Vastum

Hear three death metal D-beatdowns form Negative Prayer, featuring former and current members of Poison Idea, Vastum, Funebrarum and VoidCeremony.

Hear another new banger from deeply deranged death-crust purveyors Acephalix before their long-awaited new LP, Theothanatology, drops on September 30.

Hear Oakland black/death dealers Ulthar deliver their sophomore LP Providence in full a day ahead of its release on 20 Buck Spin

Ulthar offer savage, inverted black/death metal on “Asymmetrical Warfare.”

When Denver’s TRVE Brewing celebrates its anniversary every June, you can bet that owner Nick Nunns does it up right, putting on a weekend filled with metal bands and special one-off beers.

Among 2015’s other contenders, five curried nearly enough votes to make it onto our list… but only nearly.  Does that mean we shouldn’t spill some love-ink for them?  Hell no!  Here’s the five records that tied for #41 on our Top 40 Albums of 2015.

Hole Below
Knuckle-dragging workout anthems for people who walk on ceilings
dB Rating: 8/10

Bay Area heavyweights Vastum have detonated a new album every two years, and Hole Below is their exceptional, must-hear third.

Until interviewing Bay Area old-school nasties Vastum for dB #82, I thought metal’s attitude to man’s carnal desires extended just to the more is more philosophy of take it when you can get it, and like Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach was probably right when he said that sex addiction is one of the healthier addictions,…

Hammers of Misfortune are one of the most slept-on bands to be offering hauté metal compositions that’d sate vinyl gourmands’ appetite for a more adult alternative to power metal and something a bit more compositionally sophisticated than NWOBHM’s greasy denim bark. Like something that’s got all metal’s histrionic chutzpah but doesn’t require an ad hoc…