Morbid Angel

Vltimas – EPIC Review

Vltimas – EPIC Review

“International supergroup Vltimas crashed upon the Earth early in 2015, dropping their well-received debut roughly four years later. Comprised of Morbid Angel’s very own David Vincent at the mic, Cryptopsy’s Flo Mounier manning the kit, and Aura Noir’s Rune “Blasphemer” Eriksen slinging axe, the project deals in grooving, swaggering blackened death metal singing Satan’s praises and glorifying the destruction of all the world. You know, the usual.” Super epic?

Skeletal Remains – Fragments of the Ageless Review

Skeletal Remains – Fragments of the Ageless Review

“In the realm of reliable old school death metal, Skeletal Remains looms large. Over their decade-plus existence, they’ve provided quality, high-energy brutality with strong similarities to classic Morbid Angel and pre-prog/pre-AI fetish Pestilence. Albums like Condemned to Misery and The Entombment of Chaos brought the bat and the boots to the beatdown and gave fans everything they could want. They’re masters of the basic death metal experience and don’t dabble too much with their sound from album to album.” Morbid bones.

Morta Skuld – Creation Undone Review

Morta Skuld – Creation Undone Review

“Wisconsin’s Morta Skuld have been dragging their nasty cave knuckles for so long, even their fingerprints have worn off. In existence on and off since 1990, these old school warriors have been a fairly reliable if not super prolific source of no-frills, beefbrained death metal. Their early works exuded an oily, swampy charm with a sound ripped from the classic Necrophagia and Obituary playbooks. Later albums like Wounds Deeper Than Time and 2020s Suffer for Nothing were much more furious, pummeling affairs, with elements of Vader, Malevolent Creation, and Jungle Rot in their flavor profile.” Come (violently) undone.

Pestilength – Solar Clorex Review

Pestilength – Solar Clorex Review

“Last we met the secretive Basque duo Pestilength, they had released their second full-length Basom Gryphos, an album that was appropriately slimy and punishing but fell by the wayside due to its scattershot compositions and unashamed Portal worship. Its potential was there, lurking beneath the surface like eldritch grandiosity yet to be awoken, but the right combination of incantations and blasphemies were needed to truly wreak havoc on mankind. In many ways, what Pestilength does is braver than dissodeath acts of similar ilk, refusing to shroud its riffs in murk or atmosphere and letting the chord progressions do the talking – putting added pressure on the string attack.” Clorexing the murk.

Engulf – The Dying Planet Weeps Review

Engulf – The Dying Planet Weeps Review

“New year, new sponge, same gig. What a better way to kick off 2024 than with some brutal, slightly proggy, slightly technical death metal! How serendipitous it was, then, that Engulf finally dropped their debut LP The Dying Planet Weeps upon my eager lap. Complete with very nice artwork and a remarkably rich and warm production, The Dying Planet Weeps aims to make a mockery of my scoring average as early in the year as it possibly can.” Engulfed by overratings.

Phobocosm – Foreordained Review

Phobocosm – Foreordained Review

“Montreal’s mega-heavy death metal merchants Phobocosm have a distinguished track record here at AMG, scoring high marks both times they were featured. It’s been a long time since their last appearance for 2016s Bringer of Drought, which Lord Kronos himself blessed with a righteous 3.5. He appreciated their nods to Incantation and Ulcerate and the no-nonsense way they steamroll and crush the listener with grim atmospheres and a massively heavy sound. Not the most productive of acts, nearly 7 years have creaked by since then, but we’re finally poised to receive third album, Foreordained.” Fear of caverns.

Alchemy of Flesh – By Will Alone Review

Alchemy of Flesh – By Will Alone Review

“The last time we saw Alchemy of Flesh around these parts, the project was peddling video game-themed Floridian death metal, and good video game-themed Floridian death metal at that. Tim Rowland is the one man behind this one-man band, and he impressed me with Alchemy of Flesh’s debut record, Ageless Abominations, a record that leaned heavily on Rowland’s love of all things Morbid Angel. Just a little over two years later, Rowland and Alchemy of Flesh are back, this time promising an experience that is “a lot more intense and demanding.” Lead to death gold.

Sulphur Aeon – Seven Crowns and Seven Seals Review

Sulphur Aeon – Seven Crowns and Seven Seals Review

Sulphur Aeon is, as of this writing, my favorite extreme metal band. Their first three releases—the brutal Swallowed by the Ocean’s Tide, the incredible Gateway to the Antisphere, and the unforgettable The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos—represent a truly unfuckwithable hot streak of ridiculously high caliber records. So deep is my love for these German worshippers of eldritch deities that, quite frankly, it’s almost a conflict of interest for me to cover them. Yet here I am, determined to provide the public with what they deserve: a proper and thorough review of Sulphur Aeon’s upcoming fourth opus,Seven Crowns and Seven Seals.” Tendril loving care.

Disguised Malignance – Entering the Gateways Review

Disguised Malignance – Entering the Gateways Review

“I’ve talked at length about my distaste for overly progressive music, and no genre draws my ire for incorporating unnecessary fluff more than death metal. I’d even go a step further and say that I really don’t enjoy much “beauty” or “fun” in my death metal at all; just give me the raw, stinking sewage and keep your melodic and atmospheric death metals. Of course, this is all just personal preference, but I can’t stand when bands like Blood Incantation, Tomb Mold, or even the mighty Death add so much experimentation that the songs cease to exist as songs, becoming instead exercises for demonstrating technical ability and/or progressive sensibility.” Ugly down to the death bone.