Toxic Metal Zine

This Insidious Horror is a hook-forward LP with tales of technocratic rulers, murderous cults, and otherworldly terrors. Horror comes in many forms; the Pigs revel in them all. Feed the Corpses to the Pigs pummels and brutalizes their listeners with their mix of old-school and new-school metal styles including grindcore, crossover, black, and death metal. This band really speaks Grindcore and speaks it well. The brutal opening track "Separate" makes your body feel like it's doing just that. And for something wild, just check out the video for the brutal track "Ghost of Winter" Feed the Corpses to the Pigs is just what the CDC ordered.

This configuration of Massacre is a  ‘stellargroup.’ With cosmic horrors reanimating and Resurgence emanating pure, unadulterated death metal, the Massacre principals couldn’t be more pleased. Indeed, the power of Resurgence is in its truths. Going back to the trio of demos—Aggressive Tyrant, Official Livetape, Chamber of Ages (all three 1986)—Massacre’s noxious mists have and continue to spread maliciously, causing terror in all who encounter them. The six-piece have retained the nasty nebullic strength and aggression they invoked all those years ago on cult classic debut From Beyond (1991), but multiplied it for Resurgence. Tracks like “Eldritch Prophecy,” “Innsmouth Strain,” “Book of the Dead,” and “Return of the Corpse Grinder” demonstrate Massacre’s commitment to its legacy, allegiance to the almighty metal of death, but the necessary need to move forward and onward. Pretty much all of the tracks on here gallop along at a mid to fast pace, without hitting any breakneck speeds. This allows the songs to be appreciated individually without the blurring together a lot of modern tech or brutal death metal does. A solid album which deserves you ears.

Deformatory bring forth a new hellstorm with their third full-length entitled “Inversion of The Unseen Horizon”, which will be their first as a duo featuring  Charlie Leduc (Guitars & Vocals) and Neil Grandy (Drums). The nine-track album is an assault for the masses that reaches all corners of the extreme metal spectrum from straight-up death to old-school black metal, all to encourage a maniacal frenzy, which even includes a guest appearance from Jon Levasseur (ex-Cryptopsy), a very admired guitar player and influence for the band. Explored in three chapters, (Chapter I – INCEPTION: THE CYRU’XILEAN NEXUS, Chapter II – INCURSION: THE PROTOTYPAL ESCHATON, Chapter III – INVERSION: THE HORIZONTAL REFLECTION, the album “Inversion of The Unseen Horizon” explores the origins of The Ce’naxors and the ominous landscape of their home planet, Cyru’xil, revealing their Arkitekt’s grand scheme for multiversal decimation and atomical consumption. This is a solid Technical Death Metal album that will get multiple plays.
 

Dimman release ‘Songs and Tales of Grievance’. This is a powerful debut album from Melodic Death Metal band Dimman! The band’s modern melodeath combines beautiful melodies, heavy compositions and technical musicality into a unique ensemble. In addition to the diverse instrumentation, Dimman’s two vocalists create a distinctive and balanced soundscape.

"Ambuscade" shows off a sound and musical input that is explosive, aggressive and powerful from Valtteri! Later Jenna makes an excellent entrance with her beautiful soft and clear voice.

"Morbus" offers up dense sounds, hard chords with the drums present in a great way, both the guitars, drums and the voices of the two of them come together in a unique and melodic way with all their power and strength. ‘Songs and Tales of Grievance’ is mixed and mastered by Santeri Peltomäki (Entropy Mixing) whose powerful production supports the band’s versatile compositions. Check out this album now!

At the Gates have been at the forefront of the Melodic Death Metal scene for a few decades minus the bands hiatus. Since returning in 2014, the band has been making a different kind of statement. One, where you kn ow the band is daring to try new things, which has not been bad. "The Nightmare of Being" needs time and attention for the listeners to dive into songs that are dark, fascinating, and distracting. There are the raw and unbound death metal anthems, like the racing ‘The Paradox’ and the throbbing ‘The Abstract Enthroned’. The album contains what is almost like a counterpart with ‘Garden of Cyrus’ and ‘Cosmic Pessimism’ songs with twists and layers. The album is well done with a few surprises thrown in. Just don't expect another Slaughter of the Soul."

