The Killchain

Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 21st August 2026 Originally published here: https://thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/street-tombs-existence-corruption/ The inexorable march of New Mexico’s Street Tombs upon the death metal underground has been relentles…

Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 24th April 2026 After 2024’s ‘The Way of Ancients’ made a surprising dash to our top 30 in the Album of the Year poll, I was looking forward to the next instalment from Kentuckian melodic black/death metallers Volcandr…

Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 1st May 2026 The fifth record from California’s progressive black metallers Ashen Horde comes on the heels of 2023’s excellent ‘Antimony’ record, but changes tack a little from their previous concept driven records into

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 6th August 1996 Dying fucking Fetus, a band who you really hope no one in your family asks you about when you’re wearing their shirts, are one of death metal’s most iconic bands.

Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 21st February 2025 With all the excitement about the new Wayfarer record coming out, I searched my inbox to see if I was lucky enough to get a promo (I wasn’t, dear reader) but I did find ‘Wayfarer’ the album by Texan…

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 3rd August 1996 The self titled debut of Norwegian progressive black metallers Borknagar thirty years ago signalled somewhat of a changing of the guard for how black metal was evolving from its second wave roots.

Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 12th June 2026 Rising originally from the ashes of Asphyx, and then continuing in between Asphyx reunions etc in the past few years, Dutch black/doom/death metallers Soulburn are a fascinating proposition.

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: August 1996 One of the most underappreciated bands, in my mind, from the Florida death metal scene in the mid to late 90s was Monstrosity, probably most famous for being the band that George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher left

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 1st August 1996 Swedish kings of misery and gloom Katatonia started off back in 1993 a bit more death metal focused with ‘Dance of December Souls’, but it was on 1996’s imperious ‘Brave Murder Day’ that we would final…

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: July 1986 Continuing with our thesis that 1986 was the key year for thrash records, we have another instalment of ‘Albums I Found on that Teutonic Thrash Mega-pack Back in the Day’ with Frankfurt legends Tankard and t…

Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 1st May 2026 The second record from Poland’s Meresin promises to be a big step up from their 2021 debut ‘Black Messiah’, taking that album’s industrial and symphonic black metal blueprint and slowly enriching it over t…

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 26th July 1986 Crossover thrash was a genre that, much like hardcore in general, I came to much later in life than I should have and I have spent less time with it than I should have.

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 25th July 2006 Metal albums have proven, time and time again, that magic can rise from the ashes of tragedy and so it was in 2006 with Canadian technical thrash icons Voivod and their eleventh record (for a thrash band

Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 19th June 2026 If you wanted me to guess where Japan-inspired horror black metal duo Saidan were from, I’d have guessed a thousand places before Nashville, Tennessee but I guess there’s more than country hiding in them…

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 13th July 1996 Who sounds like Nevermore then?

Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 26th June 2026 I’m not going to lie here, if I come across a death metal record about dinosaurs, you’ve peaked my fucking interest immediately.

Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 22nd July 2026 The debut record from Southampton’s industrial newcomers Sunswarm is called ‘Those Who Do Not Build Must Burn’, and it is out now self released.

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 11th July 2006 2006 was such a strange year for fans of Strapping Young Lad.

Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 29th May 2026 Originally published: https://thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/godthrymm-projections/ I’m not quite ready to induct Godthrymm fully into the Yorkshire Doom Hall of Fame (which is not a thing, but really shou…

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 4th July 1986 In a landmark year for thrash, some would say THE year for thrash as a genre, it would seem that even the less famous bands were putting out their defining records and that would read true for Arizona’s…

Review by Sandre the Giant Released: 24th July 2026 Progressive death metallers Sallow Moth have created a fascinating science fiction world for their twisted and dissonant death metal over the past few years, with last year’s ‘Mossbane Lantern’ being par…

Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 3rd July 1996 1996 would be a bit of a final swansong for death metal’s most successive early period, but it did not go out with a whimper and instead would provide many of the genre’s enduring classics, even if we did