Down - "Down IV", 2012-2014   The release of the long-awaited fifth full-length Down album—unimaginatively titled “Volume V"—is approaching, and the first two singles have left me anything but eager to hear the rest of it. After all, the band’s downward trend has been evident for a long time, with every follow-up to “NOLA” failing to reach the heights of that magnificent southern metal masterpiece. Don’t get me wrong, “Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow…” wasn’t too far behind in terms of quality; it was a different-sounding and less cohesive record, but still an excellent collection of songs. It’s with “Down III: Over the Under” that the band’s songwriting and overall style started to shift toward something else , with the ’70s rock influences becoming more obvious and the sludge metal elements drastically reduced; Anselmo also began leaving behind his trademark mid-’90s skrieks to focus more on a melodic delivery, despite diminishing vocal abilities. In other words, th...

Morbid Angel - "Illud Divinum Insanus", 2011 With charismatic frontman David Vincent back in the fold since 2004, the audience expected another pure death metal masterpiece that could stand alongside the first four classics, especially after the Steve Tucker-fronted era ended unceremoniously with the mediocre, directionless "Heretic" record. It took the band several years to come up with a new album, so expectations kept growing, particularly after a few successful tours proved that the unit was still in fine form, with the reassimilated Vincent delivering the goods fiercely and a new rhythm guitar player, Destructhor (a Norwegian formerly of Myrkskog and Zyklon), completing the lineup alongside Trey Azagthoth and Pete Sandoval. After eight long years, the new album finally dropped... along with the balls of thousands of fans. It's well known that "Illud Divinum Insanus" went down in history as one of the most controversial death metal releases ever du...

Slayer - "Diabolus in Musica", 1998 I don't think the merits of 1994's "Divine Intervention" should even be questioned; to me, it's the best post-"Reign in Blood" era Slayer record, and I would easily place it in my top three albums by the band. "Diabolus in Musica" was a different animal, though, and it's also one of the Slayer albums that divides the fanbase the most. While a large portion of fans claim it was influenced by modern metal of the time and therefore a despicable betrayal, a smaller but significant group praises it for being as experimental as Slayer could ever get while staying true to the band's uncompromising style. I definitely belong to the second category (did you have any doubt?), but what always amused me is how many naysayers play the "nu-metal" or "mallcore" card when discussing this record, since it actually has little to nothing to do with nu-metal. It does include a variety of o...

Six Feet Under - "Next to Die", 2026 I was excited about getting a new SFU album, especially since I quite liked 2024's " Killing for Revenge ." I thought it was a return to form after the semi-debacle of " Nightmares of the Decomposed ." However, when the new album "Next to Die" was announced, guitarist Jack Owen's description in the press release sounded slightly alarming: "It started out as an album full of death metal songs with speed and aggression, then Chris had the brilliant idea to keep half of those death metal songs and add some groovier songs in the vein of the early Six Feet Under material. Chris emphasized tempo, so keeping with the beats per minute for early SFU classics, I wrote a side of tasty groove-laden music." I sincerely like Chris Barnes, and I've followed his career since the early 90s, but we all know that some of his "brilliant ideas" over the years were not necessarily the best (who said...

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...