All posts by Spencer Hotz

Admirer of the weird, the bizarre and the heavy, but so are you. Why else would you be here?

Saor – Amidst The Ruins Review

[Cover art by Julian Bauer] If you live in the upper half of the northern hemisphere, then February is the perfect time for a sojourn. The weather creates a cold you can feel in the …

Relics Of Humanity – Absolute Dismal Domain Review

[Cover art by Sergey Liakh aka Siarhei] If you prowled around these parts last year, you may have noticed our collective fell deeper into the corpse-clogged abyss of brutal death metal a bit more heavily. …

Best Of 2024 – Spencer Hotz: Do It Animal Style

2024 was a year that happened. Working on a list like this inherently pushes me to reflect on the year that was, which typically leads me to discover some sort of throughline that summarizes the …

Diamonds & Rust: Cryptopsy’s Blasphemy Made Flesh Celebrates 30 Years Of Getting Thrown Out Of Windows

[Cover art by Dragon Design (RIP)] Developed From Memories of Blood By 1994, death metal was a firmly established genre with expected parameters in place for what did and did not qualify. In fact, one …

Bedsore – Dreaming The Strife For Love Review

[Cover art by Denis Forkas Kostromitin] Bands often telegraph when significant shifts in their sound are imminent. No one who truly paid attention to Ghost Reveries and Watershed was particularly shocked by the full dive into 70’s …

Yoth Iria – Blazing Inferno Review

[Cover art by Harshanand Singh] The heavy metal mascot is a wonderful thing and one that few modern bands seem to have made work for them. Yoth Iria, however, has enlisted the visual assistance of …

Carnosus – Wormtales Review

[Cover art by Timon Kokott] It’s fair to be a bit nervous about quality whenever a band releases full-length albums in back-to-back years. That quick-turn approach can leave you wondering if inspiration was truly firing …

Immortal Bird – Sin Querencia Review

[Cover art by Kikyz1313] Prolificacy is an oft-lauded trait for bands in the metal world. We are constant consumers on the lookout for more tasty morsels to glut our filthy musical maws, so bands that …