Death metal horror agents Ghoulhouse whip up another dozen songs for their frothing fans: Fresh Out Of Flesh. Sweden’s Ghoulhouse has been around for a few years, I’m not sure how long. They released a full-length album in 2020, Rigor Mortis Intermezzo, and then a split the following year with Dead Animal. Returning now to ..read more

The debut full-length album from Chicago’s Earthburner is Permanent Dawn. Earthburner has its origin almost a quarter of a century ago, rising from the embers of Broken Hope. The death metal band did record some music a long while back, but this album will be the first widespread and thorough release of their canon. I ..read more

The Beg To Serve Tour is underway with The Black Dahlia Murder, Dying Fetus, Vomit Forth, AngelMaker, and Spite – one of the strongest lineups currently on the road. Milwaukee has a solid reputation for heavy metal, and one of the best places to catch a show is at The Rave. It is a sprawling ..read more

Florida hardcore band Bodysnatcher drop a new EP on the unsuspecting world, Vile Conduct. Ten years in, Melbourne, Florida grinders Bodysnatcher have left a permanent mark on the heavy music scene. Their most recent full-length album, Bleed-Abide (2022), brought chaos and destruction, and the new follow-up EP pushes that result even farther. The band is ..read more

Underground metal rampage Nails bang out their fourth, Every Bridge Burning. Nails reaches back to 2007 in Oxnard, California. I would call their music hardcore or grindcore, probably. Powerviolence, maybe. It is monstrous heavy metal delivered at speed with an inherent catchiness, somehow, making their music stand apart from other bands. Nails has a couple ..read more

Grindcore duo Concrete Winds come at you hard on their third album, the reflectively titled Concrete Winds. From the back alleys of Helsinki, Finland, Concrete Winds has been a thing since 2019. They play an hysterical brand of death metal / grindcore / hardcore that causes the fillings in your teeth to vibrate until the ..read more

Canadian grindcore band Apes release their second full-length album, Penitence. Starting out in 2012, Apes’ music is rooted in grindcore, infusing more and more hardcore and black metal as they went along. They have released three EPs and an earlier long-player, Lightless, in 2017. I hear a lot of death metal when I listen to this music, propelled along by the hardcore lines and tempered with dark black metal. The combination is intoxicating, and it appeals broadly to a wide range of heavy music fans. The band is Alexandre Goulet (vocals), Patrick Cloutier (guitar), Simon Olivier (guitar), Lo ..read more

The invasion continues as Embryonic Autopsy release their second album, Origins Of The Deformed. Embryonic Autopsy is a Chicago death metal band that has been around for just a few years. They released their debut attack, Prophecies of the Conjoined, in 2022. The music on that album hits you before you even listen to it if you read the song titles: “Cannibalized By Octuplets,” “Craving of the Mutated Fetus,” and “Cauterized Womb Impalement,” to name but three. The new record walks along the path hewn by its predecessor, as “the band continues to bring the listener the raw and powerful sound t ..read more

Death metal rained down hard and heavy at The Forge on Thursday night from Dying Fetus, along with 200 Stab Wounds, Kruelty, and Full Of Hell. Dying Fetus On their latest tour, Baltimore grindcore band Dying Fetus brought along three very different acts ranging from noise to straight-up death metal. While I have seen Dying Fetus performances live many times, I had never witnessed any of the supporting groups in person. The opening band was Kruelty, a death-doom/hardcore quartet from Tokyo. I have heard most of their albums, demos, splits, and EPs, so I had some idea what was coming. Neverthele ..read more

The new split from Merked and Kageneko is a noisy wonderland. Merked describe themselves and their music this way, “We’re three friends in Oakland alleviating the boredom of life by spending our time creating that new sound you’ve been looking for. A nice mixture of PV, grind, and hardcore.” They are underselling it a little bit, because the music sounds like more than a hobby to me. They have put out a couple of long-players, Merked (2021) and Murk Job (2022), and an earlier split with Slag. Merked is Ill Will (drums), Fedge (bass), and Yong-Sung (guitar, vocals). There are fourteen tracks o ..read more