Darkthrone - "Goatlord", 1996 Dakthrone's "Goatlord"—titled after the Las Vegas cult doom/death band of the same name—was an instrumental rehearsal tape from 1991 that remained unpublished until the band decided to unearth it and release it on Moonfog in 1996, with newly recorded vocals by drummer Fenriz. It was essentially a demo for songs originally intended to be professionally recorded as the band's second full-length album, envisioned as a follow-up to their debut, "Soulside Journey." The project was scrapped when key members Gylve Nagell, Ted Skjellum, and Ivar Enger chose to adopt a rawer, more primitive musical style, inspired by 1980s bands like Bathory and Celtic Frost, as well as by what Euronymous of Mayhem—and other musicians in the Norwegian scene—were developing at the time: black metal, the Norwegian way . Gone were the trendy death metal influences, casual clothing, technical proficiency, and the standardized HM-2-driven sounds of...

Black Label Society - "Engines of Demolition", 2026 Zakk Wylde's involvement with the Pantera celebration certainly distracted both him and the audience from Black Label Society, as the guitarist has been touring extensively around the world since 2022. Always the workaholic, the hulking guitarist still found time to contribute guitars to Ozzy Osbourne's "Patient Number 9" record, release a double album with his Black Sabbath cover band Zakk Sabbath ("Doomed Forever, Forever Doomed") in 2024, and put together new material for BLS during his downtime, which led to the release of several new singles over the past two years. These songs ended up on this newly released record, titled "Engines of Demolition," the first since 2021's " Doom Crew Inc. " Stylistically, it's a varied album that encapsulates the band's experience over the years, occasionally reflecting on the early part of its career. It ranges from hard rock ...

Cancer - "Black Faith", 1995 Let's face it: Cancer is an honest band, but it never excelled at anything. The band’s thrashy death metal formula worked well enough on the first two albums, especially thanks to Scott Burns’s production, and "The Sins of Mankind" was a more polished, technically accomplished effort with better songwriting. That said, I own all of these records and play them occasionally, but I would not include any of them in a hypothetical best-of list of my favorite death metal albums. Therefore, it was a bit of a shock in 1995 when I found out the band had signed to EastWest—the same label as Pantera at the time—and when John Walker appeared on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball to introduce the video for the title track of the band’s then-new record, "Black Faith." I found that single a rather strange departure from the band's signature sound, so I didn't spend my already limited funds to buy the album right away; still, I managed to a...

Nightstick - "Rock+Roll Weymouth", 2012 In 2012, the Scottish indie label At War With False Noise released an unexpected new Nightstick album. Apparently, the record was originally recorded around 2000 but remained unreleased due to bassist/singer Alex Smith's incarceration for various offenses (including biting a woman's nose) and what has been described as " the apathy of the safe world of big metal labels. " The album certainly sounds like it belongs to that era, featuring fully analog production consistent with the band's previous albums, though this time the sound is quite flat and lo-fi; it seems as if the record was not properly mastered, resembling more a muffled rough mix than a finished product. I certainly didn't expect a high-profile production, but it's simply not as good as the previous records, especially " Death to Music ," which was arguably the best-sounding album in the band's discography. The lineup remained unch...

Megadeth - "Megadeth", 2026 I have a soft spot for Megadeth. Among the so-called classic bands, it's one of the few I can still listen to occasionally without getting tired of it; I certainly cannot say the same for many other bands I grew up with. I appreciate all of the band's records to varying degrees, and even Megadeth's 2000s run was surprisingly solid compared to its peers. Despite a few questionable albums throughout the band's career, Mustaine consistently maintained a high standard over the years, especially considering the number of records he released. The band's recent thrash metal renaissance was certainly impressive, with "Dystopia" and "The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead!" featuring some of the best material released in quite some time, despite a few filler tracks and a production that sounded too modern for my taste. Therefore, it was sad and quite unexpected when Mustaine recently announced that he would put the band...

Nightstick - "Death to Music", 1999 Nightstick's third release in as many years is the one I return to most often. It's not necessarily the band's best, but it's the most accessible , if such a term can even be applied to a band like Nightstick. While the debut album, " Blotter ," was likely the most iconic and certainly the most extreme, it's not the kind of record you casually play on a random weekday afternoon or in your car; its follow-up, " Ultimatum ," was also a demanding listen. "Death to Music," however, is the closest Nightstick ever came to making a more traditional doom/sludge record—one you could fit into a playlist between a Buzzov*en album and a Weedeater one, so to speak. There's still a weirdness factor to it, but the songs are less meandering than usual, and there's a hint of musicality compared to the all-out misanthropic psychedelia of "Blotter" or the droning heaviness of "Ultimatum...

Nightstick - "Ultimatum", 1998 "Ultimatum" was released exactly one year after the debut album " Blotter ," and it represents a more focused effort for Nightstick—if "focused" can even describe anything from these Massachusetts maniacs. The production sounds more balanced, even though the songs were recorded at different studios; the discrepancies are barely noticeable and not overly distracting, especially since the band's sound is so sludgy and unpolished that a slightly more or less overdriven guitar tone or uneven mixing levels between tracks make little difference. The album is slightly more listenable and less ear-piercing than "Blotter," which some might see as a drawback for a sonically aggressive band like Nightstick; however, it remains a record likely to repel anyone unaccustomed to such uncompromising musical harshness. In other words, the band didn't sell out; the album is just a bit more coherent than the absolutel...

Nightstick - "Blotter", 1997 LSD can be applied to blotter paper, which is then cut into small, decorated squares, each containing a single dose. With an album title like this, best explained by its cover—showing the band members dropping multiple tabs of acid—there's little doubt about how the music will sound. It's best described as a highly psychedelic sludge/doom/noise nightmare that could be used to torture prisoners of war, all kinds of posers , or even your neighbor. You don't just listen to "Blotter"; you experience it. Formed by ex-Siege drummer Robert Williams, one might expect Nightstick to be a hardcore or power-violence band. While he retains the misanthropic, anti-everything attitude of his previous band, musically he took the opposite direction, though Siege's sludgy "Grim Reaper" song could have been seen as a sign of things to come. Since its formation, Nightstick has approached music much like late 1960s and early 1970s ...

Obituary - "Back from the Dead", 1997 "Back from the Dead" was released at a time when death metal was definitely out of the spotlight, with most fans and the press gravitating toward symphonic black metal, power metal, industrial metal, Swedish melodeath, or—in the worst cases—nu metal. The days of major labels showing interest in the genre were over, and even labels like Roadrunner and Earache were about to start looking elsewhere. Additionally, some bands lost key members along the way (Chris Barnes for Cannibal Corpse and David Vincent for Morbid Angel, to name two of the more popular ones), others lost their direction trying to follow trends or change into something else, and many household names seemed to have lost their inspiration. In this climate of confusion and uncertainty, most bands tried to keep going as best they could, with varying degrees of success. Despite releasing an incredible album like "World Demise" in 1994—arguably the most advanc...