Nekrofilth: Filling My Blood with Poison . . . (2009 Demo)

Maggots in Your SkullLast year, Nekrofilth satisfied those of refined taste with their tasteful full-length debut, Devil’s Breath . Hells Headbangers, always eager to cater to those of us with delicate musical palates, took notice, and decided to reissue the band’s 2009 demo, Filling My Blood with Poison . . .

This Cleveland steamer apparently knew exactly where to go, right from the start.

Jesters of Destiny: Fun at the Funeral (1986)

Faith RestoredI’ve got to be honest: I’ve never been a big fan of Faith No More. Not that I dislike them, exactly. I will say I don’t feel one way or the other about their reunion.

Why bring them up here? Jesters of Destiny was an L.A. band that could easily have been their peers. Maybe even the superior band. This is a reissue of their only record, 1986’s Fun at the Funeral, and it really gives

Metal Briefs: Two by Two by Two Part Four

BinaryTwo songs each. Two sentences each.

Portal / Blood of Kingu: Split 7" (2014)
3.5 out of 5 stars

This is a rough, early version of Portal that would have been intriguing as a first taste of the band. Blood of Kingu is blackened death metal at its best, but stacked next to Portal almost anything sounds tame.



On Hells Headbangers


Dementia Senex: Heartworm (2013)
3 out of 5 stars

This

Cadaveric Fumes / Demonic Oath: Entwined in Sepulchral Darkness (2014)

French RevolutionLike pretty much everyone, I used to think France was a joke. Derisive comments about surrender usually come up when middle-Americans discuss the country. When I thought of French metal, I thought of power metal bands singing about fairies or whatever.

But the French actually have a long history of being total badasses, events from the first half of the Twentieth Century

Skogen: I Döden (2014)

I Döden Do ItWhen it comes to underground black metal and Viking-ish / pagan-ish metal, I tend to get overwhelmed by the sheer numbers available. Yes, there are incredible releases out there, and they often come from bands I’ve never heard of before. It’s tough to know where to direct my attention. So I download a few promos, a few of them end up on the iPod, and fewer get a complete listen.

Top Ten Albums of 2014

Culling the HerdIn previous years I've been cute with my end-of-year lists. I did a top 13 of 2013, a top 12 of 2012, a huge number of lists and a top 25 of 2011, and back in 2010 I did best-of by subgenre. It would seem I'm done with that, for this year at least.

As I pondered 2014 in metal, I wondered where I'm going with this blog and how long I can keep doing this. Over 2,000 unread e-mails

Ringworld by Larry Niven (1970)

HaloIn my continuing exploration of many of the classics of speculative fiction, I read Larry Niven's Ringworld. If you're familiar at all with the Halo video game franchise, you know at least one thing this book inspired. The central feature is an artifact, a made world in the shape of an enormous ring. It surrounds a sun, spinning to simulate gravity, with high walls at the edges to keep air,

Bloodbath: Grand Morbid Funeral (2014)

Grand?Well, it’s a funeral, that’s for sure.

A long, long time ago Bloodbath released one of the best slabs of Swe-death of all time. Resurrection Through Carnage had the best possible version of that storied sound, and channeled it through some of the catchiest tunes known to all metal history. Over the years they’ve stayed consistently good, without quite reaching that level again, with more

Atriarch: An Unending Pathway (2014)

SuccessionThe last time I talked about Atriarch, I focused on how they combine doom with punk’s equivalent of doom, deathrock. I said they were like a cross between My Dying Bride and Christian Death. But the more I listened to An Unending Pathway, the more I realized they are true spiritual successors to My Dying Bride.

I don’t have a handle on how well-regarded MDB are in general. Their name