100% HEAVY / 100% Free / 0% Spam

LIFE? …And Napalm Death As Told By Shane Embury

“Over the years I would laugh and joke “Oh yeah, this’ll go down in the book!” Ya know, talk about some stupid silly shit I did or whatever a long time ago…That was a part of my humor I suppose!” Over my decades as a metal / heavy music “journalist”, I think to myself that […]

The Magnificent Melancholic Minds Behind KATATONIA

“I think that we found that a more emotional thing very suitable for us as people as well. We were still dealing with dark lyrics…It’s still the melancholic thing that’s interesting for me as a musician and lyricist. That thing is what triggers me when it comes to making music and I just want to […]

NAPALM DEATH’s Prophecy Of Extreme Musical Destruction Realised

“…the music of Napalm Death and the ideas…it’s like running into a war! To make the whole experience of what it should be for people! Napalm Death is everything all at once, all the time!” – Barney Greenway On the verge of once again pummeling Australia to its knees on the back of their 2020 […]

WEREWOLVES Smash Us All Endlessly With Death Metal Until We Bleed

“Uncompromising, Unending Death Metal…To keep on smashing you all endlessly with Death Metal until we bleed!” In their seemingly short life span, Werewolves, without question, have made an atomic-sized impact on the world of extreme blasting death metal. This trio comprising Matt Wilcock (guitars), Sam Bean (vocals & bass) and Dave Haley (drums) are manufacturing […]

TERRASITE – Cattle Decapitation

Out Now Metal Blade Records Words Metal V The announcement of each new Cattle Decapitation releases so many endorphins within this body and soul of mine. Having discovered them ten or so years ago they quickly became one of my favorite bands of all time. Concepts of the demise of our meat-selves and imminent destruction […]

GOOD THINGS FESTIVAL: MELBOURNE 02/12/22

pix by Mitchell O’Rourke December 2nd, 2022 @ Flemington Racecourse – Melbourne could not have put on a better day of it both weather and festival production wise for yesterday’s excellent 2022 edition of Good Things Festival. Entry gained, straight to the no waiting bar for delicious beers close to stages One and Two then […]

DISNEYLAND AFTER DARK Live @ Max Watts Melbourne, 19/11/22

With Supports Vermantics & Riff Raiders Well…A thirty-two year wait to finally, once again, witness one of my favourite and most listened to bands at home has been and gone so fast! I am trying with all of my old man-ness, to recall every magical moment of seeing the magnificent Disneyland After Dark live in […]

LIGHTWORK – Devin Townsend

November 4 InsideOut Music I’m gonna bypass the introductory formalities regarding Devin Townsend and dive straight into giving my lowdown and (probably insignificant) review of his latest offering – Lightwork I don’t think that Townsend, in all honesty, needs to release a mature album of sorts because everything he has released in his thirty-year career […]

Devin Townsend Beckons Us All To Follow His Light

“…there’s going to always be a faction of people that seem to support but are much more connected to certain timelines of my work and I get that! I think the biggest thing for me to say is that I respect the audience, I respect everybody’s right and decision to like and dislike things, but, […]

THE ANTICHRIST IMPERIUM – Volume III: Satan In His Original Glory

Out Now Apocalyptic Witchcraft Recordings I came across the magnificent The Antichrist Imperium by complete accident in 2017. Seeing guitarist Matt Wilcock sporting the band’s debut album t-shirt whilst playing guitar for Abramelin at their reunion show, appearing at the still memorable Metal for Melbourne Fest at the Corner Hotel. It was the cover to […]

CLUTCH – Sunrise On Slaughter Beach

Out now Weathermaker Music Apologies to you readers and purveyors of the finer hard rock delights in life for submitting the latest CLUTCH album Sunrise On Slaughter Beach a few days after release, but I have a reasonable excuse…It arrived on my desk on the evening before its release and I have only now just […]

Nergal & BEHEMOTH Prepare For War With New Album – Opvs Contra Natvram

“Perfection makes things boring, I’m imperfect and I hope I’m interesting…Life’s not perfect, that’s why it’s so fucking exciting! So why make things that are so fucking polished? I don’t get it especially in extreme metal music. You’ve got to be weird, you’ve got to be dangerous. Where’s the danger factor?…I really wanted to bring […]

The Butterfly Effect – IV

Out Now I’ve been immersed in the new The Butterfly Effect album for the past week since its release and my emotions weren’t ignited from the start as they were immediately with the likes of Imago and Final Conversation of Kings. Could it have been the near fourteen year detachment we had to endure of […]

Övergivenheten – Soilwork

Album number thirteen for one of the Swedish forefathers of Melodeath, Soilwork we hear a band rising above the turmoil of the world surrounding us, whilst also embracing it wholeheartedly. Meaning “Abandonment”, “Övergivenheten” clocks in at just over an hour running a gamut of emotions, Soilwork takes the listener on a journey of despair, resurgence […]

Overcoming The Abandonment With Soilwork

“Övergivenheten” is quite a powerful word, most of us can relate to being abandoned but also the fear of abandoning something or someone! You can see it in many different ways, there’s a lot of stuff going on right now in the world such as war…” For the past 34 years I have done metal […]

