All posts by Dan Obstkrieg

Happily committed to the foolish pursuit of words about sounds. Not actually a dinosaur.

Egregore – It Echoes In The Wild Review

To tell you about Egregore’s second album, I’d like to first talk about wildness. If you traipse back to heavy metal’s origins, it was about wildness, right? “Helter Skelter,” Blue Cheer’s take on “Summertime Blues,”

Desert Collider – Generation Ship: Endless Drift Through Infinity Review

Did you know that the English words “trope” and “tropical” share the same etymology? Hello, and I’m sorry to welcome you to this heavy metal album review. It’s true, though! Both words come from the

Diabolus, Mecum Semperterne! – Diabolus, Mecum Semperterne! Review

Friend, I wonder if you would agree with me when I say that authenticity in black metal is a dead letter. I don’t mean that black metal is always played inauthentically, but rather that the

Ligation – After Gods Review

Have you ever stubbed your toe and then cursed so violently that you accidentally opened a portal to an alternate universe where it’s always raining and everyone scowls at you like you owe their grandmother

Best Of 2025: Dan Obstkrieg – Have A Wonderful Day

Ranking junk: we love it. And yes, folks, usually I’d love to whip up some fanciful theory for you about how the human propensity to rank things is evolutionarily adaptive instead of decadent, but there

Home Front – Watch It Die Review

If I were the kind of person who felt the need to justify what I write about on this particular website to some imaginary naysaying ombudsman, then covering the second album from Edmonton, Alberta’s Home

Cemican – U k’u’uk’ankil Mayakaaj Review

The great and terrible thing about music is that anybody can make it. Literally, any body: right now, friend, you can tap your feet or hum a tune or pluck a rubber band and make

Æternia – Into The Golden Halls Review

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a person within spitting distance of heavy metal on the internet in possession of some dumbass opinion about power metal must be in want of having their dumbass