It’s fitting that my first review of 2020 should be for a spicy technical death metal rebirth. I’m of course referring here to the resurgence of death metal legends Odious Mortem, who return to we the needy many after an 11-year hiatus with their third full-length effort Synesthesia. Comebacks are…
The best part about bands with a completely unique identity is the way they not only differentiate themselves from other groups, but from their own sound with each subsequent release. This trait applies directly to Dysrhythmia and the vast field of other projects involving Kevin Hufnagel (Gorguts, Vaura) and Colin…
As a band, Xoth represent a specific challenge to review: it feels impossible to concoct the right combination of words that both accurately describes the band and makes them sound as appealing as I’d like. Metal runs into this problem more often than other genres, I think. As sounds become…
Even the best tech-death has a tendency to become pretty overwhelming. As bands increasingly add more notes and elements to their repertoire, in an attempt to push the bounds of extremity and technicality, the central textures of their compositions often becomes obscured. The genre works best when bands strike the…
Last year was an exceptional year for death metal, and so far, 2019 is doing everything it can to match (and potentially exceed) that high bar. As Jonathan and I cover each month with Death’s Door, the genre has never been as diverse and adventurous as it is right now.…
Tech death is a weird branch of the metal tree. Focused primarily on performative fireworks as opposed to standard songwriting structures, the music can at times come across as highly robotic. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but for me as a listener there’s only so many insane guitar passages…
“Good artists borrow; great artists steal.” – Pablo Picasso, maybe This axiom drives metal. It only becomes more true as time’s inevitable march covers more and more ground and an increasing number of sounds are necessarily retread. I’ve written on this before in other reviews, but this holds especially true…
10 years after the release of their debut album, symphonic death metallers Fleshgod Apocalypse are back with Veleno, their fifth full-length. The veterans have done a lot in that time, from the technical death metal of Oracles and Mafia, to the over-the-top insanity of Agony, and most recently to the…
Over the past several years, few scenes in the metal world have rivaled the expansive growth and quality of the music coming out of Denver, Colorado. Khemmis, Primitive Man, Blood Incantation, Spectral Voice, In the Company of Serpents, Dreadnought, Of Feather and Bone, Allegaeon, and Green Druid are but a…
Inanimate Existence have had one hell of a journey. They drew widespread acclaim without really managing to take off following their first two records, 2011’s Liberation Through Healing and 2014’s A Never-Ending Cycle of Atonement. They made a name for themselves with their intricate compositions, labyrinthine riffs, ability to neatly…
