Former Emperor frontman Ihsahn's third solo album is closer to mainstream rock than its two predecessors, but is also a totally unique statement -- and a brilliant one. Opening track "The Barren Lands" features progressive rock riffing, an almost art-funk ...

Ensembles: Jukka-Pekka Miettinen; Markus Toivonen; Sami Hinkka. Arranger: Ensiferum. Personnel: Markus Toivonen (vocals, guitar, acoustic 12-string guitar, banjo, background vocals); Petri Lindroos (vocals, guitar); Sami Hinkka (vocals, background vocals); Kaisa Saari (vocals); Timo Vaananen (kantele); Olli Varis (mandola, mandolin); Tobias Tag (flute, ...

2001 album from death metal act inspired by Voivod & Killing Joke. Includes booklet with lyrics & photos, plus a video enhanced track, 'Infernal Rites'. Peaceville. Akercocke: Martin Bonsoir, Jason Mendonca, Paul Scanlan, Peter Theobalds, David Gray . Additional personnel: Tanya Warwick, ...

New Orleans' Goatwhore has taken their meld of blackened death metal to new and nastier places on CARVING OUT THE EYES OF GOD, their fourth album proper. Unlike their previous two albums, FUNERAL DIRGE FOR THE ROTTING SUN and HAUNTING ...

French black metal grinders Blut Aus Nord have been written about as the second coming of Satan -- if Satan had a progressive approach to making a particularly European strain of black metal -- and, judging by their own comments ...

Satyricon: Satyr (vocals, various instruments, guitars); Frost (drums, percussion).

Septic Flesh's seventh full-length release has turned the extreme metal community on its collective head. A maddening blend of black metal, death metal, gothic rock, and symphonic music, COMMUNION quickly leaves bands like Dimmu Borgir and Behemoth in its ravenous ...

On Mardraum (or "Nightmare" in Norwegian) Enslaved makes use of many new musical influences and approaches to their somewhat unique brand of Scandinavian black metal, most often called Viking metal. Some quasi-progressive riffs and arrangements that call up memories of ...

Recording information: The Bridge Gate (2008-2010); The Leisure Lounge (2008-2010). Personnel: J.D. Tait (vocals, guitar, synthesizer); Metatron (vocals); Drakbarameel (drums, percussion). Audio Mixer: Iain Smith.

Ukon Wacka, the seventh studio album from Finnish folk-metal outfit Korpiklaani, is named after a feast for the Finnish god of thunder. It's hardly a subtle clue as to what the album sounds like, but Korpiklaani are about as subtle ...

Into the Cryosphere is the second full-length CD by the Howling Wind, a black metal studio project featuring Ryan Lipynsky of Unearthly Trance on guitar, bass, and vocals, and "Parasitus Nex" on drums. Their sound is somewhat similar to Nachtmystium's ...

In Solitude's second full-length, 2011's cryptically named The World. The Flesh. The Devil, vastly improves upon their first effort, and quickly elevates the Swedish quintet's retro-metal credentials by simultaneously showing convincing sonic authenticity and giving fresh legs to the heavy ...

Lyricist: Dylan Richter. Personnel: Dylan Richter (vocals); Jim Hocking, Kalan Blehm (guitar); Dylan Shippey (drums). Audio Mixer: Tom Denney. Recording information: Diamond Studios. Photographer: Dylan Richter.

Reissue of band's 1989 classic debut album with 2 extra tracks (TSoS, and Existence) and bonus video (Vortex). Recording information: Studio 1, Oslo, Norway (1998-2000). Photographer: Tanya Stene. Personnel: Satyr Wongraven, Bjorn Dencker (vocals); Hellhammer (drums); Snorre Ruch (electronics). Audio Mixers: Satyr Wongraven; Snorre ...

Additional Tracks Track Listing: Devil's Blood; Black Salvation; Opus Dei; Puzzles Ov Flesh; I Am The Earth; The Golden Horns Of Darash; From The Pulpits Of Abomination; Casus Luciferi;

Welcome to Hell, and Venom themselves, for that matter, have long been the subject of heated debate within the heavy metal community. Few bands have been as recognizably influential yet so universally panned by critics during their careers, and, of ...

HELL IS EMPTY AND ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE, the fourth full-length from British industrial black/death metal group Anaal Nathrakh is an improvement over the slightly disappointing ESCHATON, despite not changing the sound much. With a band so committed to ...

After just two surprisingly well-crafted albums, Rotting Christ arguably hit their creative bulls-eye with 1996's stylistic landmark, Triarchy of the Lost Lovers, their first release for Century Media Records. Fulfilling all the promises and hints dropped by its predecessors, Triarchy ...

The long-running Norwegian black metal band work a strange kind of magic on this keyboard-heavy set, wrapping their dark evocations of the netherworld in swathes of synthesizers on tracks such as "The Fundamental Alienation" and "The Conspiracy Unfolds," and even ...

Like so many bands in the Scandinavian extreme metal scene, Before the Dawn have had their share of lineup changes along the way. Founder Tuomas Saukkonen is the only one who remains from the 2003 release, My Darkness, which was ...

The return of Obituary in 2005 came as a surprise, for the band hadn't been active since the mid-'90s. They sort of petered out after World Demise in 1994, releasing the ho-hum Back from the Dead in 1997 and then ...

If a band includes two ex-members of a well-known Norwegian black metal outfit, its albums won't necessarily be black metal-oriented. Item: Zyklon's Disintegrate. Two of the four Scandinavians on this 2005 recording (guitarist/founder Samoth and drummer Trym) are former members ...

DELIVERANCE, Opeth's sixth studio effort, is actually the first part of an ambitious two-chapter opus from Sweden's masters of brutal, progressive metal. Opeth had a plan to release a two-album set: one disc composed of pure death metal, and the ...

The first Metal Blade release from Ancient, a black metal combo fronted by Norwegian transplant Aphazel, The Canian Chronicle is a surprisingly mature and memorable collection of hellish invocations. Evil guitar riffs, frenetic drumming, demonic screeching, and orchestral backdrops place ...