley and a plethora of Testament - the headliner... Read More » |
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And Blood Was Shed In Warsaw Metal Mind Records 2007 |
Vader playing live in their home country, Poland, should be an incredible, inspired event in which the crowd and the band look enthused beyond belief. There should be massive mosh pits, insane guitar heroics, pyrotechnics and enthusiasm unlike anything I’ve witnessed at a stateside Vader show. Either the seven cameras zooming around capturing the footage were missing the... Read More » |
Latest Show Reviews
Latest Film Reviews
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Saw IV Lions Gate 2007 |
Jigsaw returns for the fourth edition of the Saw franchise, except, he’s dead!? When you open a film with the main villain in the morgue and proceeds through one of the most ghastly autopsies ever captured to celluloid, you know there is either going to be a massive let down, or one hell of an explanation. To my utter shock,... Read More » |
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Cloverfield 2008 |
Okay lads, another movie review, this time for the insanely over-hyped “Cloverfield” (at least insanely over-hyped over at Ain’t It Cool News). To cut to the quick, the movie is decent, but it is not scary and it is not groundbreaking. If any of you have seen the Gamera films directed by Shusuke Kaneko, you’re already familiar with the theme... Read More » |
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Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem 20th Century Fox 2007 |
I’m firing off this quickie review in effort to save you a few bucks if you haven’t taken the bait yet (and I confess that I swallowed the cheese based on the violent trailer that was released for this flick). AVP:R isn’t as bad as most critics would have you believe (of course, many of them are saying that viewing... Read More » |