This Ending returns with their anticipated album, Needles of Rust. This is a great melodic death metal band from Sweden.  Needles of Rust deals with different kinds of nightmare scenarios: some songs are loosely based on actual events that have happened all over the world, whereas the other numbers are just about nightmares as an overall phenomenon. The album contains eight original songs, plus the remixed version of the 2019’s single “The Hunted” as a bonus track in the physical formats. On this record, This Ending continues blending relentless aggression and absolute darkness into their grandiose melodeath dreamscape.

Rage In My Eyes offers both a traditional metal sound and an innovative touch on their latest EP, "Spirals!" There are some seriously good shredding riffs here and excellent guitar solos that trade off flawlessly with a fantastic vocal performance by Jonathas Pozo. Spiral has effective songwriting and is careful not to dwell on useless trappings. This album is sure to please all the headbangers! Too bad it is only 5 tracks over a 20 minute period.

Swedish Black Metal horde HLADOMRAK will release their third full-length album "Archaic Sacrifice" on September 10th, 2021! With 8 songs and a total runtime of 36:36, Archaic Sacrifice is not on the long side, but the riffing lends itself well to a shorter runtime. This is not a work of atmosphere or dreamy mysticism, but an onslaught of dark and brutal riffs. The guitar and drumming work on this record sometimes veers into death metal territory, rather than being a traditional black metal The album is a clean, polished and well produced sound. It is a great album that begs to be in the debate about "Album of the Year!"

Torn Arteries by Carcass is a solid metal album designed for spontaneous coronary artery dissection. The new album is good, but does not move past the last couple of Carcass albums. Torn Arteries feels like the logical follow-up to Despicable, but not progressing past Surgical Steel. Its got the melodic touches of Heartwork, and dashes of the death/grind mastery of Necroticism, and enough of the rock-based tinges of Swansong. If this came before Surgical Steel, it would be considered an awesome return to form for the veteran Extreme Metal band, but it did not. So with that being said, no fan should be disappointed with Torn Arteries and yet no one should think this is the album that will change the game for Extreme Metal either.

Since their full-length debut 12 years ago, Born of Osiris has consistently, put out solid albums. With their latest release "Angel or Alien," the band shows no sin of slowing down. This is an aggressive mix of progressive metalcore, Phrygian-dominant-infused “djent”, coupled with their signature ambience, and hard-hitting breakdowns. Nile has some kickass jagged riffing and an aggression that just makes you feel ten feet tall. The title track and its wild use of electronica and synth, clean vocals parts and massive guitar solo sounds great. The album drops 14 new tracks across 55 minutes. This is an album diehards will love and casual fans may say nothing new here. So, which one are you?

International metal collective THŪN featuring Jon Higgs (guitar/vocals) and Hugo Wilkinson (bass) of MONSTERWORKS alongside James Knoer (drums, GARGOYLE), drop a killer debut self-titled album  via Eat Lead and Die Music. Lead guitar on the album was wrestled into submission by none other than Karl Sanders of NILE. The style can be described as epic death metal, some discordant doom ...and plenty of old school SABBATH and PRIEST influences. THŪN is a virtual effort in that each musician, in the UK and US respectively, handled their own recording/production, with final mixing by Jon and dynamic mastering by Damian Herring (HORRENDOUS, Subterranean Watchtower Studios). This is a Doom Death Metal album that you will not soon forget. & brutal tracks with the perfect vocals produced by Higgs. Pick this album up, you won't regret it.

Flotsam and Jetsam are back! The new offering, Blood In The Water proves they haven’t lost their edge in two short years. The band has now displayed back 2 back barn burning thrash albums.

‘A Place To Die’ comes at you with a thunderous gallop, Eric AK Knutson‘s vocal delivery powerful and impassioned before ‘The Walls’ crushes your head. The title track draws the most distinction from the previous opening track, “Prisoner Of Time.” While Blood In The Water is faster and heavier than the latter. The twin guitars of Steve Conley and original member Michael Gilbert continue to complement each other perfectly. AK’s vocals steal the show, the fifty-six-year-old singer is still sounding every bit as electric as he did back in the day. Riffs, hooks, showmanship, and attitude, Blood in the Water has all of them and then some.