PSYCROPTIC: ‘Divine Council’

I have been immersed in the new Psycroptic album Divine Council now for the past few weeks and played it endlessly, which should state clearly that this new slab of extreme excellence from the Tassie Devils is fucking magnificent! If you caught a glimpse of the first video and opening track from the album Rend […]

Werewolves Finally Unleashed From Their Cave

“We are pretty up front that we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, perhaps the only thing that we might be doing differently is reinjecting that real old school anger and aggression back into metal. For me a lot of modern metal sounds emotionless…A lot of fireworks, not too much heat!” Metal V of HEAVY […]

WEREWOLVES: Deathmetal EP

Aussie Brutalitarians Werewolves seem to be the most creative and productive entity in this country, with all members being in a plethora of other musical endeavors besides this extreme machine! Releasing two blistering albums in a short space of time in 2021/22 they have stayed true to their creative promise to one another and teased […]

Review CALIGULA’S HORSE Live After Lockdown

  The next best thing to not being at a gig in our current shit show of an existence is being locked down at our humble abodes (as opposed to being shoulder to shoulder covered in delicious beer and sweat with our mates at our favorite venue) and watching live streams performed by our favorite […]

Contemplating A New Level Of Violence With Cannibal Corpse

  Alex Webster is a name synonymous with the institution of death metal. Having almost written the original thesis on the genre of horror/gore extreme music, his band Cannibal Corpse are continually pushing themselves as artists whilst holding fast to the purity of their original mission statement focussing on what they, as almost pioneers of […]

CANNIBAL CORPSE – “Violence Unimagined”

  It took the MIGHTY Cannibal Corpse a mere two and a bit years to construct their latest murderous rampage disguised as pure death metal magnificence. Album number fifteen for these metal icons is as Corpse as Corpse get: Of course it’s called Violence Unimagined!   In over thirty years they have never strayed from […]

WEREWOLVES Justify The Brutal Existence Of Living

  *DISCLAIMER – This interview contains topics of acts which some may deem offensive and inappropriate. HEAVY urges you to consider this before listening to the full audio interview. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!   2020 was an unprecedented shit show of unpredictable unforeseeable chaos, disruption and all-round turmoil. The complementary soundtrack to this malevolence was courtesy […]

WEREWOLVES – “What A Time To Be Alive”

  I guess we’re into shitshow year two and the masses are in isolation getting down with their creative “badselves”!   Not less than ten months ago I reviewed the blisteringly gnarly debut album The Dead Are Screaming [2020] from Aussie death metal legends Werewolves.   Stepping upon the steps of the capital to cough, splutter […]

ARCHITECTS: Live at The Royal Albert Hall (22/11/2020)

  So I have just sat through my first online live stream event and it would seem that some folks are keen to know about my review of the experience.   The event – Architects live at the historic Royal Albert Hall. My thoughts..?   Still out to lunch on an answer. Make no mistake […]

PERIPHERY: “Live In London”

  The longing for getting sweaty together in a hot room watching bands we love with the scent of warm beer teasing our nostrils is getting harder and harder to keep at bay. We all miss seeing bands we love don’t we? With 2021 fast approaching and bringing vaccines to hopefully eradicate some virus we’ve […]

Clear Vision With PERIPHERY

Periphery have for the past fifteen years consistently risen to the top of the heavy djent dependant spectrum prog tree thanks to their strong songwriting ability, all the while reinventing themselves without ever having to reinvent the wheel. Since 2005 founding member and guitarist Misha Mansoor’s vision has been focused on crafting incredibly intricate albums, […]

KILLER BE KILLED – “Reluctant Hero”

  Killer Be Killed’s first album was IMHO one of the best metal debuts album of all time. Supergroup forays are always a dicey ring to get into especially when it contains four of the finest musicians from all walks of heavy metal diversity come together in the same rehearsal space. The challenge of such […]

KILLER BE KILLED – The Reluctant Heroes Metal Had To Have

  As has been discussed and bandied about for the better part of nearly a decade on how Killer Be Killed is a supergroup, there is no need for me to dwell on it further here for readers to reacquaint themselves with this massive band. What is important right now in the shit show that […]

BENEDICTION “Scriptures”

Right down into it and no fuckin’ around – Benediction’s new album Scriptures? Well, it fuckin’ rules! Classic no holds barred, straight up killer death metal just as the old school forefathers of the genre intended. Regardless of whether they were from the U.S of A or the U.K., death metal at its very core […]

Scriptures Written On Parchment For BENEDICTION

Benediction are your straight up, no bullshit death metal. To semi-phrase guitarist Daz Brooks himself – “verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, in, out…song’s done!” Formed in Birmingham in 1989 by Daz Brooks on guitar, Peter “Rewy” Rewinski also on guitar, Ian Treacy on drums and Paul Adams on bass  –  and one Barney Greenway on […]

