Thanatotherion may be an unknown band, but the main brain power behind this project, Ominous Droning, has also made a name as Shelby Lermo of Ulthar. But it was clear from the start that Alien Manifesto wasn’t going to be a journey through space, but rather a direct confrontation with a monster. Lions and tigers and Bobo bears and one man black metal, oh my! Ok, ok, it’s blackened thrash. Trust us, it makes a difference.
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Darkthrone – It Beckons Us All……. Review
Metalligator likes A Blaze in the Northern Sky as much as the next reptile or person (Transilvanian who-now?), but with the opinion that Darkthrone albums are always hit or miss, despite their charm, will it really beckon the gator?
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The Last of Lucy – Godform Review
As our resident expert for everything death, tech, and brutal, will Scuttlegoat be the easiest candidate for reviewing an album that he knows he won’t enjoy? Or is that kind of masochism only reserved for a certain black metal loving bat? Will this be The Last of Scuttlegoat or will he transcend into Godform?
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Crawl – Altar of Disgust Review
Having listened to an obscene amount of death metal, a lot of it including Swedeath over the years, I’ve reached a point in my metal journey where I see a new Swedeath album and groan, because it’s most likely going to be another band beating an extremely dead horse. Dead horses makes Cosmo mad!
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Maere – …and the Universe Keeps Silent Review
The best works of dissonant avant-garde metal shed the harmonic framework of power chords, blues scales and chord-scale approaches to soloing to explore something else. Maere, however, do not manage the feat of deconstruction, an approach that, after the old structures have broken down, needs something additional in the new space. That is to say, the fancy prance of a young buck isn’t always enough to sway our Goat.
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Manasseh – Tunneling to Paradiso Review
Manasseh, a new dark ambient/folk project spearheaded by Patrick Brown (Herxheim, ex-Howls of Ebb), seeks to be a meditative piece that portrays a soundscape of someone digging down to paradise on their debut record Tunneling to Paradiso. But will this tunnel lead to auditory bliss or despondency?
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Second Shooter – Fury Made Flesh Review
Nowadays, when the progressive descriptor is added to melodic death metal, this means that the songs are longer without any good reason. You would be hard pressed to find a modern melodic death metal band that is creative or that looks outside its own box. Second Shooter are a band that look back instead. Are they shooting for the stars, or looking back in fury?
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Apogean – Cyberstrictive Review
Wasting no time with an intro piece, this album kicks off with “Bluelight Sonata”, which does a good job showcasing what Apogean does correctly: hooky, catchy riffs. Unlike their contemporaries in the tech death scene, this band focuses more on writing riffs than writing wanksterpieces. But is that enough to get a high score from the eggplant bat?
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Cyberaktif – eNdgame Review
Sophomore Cyberaktif album eNdgame arrives with a ton of history resting on its shoulders, with some of its songs beginning life as a Skinny Puppy album that never saw release. Industrial history lesson from Metalligator to get this weekend started!
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Crypts of the Unknown: Bound and Gagged – Fornicate the Gutted
