Search

50 DREAM THEATER A View From The Top Of The World INSIDEOUT After returning to classic form on 2019's Distance Over Time, Dream Theater were in a buoyant mood on [...]

WORDS: HYWEL DAVIES, MALCOLM DOME, ELEANOR GOODMAN, CHRIS CHANTLER, CONNIE GORDON, SPENCER GRADY, ADAM REES, JONATHAN SELZER The symphonic urge has existed in heavy music since its earliest rumblings. Deep [...]

Well, we're here to shower a little love on some of those bands. Over the next 16 pages, you'll find our countdown of the 50 Greatest Cult Bands Ever. By [...]

Metal happily exists outside the mainstream, with only a few big acts getting sizeable attention outside the rock press (we're looking at you, Metallica and Iron Maiden). Sadly, it's only [...]

COOKING VINYL The Fox God's disciples mark a decade of delirium IT'S TANTALISING TO imagine a bookies in 1970, and the odds you'd get for putting money on a band [...]

BLACKGAZE GOT A serious boot up the arse when Mol's debut album, Jord, arrived in 2018. At the time, the MO of its biggest stars--namely, Alcest and Deafheaven--was beautifying black [...]

WHILE PEOPLE BEMOAN the generic nature of deathcore, Whitechapel have become an exception to the rule. The Knoxville sextet are now eight albums into a 15-year career and have continually [...]

DEITY'S MUSE Ennui MONGREL Having won 'Best Alternative Band' at the South African Metal Awards last year, Deity's Muse are riding high and this new EP proves that with four [...]

SOREPTION Jord UNIQUE LEADER Swedish tech-death troupe get their groove back Having parted ways with guitarist Mikael Almgren, six-string duties on Jord are handled by Ian Waye of Canada's Thanats, [...]

BLEED FROM WITHIN Shrine NUCLEAR BLAST Glasgow's metalcore bruisers get closer to the knockout blow FOLLOWING A STUDIO drought after the breakthrough of 2013's Uprising, Shrine is the third album [...]

URNE THE FLEECE, BRISTOL As impressive as last year's debut record Serpent & Spirit was, URNE sound even more vital in the flesh. Whether it's the monstrous rumble of A [...]

Malicious Intent NUCLEAR BLAST Bullish Brits throw down the metalcore gauntlet WHEN REIGN OF Suffering tore out of Sheffield in a blur of testosterone in 2013, onlookers were rightfully gushing [...]

A Place For Torment And Pain SELF-RELEASED Fresh-faced Belgians find themselves in limbo A lot of credit must be given to this Belgian quartet for creating a confident concept, image [...]

DIVINE CHAOS/TORTURED DEMON THE EXCHANGE, BRISTOL Yorkshire's recharged thrashers go wild in the west SEEMINGLY UNDAUNTED BY any situation, Lancastrian youngsters TORTURED DEMON continue to swell their ranks of admirers [...]

Kvitravn--First Flight Of The White Raven MUSIC FOR NATIONS Nordic folk demigods enrapture on the world stage ENDLESSLY SEEKING TO connect to a primal spirit, even when livestreaming a performance [...]

Live From The Pool MASCOT Danish djent-infused proggers get kaleido by the lido Performed in the abandoned swimming pool of a local military base, this livestreamed show from September was [...]

Bleed-Abide MNRK HEAVY Deathcore revivalists keep the sacred flame alive Too young for both the scene's birth and subsequent backlash, Bodysnatcher's devotion to deathcore's elementary principles is apparent. Though Kyle [...]

Wake Up Dead ATOMIC FIRE Arizona quartet stick to the groove with new and old favourites Incite's first release for Atomic Fire is an album split between new tracks and [...]

NIGHTRAGE Abyss Rising DESPOTZ Gallant Greco-Swedish stalwarts embrace the Ninth Circle Arguably most renowned for having Tomas Lindberg, Jesper Stromblad and Gus G among their ever-changing ranks, Nightrage have nonetheless [...]

HELLBORE Panopticon SELF-RELEASED Transatlantic alliance wages a multi-pronged tech death assault The first full length from this transatlantic duo is a noticeable step up from their 2019 Holy Sadist EP [...]

ANIMALS AS LEADERS Parrhesia: SUMERIAN DC djent prodigies weave an intricate, emotional tapestry Even for a subgenre where technical virtuosity is a necessity, you'll be hard pushed to find a [...]

YOU'VE PROBABLY NEVER heard of Siren, and 'nor should you have,' admits their drummer, Ed Aborn. Yet these largely forgotten 80s heavy metallers from Florida are the subjects of a [...]

On first listen it's hard to escape the feeling that Slowbleed are just excited hardcore kids having a crack at death metal. But not only are the southern Californian mob [...]

Described as a mini-LP despite being the same length as their seminal first two albums, these leftovers from 2020's Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism are another outlandish [...]

ESTABLISHED BANDS' LATTER-DAY musical output can go one of several ways, with a continued evolution or resolutely sticking to a formula being the most common routes. Either is fine, providing [...]

Despite being one of at least seven bands with the same name and paying homage to the 80s Florida scene, Belgium's Schizophrenia don't lack originality or character. Embedding a foundation [...]

ONE THING UNDEROATH can never be accused of is caution. Having embraced extreme metal, emo, post-metal and industrial across an intrepid and intelligent discography, the band rarely miss the mark [...]

Distilling a wealth of ideas into 18 minutes, the Aussie tech deathsters offer their most compelling material yet. Closer Vile Veneration goes from opulent leads to introspective realms while engulfed [...]

With apocalyptic, classical artwork to match, Order Of Chaos lives up to the band's moniker as it channels Dante and travels down the proverbial spiral into the Seven Circles. Starting [...]

PSVCODE SELF-RELEASED Danish industrial djenters continue to hone their craft Coming just a year after their fourth album, Persona, PSVCODE shows how far the Copenhagen collective have come. A more [...]

Mechalith VICIOUS INSTINCT This American-Venezuelan deathcore duo are clearly building something. From the glitchy effects and unhinged drumming of Ore & Fluid, Mechalith manifests a foreboding atmosphere over the course [...]

A Dream Of Wilderness NAPALM Gallic melodic death metallers try to create a storm in a tin cup A blizzard of notes, folky melodies, dynamic tempos and a wallop of [...]