BENEDICTION (“RAVAGE OF EMPIRES”) AND CANCER (“INVERTED WORLD”)

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May 082025
 

(Todd Manning prepared the following dual reviews of the latest albums by two UK legends, Benediction and Cancer, out now on Nuclear Blast and Peaceville, respectively.)

Resurrecting old school bands can often be a hit or miss affair. At least half, if not more than half, fail to capture anything resembling the magic of their earlier years. However, for those who do pull it off, listeners are beyond thrilled.

For some of us, the early ’90s were one of the greatest eras of metal. The death metal bands from then created such amazing music, full of brutality and a unique atmosphere. While we often hear about Swedish, New York, or Floridian death metal bands, we can’t forget the great British masters as well. Carcass and Bolt Thrower, of course, top that list, but Cancer and Benediction were important as well, and they both have new albums out. Continue reading »

LIK: “NECRO”

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May 082025
 

(Here’s DGR‘s review of the latest album by the Swedish death metal band Lik, out now on Metal Blade Records.)

We are now eleven years and four full-length albums into the death-obsessed career of Sweden’s Lik and it feels as if the group have been ever-present in one form or another. Formed right as the OSDM and Swede-death resurrections were full steam ahead, Lik have been steadily present just under the surface of the wider metal world.

There have been some decently long gaps between the group’s releases as well; a quick glance over their musical timeline suggests a pretty traditional three years or so gap between material but it always seems as if the band are always there in one’s listening habits. Perhaps it’s the fact that many of its members are spread out among larger bands like Bloodbath and Katatonia, so it seems almost inevitable that you’ll find yourself musing “Oh hey, it’s one of the guys from Lik!”

Or it could be that despite their clearly prescribed formula and tribute-paying at the altar of gore, Lik have proven themselves to be savants in the genre of death metal and happen to be particularly good at this. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ANCST / CAPITALIST / MELTING / OSTRACA

 SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
May 082025
 

(Andy Synn highlights four recent EPs he thinks you need to hear)

Today’s collection of “short but sweet” reviews features four ripping releases from across the ‘core spectrum – from blazing Blackened Metalcore and filthy, fire-breathing Crust to monstrous, Death Metal-influenced Metallic Hardcore and visceral Post-Screamo violence – which serve to remind us all that this sort of music truly lives in the moment, delivering a short, sharp (but also sweet) shock to the system devoid of pretense or pretention, each of them possessing an immediacy and intensity, as well as a sense of individuality, which makes them impossible to ignore.

Well, that’s how I feel anyway. Let’s see if you do too.

Continue reading »

FRACTAL UNIVERSE: “THE GREAT FILTERS”

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May 072025
 

(Today DGR circles back around to one of his favorite tech-death bands, the Parisian unit Fractal Universe and their new album The Great Filters, which was released by M-Theory Audio on April 4th.)

When did we settle on France’s Fractal Universe becoming tech-death’s younger brothers? Other than the part where it seems like they’ve discovered a fountain of youth and seem to appear perpetually young.

Founded in 2013, by the time of their second album Rhizomes Of Insanity Fractal Universe were already a polished and terrifically talented band, constructing songs out of guitar riffs just on the left side of bizarre and forever jagged as rocks slowly worn down by nature. Over time, they’ve become a being all their own that have absorbed as many influences as they themselves have influenced, each release some new permutating on a core sound honed well over the course of a decade.

Yet, it seems that the tale of Fractal Universe is just as much a tale of “well fuck you, I can do that too!” on every album. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: ACCEPTANCE / EMPLOYED TO SERVE / KNIVES

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May 072025
 

(Andy Synn is hoping for even bigger things for all three of these bands)

If everything has gone to plan, while you’re reading this I’m going to be in Seattle getting ready to attend another edition of Northwest Terror Fest.

And if something goes wrong?

Well, at least you’ll have this edition of “The Best of British” to remember me by.

Continue reading »

OMINOUS RUIN: “REQUIEM”

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May 062025
 

(Below we present DGR‘s review of a new album by California-based Ominous Ruin in advance of its release this coming Friday by Willowtip Records.)

Is it possible for a band to do a complete lateral in their music and yet feel as if they are starting from the same spot they stepped away from? Bay Area tech-death group Ominous Ruin have been around a little over ten years now, yet it sure does feel like with their new album Requiem the group have stepped out to soft-relaunch themselves.

