Unique Leader Records

Cytotoxin -Gammageddon Review

Cytotoxin -Gammageddon Review

Cytotoxin, back five years after 2012’s Radiophobia and thankfully not much altered. The same slammy riffing, the same unsparing vocals, the same troubling nuclear disaster fetishism, and the same hyper-fast sweep picked leads – but this time there’s more of them.” Kronos is back, and so is Cytotoxin. What a day!

Hideous Divinity – Adveniens Review

Hideous Divinity – Adveniens Review

“Few could argue that the current Italian extreme metal scene is in poor health. Synthesizing a mixture of brutality and technicality to topple all manner of Renaissance genius, a cornucopia of bands have thundered from the woodwork in the last decade or so to propagate their brand of air-tight demolition. That said, as much as I love a good aural beating, I also require a pinch of musicality to help differentiate from the faceless hordes. Hideous Divinity, a band whose lineup includes current and former members of Aborted and Hour of Penance, have occasionally toed a fine line for me.” Tech-death from the old country.

Inanimate Existence – Calling From a Dream Review

Inanimate Existence – Calling From a Dream Review

“Advice is a tricky thing, really. I try to give only when asked and take only what’s given freely, but the general advice economy moves much faster than I like to. So instead of giving advice, I prefer to just point out issues and have people come up with their own solutions. This works well when you’re reviewing music since most of the job is explaining why that music isn’t as good as it could be. A case in point would be the last album from Inanimate Existence, A Never-Ending Cycle of Atonement, an album about which I had many complaints.” Is this an atonement?

Dawn of Demise – The Suffering Review

Dawn of Demise – The Suffering Review

Dawn of Demise, the irrepressible death dealers of Danish chunk, return after a quiet few years with their fourth LP of groove-driven brutality, entitled The Suffering. The boys have obviously been feeding on extra chunky hunks of beef and holding the potatoes, as The Suffering offers up another carnivorous serving of muscular, protein-fueled death in the tradition of the band’s solid previous work, including A Force Unstoppable and Rejoice in Vengeance. If Neanderthal’s had access to audio technology and the wonders of metal, Dawn of Demise would be at the top of their playlist.” Let’s go clubbin’.

Internal Suffering – Cyclonic Void of Power Review

Internal Suffering – Cyclonic Void of Power Review

“Don’t be surprised if this is the first you’ve seen of an album from Internal Suffering. The long-running Colombian brutal death metal band has been silent for the past ten years, shuffling from city to city without releasing so much as an EP. And I’m fine with that, seeing as much of their previous output was not to my liking. 2006’s Awakening of the Rebel was naught but a smear of blast beats to me, and the continuous aggression of their music largely defeated itself. Cyclonic Void of Power, however, is a step in the right direction.” Is this the dawn of Vagabond metal?

First Fragment – Dasein Review

First Fragment – Dasein Review

“I’d like to begin this review by discussing the gigantic fucking roll that French-Canadian guitarist Phillipe Tougas is currently on. Starting with last year’s release from Serocs, he has played on three downright kickass albums, all favorably reviewed on this very website. His work with Zealotry gained my notoriously stingy tech/prog-death approval, and his bizarre Timeghoul and Demilich-inspired project Chthe’ilist is almost certainly going to make the Kronos year-end list. And as if all of that wasn’t enough, his longest-running band, the neoclassically-inspired tech-death outfit First Fragment, is finally dropping their first full-length album.” Kronos is so cute when he’s not bashing tech-death production techniques.

Katalepsy – Gravenous Hour Review

Katalepsy – Gravenous Hour Review

“Slam’s audio palette isn’t especially varied. The death metal setup – already instrumentally optimized for a pretty particular group of timbres – tuned down and sometimes pitchshifted into an almost inaudibly low register doesn’t give you much to work with in terms of tone diversity, which is why so many slam bands have tight, grating snares and so many slam riffs go all in on pinch harmonics. And when Katalepsy go all in, I mean all in.” Go big or go home.