That’s how I read it anyway. Also, a quick question or two about those ambiguous “death metal record sales” stats.

When a band releases a debut album that blows away both critics and your every day person, they either become something great, or letdown their fans. For Evile, it’s somewhere in the middle. Enter the Grave was absolutely insane balls-to-the-wall thrash. In a way, they are holding up the entire genre right now. Well, maybe not now. They are still immensely popular, but their second effort, Infected Nations, just feels like it pales in comparison to their first.

Oceano – “Depths” released April 14, 2009 by Earache They claim to be “the heaviest, most pissed off band on the planet.” I don’t know how you quantify ‘pissed-off-ness,’ but they are one of the most physically imposing bands I’ve seen since Crowbar (bassist Jason Jones is the one skinny dude). Does the deathcore quintet measure up to not only that, but the exhaustive 11-part allegorical definition of ‘depth’ in the liner notes? No, and there isn’t a band that does. The Chicago natives do branch out from the trunk a bit, incorporating keyboards (9) and some damn fine [...read more]