Tag: death metal
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Recent recommendations (from a few metal-leaning scholars)
As a Hellbound reader, you may know (or not) that your friendly neighbourhood editor is also a university professor – one who makes no secret of her metallic musical taste. Around the university, I mostly encounter people who don’t know much about metal music, who are indifferent or, occasionally, who are outright hostile to the…
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Unleashed – Dawn Of The Nine
As I write this review I am looking out over the mighty River Shannon where, centuries ago, the Vikings sailed their long ships to establish the still-thriving city of Limerick. As an Irishman, the Vikings are a big part of my cultural heritage and one I am very proud of. Vikings still strike a chord…
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Kataklysm – Of Gods and Ghosts
There is much speculation about what groove-metal band could fill the gap left by the sad demise of Pantera. On the strength of the splendidly titled Of Gods and Ghosts, Kataklysm could well be it. Good song-writing matched with top-notch playing prevails. Above all, there is muscle and melody, and that is what gives Kataklysm…
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The Apex – S/T
Straight from banks of the filthy-as-fuck Detroit River, Windsor, Ontario, four piece THE APEX bring a raw technical death attack on a Meshuggah/Dillinger Escape Plan tip to their brief but uncompromisingly brutal debut CD. Years of hard-earned road experience via past/present member tenures in CLOSED CASKET FUNERAL and CORRUPTED LEADERS (among numerous others) playing alongside…
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Wooden Stake – A Feast of Virgin Souls
I don’t often judge an album by its cover, but in the case of A Feast of Virgin Souls, I was more than a little put off by the artwork. It’s kinda like classic Cannibal Corpse, only slightly less gorey and much more misogynistic. And yet, one half of this female-fronted death/doom duo is… well,…
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Gruesome – Savage Land
How much do you love Chuck Schuldiner’s legendary band Death? How much do you love that primal, teeth-rattlin’, gut-churning death metal that Chuck helped wretch out of the Florida muck? If there is love, the actual, physical need to listen to Death’s first few albums routinely, then does that love extend to wishing that there…
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Tribulation – Children of the Night
On Tribulation’s third album, The Children of the Night, the Swedish quartet follows metal’s obsession with horror much further than their peers. On their past albums, 2009’s Swedish death explosion The Horror, followed by horse-sized hallucinogen The Formulas of Death in 2013, Tribulation showed they were onto a form of death metal as exciting as…
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Six of Swords – Polar Vortex EP
Six of Swords is a five-piece band from Toronto, Ontario. They put out an exciting demo in 2013 which was filled with the type of extreme music cuts that all brutal death metal fans would enjoy diving into. They have also been creating a buzz in the local scene, so it’s about time they release…
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Gorelust – We are the Undead
Maybe we’re not missing out after all. Twenty years late, Gorelust are following up their debut album with We are the Undead. After struggling to make a go of it in the deepening death metal pool of the mid-90s, the band dissolved for the usual reasons. Nevertheless, the story goes that about half of the…
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Idol of Fear – All Sights Affixed, Ablaze
All Sights Affixed, Ablaze from Barrie’s Idol of Fear impresses right from the get-go with “Vanquish.” It lays the foundation for the album with a black metal base. The lead guitars are fantastic. They cut through the heaviness and burrow deep in your head. Screaming and screeching, they are nonetheless nearly permanently imbedded in my…