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Fleshgod Apocalypse – Agony (Nuclear Blast, 2011)
The relationship between metal and classical music has always been a highly dubious one. From various shredders claiming to have been inspired by the great composers, to Metallica’s clunky-as-hell...
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Oodles of Brutals: A descent into the putrid bowels of technical, brutal and...
Technical death metal, brutal death metal, slam death metal… it’s all sort of one big subgenre mish-mash to me; bands classified as one of these often have elements of one or both of the other two in...
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Expurgate – Dementia Tremens (Comatose Music, 2013)
Expurgate have been brutalizing the planet since 2010, but are just now getting around to releasing Dementia Tremens, their first full length via Comatose Music. What we have here is a textbook example...
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Defeated Sanity – Passages into Deformity (Willowtip, 2013)
2013 is already shaping up to be quite the brutal year for Willowtip Records; not only do they have a new album from Wormed on the way, but they’re also releasing a skull-caving gem of German heaviness...
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Dying Fetus – Reign Supreme (Relapse, 2012)
There isn’t a band in existence that does technical, moshy, brutal death metal better than Dying Fetus. Sure, John Gallagher and his ever-changing lineup have had their ups and downs, but since paring...
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Oodles of Brutals II: Guttural Boogaloo
Well friends, it’s time once again to wallow in the gore-soaked cesspool of brutal/tech/slam death metal. A few THKD readers seemed to really dig part one of this series, so I thought I’d crank out a...
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Wormed – Exodromos (Willowtip, 2013)
Hard to believe it’s been a decade since Wormed took us into the maw of the death metal black hole with Planisphaerium; in that time, numerous bands have attempted to rip off the quintet’s science...
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Broken Hope – Omen of Disease (Century Media, 2013)
In spite of kicking around the death metal scene since 1988, Chicago’s Broken Hope rarely get their due in underground circles. These wholesome, well-mannered Midwestern boys made good have often...
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Benighted – Carnivore Sublime (Season of Mist, 2014)
There are brutal death metal bands, and then there’s Benighted. The French five-piece do everything they possibly can to shit all over the subgenre’s rule book by crafting catchy songs that you can...
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Oodles of Brutals III: Tech Death and Other Delights
It’s been quite a while since I did one of these (over a year, to be slightly more precise), but frankly there hasn’t been a whole lot of new stuff on the brutality front that’s really tripped my...
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Broken Hope @ Vaudeville Mews, 04/03/2014
Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to finally check a few bands off my old school death metal bucket list. The likes of Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Grave (I sadly missed Deicide...
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Bandcamp Band Crap #2: Bandcamp Slamcamp
I have a growing obsession with slamming death metal. Yes, I know its visual and lyrical imagery tends to be crude, tactless and in all-around poor taste. Yes, I know much of the metal community...
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Stages of Decomposition – Piles of Rotting Flesh (Gore House Productions, 2014)
In the most recent edition of my Oodles of Brutals series, I proclaimed that Stages of Decomposition’s Piles of Rotting Flesh just might be the slam album to beat in 2014 based on the two teaser...
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Bleedead – Mustma Dorcheme (Gore House Productions, 2014)
Japan is home to some of the best contemporary brutal death metal there is. From the sludgy slams of Gorevent to the visceral precision of Desacravity and beyond, the country has a proven knack for...
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Interview: COLPOLSCOPY
Southern California-based label Gore House Productions recently sent me several of their releases for review, and one of the immediate standouts was Ready for Gore, the debut album from Oxnard’s...
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Twitch of the Death Nerve – A New Code of Morality (Comatose Music, 2014)
Regular readers will have no doubt noticed that the bulk of the coverage here at THKD of late has turned towards brutal death metal in all its guises. There are many reasons for this. One, the style...
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Scrotoctomy – From Torture to Putrefaction (Gore House Productions, 2014)
Opening things up with a sample from Hostel, Mexico’s Scrotoctomy get right to the point with their debut EP, From Torture To Putrefaction. They are the first Mexican slam band I’ve encountered, but...
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Reek of Reviewtrefaction: A Gore House Productions roundup
As I sat at my laptop thinking about what to write about while unthawing THKD from its brief cryogenic slumber, it seemed only appropriate that my first post from California be used to shine the...
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Across the Swarm – s/t (self-released, 2014)
I’ve been covering quite a bit of brutal death metal of late, but Italy’s Across the Swarm stand out even among the standouts I’ve been touching on throughout 2014. What makes the band so special,...
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Extremely Rotten – Zombification of the Masses (Gore House Productions, 2014)
If you’re into brutality, Southern California’s Gore House Productions have been killing it in 2014, putting out a slew of excellent brutal death metal, slam and goregrind releases with no end in...
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