Tag Archives: old-school death metal

ALBUM REVIEW: Master – Saints Dispelled

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It is fitting that 2024 finds the resurgence of death metal gathering even more momentum as death spreads across the globe. Death is a logical progression to the cycle of life, so death metal should be a celebration of this. Paul Speckmann has shown up to this celebration with this 14th album as Master. At sixty, he shows little sign of slowing down. Is it more deliberate than their 1990 album? Yes, but the songwriting is more polished. This album is a study on the roots of death metal, so prepare to take notes, there will be a quiz.Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Sepulchral Curse – Abhorrent Dimensions

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A mere two full-lengths in, Finnish Death Metal outfit Sepulchral Curse sound and feel right at home with what they’re out to accomplish and Abhorrent Dimensions (Transcending Obscurity) digs deep into the annals of grotesquery and emerges as a festering titan of slop.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Autopsy – Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts

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Autopsy is a band that understands itself. Like spiritual death metal brethren Cannibal Corpse, the band has core musical, thematic and visual staples you can almost always depend on (the poo-chomping album cover of Shitfun being an outlier). Think Autopsy, think the evil, Black Sabbath-inspired tri-tones, pulverising percussion, slow, menacing crawls blended with charging gallops, malevolent guitar lines, bowel-loosening bass, squealing bursts of lead guitar and rasping vocals, all tied up in a bloody bow of bodies being monstrously torn to pieces.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Thorn – Evergloom

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Allow me to go out on a limb here: the bathroom floor of a frat house on a Saturday night/Sunday morning has less bacteria and filth than Thorn’s newest record. But don’t be fooled into thinking Evergloom (Transcending Obscurity Records) is solely reliant on gag-inducing landscapes. The collective is armed with an innate ability to devise structured songs that possess personality and conjure truly frightening thoughts.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Celestial Sanctuary- Insatiable Thirst For Torment

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In an ever-increasingly rich and exciting underground Death Metal scene in the UK, Celestial Sanctuary have been a prominent standard bearer and the ones most likely to break out to bigger things. 2021’s Soul Diminished was a case of a very strong debut album which also showed strong potential to be realised and was backed up with some feverishly received live outings, with the band maximising their opportunities with the likes of Undeath, so expectations on the follow up were always going to be high. Expectations which have been well and truly smashed with the immensely realised Insatiable Thirst For Torment (Church Road Records).

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ALBUM REVIEW: Autopsy – Morbidity Triumphant

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Artificial intelligence is a concept seemingly ever-present in the modern day. But nobody talks about when musical instruments become sentient and develop their own mannerisms and consciousness.

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EP REVIEW: Massacre – Mythos

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Continuing the theme which occupied much of 2021’s Resurgence (Nuclear Blast) album, Floridian death metal act Massacre returns with four more tracks based on the works of influential Rhode Island science fiction horror author HP Lovecraft.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Genocide Pact – Genocide Pact

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The guitars are mud caked in a morass of molasses. The vocal performance is, dare I say, a clinic on how to spew the wretched filth that is old school Death Metal. The omnipresent drums never interfere but simply carve out the route for the rest to follow. Stir all that up in a cauldron with a hint of disgust and a touch of revulsion and the end result is Genocide Pact’s newest self-titled album (Relapse Records), and with it, eight tracks of nineties-era muck and grime.

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Memoriam – Requiem for Mankind

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Memoriam Requiem for Mankind (Nuclear Blast) is Memoriam’s third album in as many years. The first album For the Fallen was great if a bit slow, punchy drums, thick guitar tones wrapped up with some nice production. The follow-up to The Silent Vigil was personally somewhat disappointing, a lot faster and more aggressive songwriting, which is always welcome, but it failed to capitalise on the excellent ideas with a quite thin production. Continue reading →


Abnormality – Sociopathic Constructs

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For millennia, civilizations around the world have passed on the harrowing folklore of mermaids for generations. The chilling tales of these murderous sirens luring unsuspecting sailors to a watery grave with their enchantingly ethereal voices have captivated people across many cultures for centuries. These tales serve as a testament to – not only how powerful a voice can be – but also how important the voice is as an instrument. And if you’re an Abnormality fan, you know this to be very true especially in the case of their new album, Sociopathic Constructs (Metal Blade Records).

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