Lollipop Magazine

Lightning Swords of Death – Baphometic Chaosium – Music Stream

July 22, 2013

Baphometic Chaosium, the follow up to 2010’s The Extra Dimensional Wound, is just as harsh and unforgiving as we’d expect from Autrach and Roskva.

Starkill – Fires of Life – Music Stream

July 4, 2013

Fresh outta high school, Chicago’s Starkill use fantasy artwork on the cover of their debut CD and title their songs things like “Sword, Spear, Blood, Fire.”

Nonexistence – Antarctica – Music Stream

July 2, 2013

Seeing as how the continent is a vast, harsh, desolate, ice cold expanse of misery, it’s amazing that it’s taken this long for it to get its due from the metal world.

Rotten Sound – Species at War – Music Stream

June 26, 2013

A raw meat EP designed to keep the wolves at bay until their next full-length.

Cancer Bats – Bat Sabbath – Bastards of Reality – Music Stream

June 24, 2013

We don’t (nor have we ever) needed a cover of a Black Sabbath song because the boys from Birmingham made them all perfect the first time.

Whitechapel – The Somatic Defilement – Music Stream

June 20, 2013

They’ve gone on to greater things since their 2007 debut, The Somnatic Defilement, but “Vicer Exciser” is a good example of their early sound.

Soilwork – The Living Infinite – Music Stream

June 8, 2013

A double album of melodic death metal may seem like a headscratcher at first, but Soilwork fired a warning shot with their last album, The Panic Broadcast.

Secret Sphere – Portrait of a Dying Heart – Music Stream

February 27, 2013

Before the phrase “Italian power metal” sends you screaming for the exits, know that Secret Sphere craft a pretty sweet Dream Theater-style instrumental opener.

Destinity – Resolve In Crimson – Music Stream

February 26, 2013

Nothing here to blow your mind, but if you’re weary of the different directions that In Flames and Soilwork have gone in recent years, here ya go.

Sister Sin – From Now And Forever – Music Stream

February 25, 2013

I gotta admit, I’m digging a lot of the Mick Mars-worshipping riffage on this album.

Ill Nino – Epidemia – Music Stream

February 22, 2013

I like an opening act that can work a crowd just as much as the next guy who arrived too early, and this Jersey crew has the talent to accomplish that feat.

Angra – Best Reached Horizons – Music Stream

February 21, 2013

The irony-free pomp and ponderous nature of most symphonic/prog/power metal usually gives me a limp noodle right quick, but I’ve gotta hand it to Angra.

This Or The Apocalypse – Dead Years – Music Stream

February 18, 2013

“We like our rhythms complicated and our messages loud,” proclaims Lancaster, PA metalcore crew This Or The Apocalypse.

Machine Head – Machine Fucking Head Live – Music Stream

February 1, 2013

It’s surprising that it’s taken this long for a proper live album. Machine Fucking Head Live corrects that problem, though, and in grand fashion.

Grand Supreme Blood Court – Bow Down Before The Blood Court – Music Stream

January 29, 2013

Bow Down Before The Blood Court is packed with crushing, brutal death metal, with little room to breathe, like on the bludgeoning “Piled Up For The Scavengers.”

Tesseract – Altered State – Music Stream

January 24, 2013

UK prog metal act Tesseract released this single to whet appetites during the lead-up to their new album, which is scheduled for 2013.

Daylight Dies – A Frail Becoming – Music Stream

January 23, 2013

With Katatonia embarking on a trip into prog-land, we need bands like 40 Watt Sun and Daylight Dies to satiate our need for melancholy, mid-paced metal.

Anaal Nathrakh – Vanitas – Music Stream

January 21, 2013

Superior black metal from the UK. Anaal Nathrakh mix in all sorts of extreme sounds into their attack, from grind to industrial, and they do it with style.

Axewound – Vultures – Music Stream

January 11, 2013

Axewound gathers Liam Cormier (Cancer Bats), Matthew Tuck (BFMV), Mike Kingswood (Glamour Of The Kill), Joe Copcutt (Rise to Remain), Jason Bowld (Pitchshifter).

The Amity Affliction – Chasing Ghosts – Music Stream

January 10, 2013

Boilerplate metalcore from Down Under. Chasing Ghosts, is bound to wear on your nerves with “cute” song titles that reference PBR and Office Space jokes.

Khors – Wisdom of Centuries – Music Stream

January 9, 2013

Your street cred will go through the roof (and your sex life through the floor) once you bust out that you have some UKRAINIAN BLACK METAL in your collection.

Vampires Everywhere – Hellbound & Heartless – Music Stream

January 8, 2013

Traces of nü metal and pop-tinged industrial metal, also elements of H.I.M. and Avenged Sevenfold, and it’s all mixed into a bubbling mess.

Lions Lions – To Carve Our Names – Music Stream

January 7, 2013

Lions Lions bring solid post-hardcore from Boston. The band’s focus on balance means that there aren’t many highs or lows, just a safe, steady middle ground.

Voivod – Target Earth – Music Stream

December 28, 2012

The pride of the progressive Canadian sci-fi-themed cyber metal scene, Voivod stretch out on this nearly eight-minute track from their 13th studio album.

Cradle of Filth – The Manticore And Other Horrors – Music Stream

December 27, 2012

“For Your Vulgar Delectation” is prime latter-day COF, bringing a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility that sets them far apart from more “true” black metal recordings.