Jan 312019
 

 

Don’t worry, I’m not going to make a habit of jamming four songs together in these installments of the list (tomorrow, there will only be two more). But I was convinced that putting these four tracks together was exactly the right thing to do. Apart from being infectious (duh), they’re all lethal forms of death metal savagery, with spectacular soloing, excitingly malignant vocals, head-cracking rhythms, and killer riffs discharged through a certain kind of chainsawing guitar tone that many of us lap up with glee.

Not coincidentally, I wrote about all of them when they first appeared, and even premiered three of them, so this gives me plenty of chances to quote myself, which is always a real pleasure.

MORGENGRAU

Nick Keller created the album art for the new second full-length by the Austin-based death metal band Morgengrau — and he did his usual spectacular job. Only part of his creation is shown above. More is visible here: Continue reading »

Apr 192018
 

 

There’s garden-variety carnage, with cracked bones and mangled flesh, and then there’s Supreme Carnage, with exploded heads and torsos stomped into a chunky unrecognizable mess. You could expire peacefully in your bed at a ripe old age, and then there are especially Morbid Ways To Die. Supreme Carnage will teach you some of them.

This German old-school death metal band, who have taken their prime influences from the likes of Gorefest, Entombed, Bolt Thrower, Asphyx, and Bloodbath, have already discharged an impressive discography, which includes their 2013 debut album Quartering the Doomed and 2015’s Sentenced By the Cross, but on their forthcoming third record — which of course is entitled Morbid Ways To Die — they sound like they’ve reached a new zenith of audio slaughtering.

The first premiere from the new album (“The Fire Prevails”) was launched at DECIBEL, and we’re very happy to be the bearers of the second one through a lyric video — which is the album’s striking title track. Continue reading »

Feb 112016
 

Supreme Carnage-Sentenced By the Cross

 

In mid-December we had the pleasure of premiering a full stream of Sentenced By the Cross, the new album by Germany’s Supreme Carnage, which has now been released by Redefining Darkness Records. Today we bring you another Supreme Carnage premiere — the new video for one of the album’s hard-hitting songs: “Skin Turns Black“.

“Skin Turns Black” is a great example of why Sentenced By the Cross is so much fun. It affects your head in many different ways: It slugs you in the head; it gets your head banging; and it’s laced with a dark melody that gets stuck in your head. It’s death metal that’s both grim and galloping, mixing heavy grooves and racing riffs with seductive guitar leads and a scintillating solo. Continue reading »

Dec 172015
 

Supreme Carnage-Sentenced By the Cross

 

On December 18, Redefining Darkness Records will release Sentenced By the Cross, the new album by Germany’s Supreme Carnage, and today, on the eve of its release, we bring you a full stream of the entire album.

This is music for fans who want lots of juicy red meat in their death metal. It’s not overly complex or wildly inventive. The approach to song-writing is straight forward, with traditional verse-chorus structures. And though they’re from Germany, the band have clearly aligned themselves with old-school legends from the Swedish school such as Asphyx, Grave, Entombed, and Bloodbath — with an embracing of Bolt Thrower as well.

But although Supreme Carnage aren’t out to reinvent the wheel, they are very, very good at what they’ve chosen to do, and Sentenced By the Cross is tremendously satisfying from beginning to end — the songs are heavy as hell, compulsively headbangable, and ridiculously infectious. Continue reading »