You’d almost never guess it based off the gap of close to four years between releases – and a lot can happen in four years, mind – but it’s as if the Ominous Ruin crew effectively never stopped. Instead, they just did a step to the side and started over again with about the same bar in quality that they established on their album Amidst Voices That Echo In Stone as the starting point. The result is interesting, less cross-pollination among three different subsections of the tome of death metal and instead a laser-like focus on one particular chapter, the tech-death section. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

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May 052025
 

(Andy Synn highlights four album from April which may have flown under your radar)

Look, I don’t have time to talk about everything I/we missed last month, so once you’re done reading about the four bands featured here today I recommend you go check out the latest releases from Felgrave, Supreme Void, Tigerleech, and Zeicrydeus… all of whom I wanted to write about, but couldn’t find time/space for (I could easily have done a second article on them, and maybe even a third for everyone I still haven’t mentioned).

But before then… enjoy this collection of four devastatingly dark and hellishly heavy albums from last month. You might just discover your new favourite!

Continue reading »

HATE: “BELLUM REGIIS”

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Apr 302025
 

(We present DGR‘s review of the newest album from the Polish titans Hate, which is set for release this coming Friday, May 2nd, by
Metal Blade Records.)

Poland’s Hate have been a musical monolith for blackened death metal for over two decades now. They’ve become a lighthouse by which you can orient yourself, ever fixed upon land and as steady as the world could allow it to be. With thirteen albums in their arsenal, Adam and the crew of the machine named Hate have been one of, if not the most reliable sources of extreme metal around for a long time. While erecting an unscalable wall of imperial riffs and relentless double-bass drumming, they have also become a gateway into the wider expanse of the dark arts.

Hate have stayed rigidly true to their formula, such that you could pull any album post-Anaclasis from their discography and use it as a guide into blackened death metal for anyone willing to take the plunge. Few have ever attempted the sort of fiery riff work that Hate build their music out of, and because of that there’s been little reason for the group to ever shift. Hate don’t do massive artistic evolution: the Hate you see now was a Hate set in stone a while ago, already concrete and recognizable. What Hate do now is to iterate on their sound, such that there’ve been a few distinct three-to-four album arcs over the course of their career. Continue reading »

POINT MORT – LE POINT DE NON-RETOUR

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Apr 302025
 

(Andy Synn decides to shake things up a little with the genre-blending new album from Point Mort)

Whenever you’re writing about a band like Parisian “post-genre” provocateurs Point Mort – whose sound combines elements and influences from (Post) Metal, (Post) Hardcore, Alt-Pop, Rap, Electronica, and more – it’s often hard to know quite where to begin.

After all, while comparisons and references to the likes of The Ocean and Oathbreaker, Leprous and Latitudes, Rolo Tomassi and Refused are certainly valid (though by no means exhaustive) they’re never going to really capture just how defiantly – and potentially divisively – the French quartet resist easy categorisation.

But, much as an expert chef is capable of taking a concoction of ingredients that wouldn’t normally work together and turning them into a Michelin-starred meal, so too have Point Mort taken an array of sounds and styles and combined them into a delicious seven song smorgasbord named Le point de non-retour.

Continue reading »

DESERTED FEAR: “VEINS OF FIRE”

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Apr 292025
 

(Below you will find DGR‘s review of the newest album by Deserted Fear, released late last week by Testimony Records.)

Germany’s Deserted Fear have been the engine that could over the course of six albums now. A compact project that has been a three-piece for a large course of their career, the band have been a consistent mark within the world of heavy metal.

Since 2012’s My Empire, Deserted Fear have proven themselves reliable, with releases hitting like clockwork on about the two-to-three-year mark. Their artistic evolution has seen the group change over the years from a very groove-inspired and influence-worshiping branch of death metal – the classic one-two thump of swede-death and Bolt Thrower‘s primal hammering filtered through the modern era’s taste for ruthless efficiency – to something akin to a current-day melodic death metal band since the days of 2019’s Drowned By Humanity.

While the logo or their taste for artwork has remained suitably corpse-obsessed, Deserted Fear have embraced a surgical attack that has made the three-piece sound so much larger than they actually are and one that has also made them fairly easy to understand and get into a groove of your own with.

While the melodeath genre has seen its fair share of revivalism across multiple eras and numerous “influenced by the influenced by the influenced by” crews, Deserted Fear have grown more naturally into a role that could just as easily have been built for late 90’s/early 00’s era In Flames and Soilwork. Deserted Fear‘s newest album Veins Of Fire puts a big spotlight on that fact and also shows that the band have comfortably settled in as being vanguards for doing so. Continue reading »

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