German tech‑death veterans Profanity return on December 4th with their fourth full‑length studio album, Fragments of Solace. The record was tracked during the first half of 2020 across several studio locations before being mixed and mastered by Lukas Haidinger at Deep Deep Pressure Studios. Active since 1993, the band set out to blend the spirit of the most influential death metal releases from the early ’90s onward with their...

Some releases are simply harder to review than others, and State of Deception is certainly one of them. The reason is straightforward: Conception is a band that has given me mixed emotions over the years. I was a huge admirer of their first three albums before things took a steep downturn with Flow, followed by more than two decades of silence. Those mixed feelings resurfaced as I approached this...

Nephylim is a five‑piece melodic death metal outfit from the Netherlands, formed in 2015. After a handful of line‑up changes, the band has now completed its debut full‑length, Severance of Serenity. Their stated ambition is to craft Scandinavian‑inspired melodic death metal infused with touches of black and doom metal, and their press material cites Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum and Be’lakor as key influences. It’s hardly the most groundbreaking formula on...

Scars Of The Flesh is a death metal act heading from San Antonio, Texas and ‘Reaching Into The Void’ is their sophomore album following up their 2017 debut ‘Harvest Of Souls’. Unfortunately I haven’t had the chance to check out the debut yet, but I certainly will. Scars Of The Flesh describes their own music as progressive death metal, but I would probably rather file it under traditional death...

San Diego, California based Gravespell are back with their sophomore album to follow up their 2013 debut 'Gaia Terminus'. Their style is a mixture of technical death metal and black metal, inspired by Norwegian black metal acts such as Emperor and Windir as well as bands from the melodic and technical side of the death metal genre. The material on 'Frostcrown' is aggressive with a technical twist, but also...

Trollwar is a Canadian band, based in Quebec and 'Oath of The Storm' is their second full-lenght album. The album consist of 4 remastered songs from their 2017 EP 'The Traveller's Path' with refined orcestration, while the rest of the material are brand new songs. Trollwar's music can be described as a symphonic mixture of melodic death meal, folk metal and black metal, and parallels can easily be drawn...

Deathcore is normally not my preffered musical territory, but I'll gladly make an exception for US based Shadow Of Intent and their latest release entitled 'Reclaimer'. Shadow Of Intent is actually so much more than just anonther deathcore band, and their music is an exciting blend of several music styles such as death metal, symphonic metal, power metal, deathcore and a touch of black metal. Their 2016 album 'Primordial'...