Rage and Frustration

Craven Idol – The Shackles of Mammon

This album caught me by surprise, to be honest. I loved the album art from the time I saw it, but wasn’t expecting a sound so uniquely vintage yet contemporary at the same time.

The Obsessed – Sacred

All in all, just a heavy, old school, meaner version of their younger selves.

She Must Burn – Grimoire (Review and Interrogation)

Entwining brutality and beauty, with eerie keyboards and unique rhythms, seeming to blend genres with ease.

The Brood – The Truth Behind

Death-grind, black metal, and crust all jump into the mix to create an abysmal groove that will have your head banging and the pit churning in no time.

Iron Reagan – Crossover Ministry

With 18 songs and the longest coming in at a whopping 3:37, the Virginia 5-piece rips through the album in the best crossover thrash tradition.

Grond – Worship the Kraken

If this balance of aggression, speed and groove doesn’t get your blood pumping you must be dead.

With shades of many types of metal like Folk/Viking to Extreme/Death all the way to an almost progressive feel, this band shows they’re very well rounded and have many more stories for us all to hear.

Bill + Phil – Songs of Darkness and Despair

Covering the gamut from straight stoner rock to gorgeous psychedelic interludes, Songs of Darkness and Despair comfortably bridges the gap between both.

Sweat Lodge – Tokens For Hell

Tokens for Hell is groovy, cosmic music with a very Black Sabbath feel. Except it’s on acid.

Doctor Livingstone – Triumphus Haeretici

To understand the album, give yourself an hour plus where you can sit and absorb the entirety without interruption. Your patience and effort will be rewarded with an album remarkable in its dark passion.

Arduini/Balich – Dawn of Ages

The album delivers torrents of guitars, deluge after deluge of roar and wail, with riffs that are more often engaging and accessible than dizzying and speed-driven.

Fen – Winter

My favorite albums are ones that present a cohesive vision and Fen have certainly delivered this in spades.

Tumourboy – Damaged System

Listening to Damaged System, released in early 2016, was like taking a trip to the 1980’s only without the stone-washed denim and Aquanet hair.

Black Anvil – As Was

With their fourth full length release As Was, Black Anvil is fast becoming the US answer to Enslaved (as a huge fan of the latter, this is not a comparison I make lightly).

Sunlight’s Bane – The Blackest Volume: Like All The Earth Was Buried

This album may be the darkest cleansing fire I have ever witnessed.

Obituary – Obituary

Long-time Obituary fans will be very happy with the variety on the album and it may even be enough to win back some fans that left them for dead.

Behind the Sun – Post Solis

North Carolina’s Behind the Sun deliver a blistering five songs full of the heavy riffs, rhythmic shifts, and choral ensembles of growl not unknown in the prog side of death metal.

Stories Through Storms – What Keeps Me Up At Night (Interview and Review)

Featuring two vocalists, each track switches smoothly between metal screams, melodic verses, and rap choruses creating a sound unlike other metalcore bands.