ENSLAVED’s New Album “Utgard” Proves They Reside In The Abode Of Giants

Norwegian neo-traditional progressive black metallers Enslaved have continuously and consistently refused to be a band that can be pigeonholed. Throughout their twenty five year journey through the realms of extreme metal creation and artistic impression Enslaved are true expressionistic artisans that paint stunning musical murals with broad multi-faceted brush strokes. With their latest release (number […]

THE OCEAN “Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic”

While there are many progressive heavy bands in existence within the world of metal there are few bands that stick out like the proverbial sore thumb like Germany’s The Ocean. Yet, contrarily I find it criminal that they remain largely unknown and unheard of! Hopefully with their freshly released latest album, 2020 will see them […]

Articulating Our Phanerozoic Aeon Courtesy Of The Ocean

Germany’s progressive metal band The Ocean have been around for twenty years and throughout this time, as evident on their previous seven album releases, they have found their niche in focusing on periods of humanity’s existence. With album number eight titled Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic (following on from 2018’s Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic) that trend […]

ENSLAVED “Utgard”

With a career that has been forged over twenty five years, Norwegian progressive post-black metallers Enslaved have very little to prove to either themselves or their fans both old and new. Fifteen albums in, each new artistic journey sees the Enslaved collective breathe on old embers of inspiration and forge monstrous musical experiences from the […]

NAPALM DEATH “Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism”

Like all pioneers, legends, GODFATHERS of their breed, the mighty and magnificent Napalm Death need no introduction. True and unforgiving pioneers plus consistent leaders and redesigners of their brand. Napalm Death have never followed a familiar path but neither have they ever strayed from the world of carnage that they single handedly forged within the […]

BARNEY GREENWAY Discusses The State Of The World According To NAPALM DEATH

Napalm Death are without questions – LEGENDS! Album after album they have demanded the attention of every person that has encountered their sonic carnage: whether they wanted to be pummeled or not. Be it through the captivating blast beats or hypnotic beats of Danny Herrera; that sonic low end, tsunami invoking bass of Shane Embury; […]

ABRAMELIN – The Philosophy of Never Having Enough Snuff

The term “Godfather’s of [insert genre here]”, in relation to Metal music specifically, is often bandied about all too freely to bands who are less worthy than others. There are few bands in Australia that can hold up to be true “Godfathers” of a genre where extreme metal is concerned. Abramelin is the one that […]

NEMESIUM “Continua”

Bringing old school death metal back to life and into ’20s is Nemesium with their long-awaited and much-anticipated debut Continua album — the follow up to their 2015 EP Sentient Cognizance. This album has been a long time coming and fuck me if it wasn’t worth the wait. The cold, confronting intro “Antecedent” kicks Continua […]

CALIGULA’S HORSE Rise Above And Beyond Radiance

For over a decade now Caligula’s Horse have been creating exceptional, beautiful and meaningful progressive [Prog] heavy music. Album after album redefining their sound and forcing themselves to be something more. Caligula’s Horse are not just another band rewriting the same old tired album resting upon some laurel bestowed upon them by reviews accompanying each […]

CALIGULA’S HORSE “Rise Radiant”

Rise Radiant is by far Caligula’s Horses‘ most explorative package. Following on from their 2017 masterpiece, In Contact, was going to be no easy task and any fan would be remiss in asking these incredible artists if it could be done. So, has it? Opening the album is “The Tempest” which has that instant pummeling […]

ABRAMELIN “Never Enough Snuff”

Twenty LONG years have passed since the last Abramelin‘s album Deadspeak has emerged. The Melbourne, Australia based death metal Godfathers paved a scarlet painted, gore-filled, underground scene with glory with on a handful of releases. The first time I heard them was on their Transgression From Acheron EP from 1994. This short twenty-minute death fueled […]

PARADISE LOST “Obsidian”

Even though Paradise Lost have been around for over thirty years now, Obsidian sees the band heavier, angrier but yet more melancholic than ever; more mature if that could even be possible. Paradise Lost were one of the first bands that PROPERLY melded Death Metal and Doom Metal music together. Even though Paradise Lost have […]

BLACK TRILLIUM “The Fatal Shore”

The purpose and intent of doom metal is to be enduring and not to give the listener a quick fix. The full picture is extended foreplay, unveiled agonisingly over time, through broad and succinct musical strokes. Although The Fatal Shore is a debut release, Black Trillium appears to have enunciated themselves exceptionally well. Invoking the essence of many influences, […]

WEREWOLVES “The Dead Are Screaming”

The Dead Are Screaming is the insubordinate bastard spawn of every band, genre and artistic frontier smashing vision that Bean, Wilcock and Haley considered canon in their quest for extreme music domination. The term supergroup has been bandied about by many bands over the years. Some good, some not so good. Musicians who choose to […]

KATATONIA “City Burials”

I have started writing this review for the new KATATONIA album, City Burials, and a bare three minutes into the first track “Heart Set To Divide”, I am already hypnotised and in love with what I have already heard and excited about what beautiful solemn doom-prog will be in front of me for the next […]

Get the HEAVY Digi-Mag in-boxed weekly. 100% HEAVY / 0%SPAM.