All posts by Dan Obstkrieg

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

Atomic Aggressor – Sights Of Suffering Review

Friends, I have gone on record as a doofus, and I do not intend to recant. Generally speaking, I am no great defender of musical orthodoxies: I like folk in my doom, ambient in my

Grimoire – L’Aorasie Des Spectres Rêveurs Review

If you listen to enough of a certain style of music, it can become difficult to articulate exactly what separates the good from the great. This is why, in part, anyone who tries to tell

Ne Obliviscaris – Citadel Review

By all reasonable metrics, I ought to love this album. I own every single Dream Theater album – even the shitty ones. I own every single Cradle of Filth album – even the shitty ones.

Dan Obstkrieg’s Best Of 2014 – Get Busy Loving

If you believe everything you read, then any given year in music was either the most overflowing bounty of sweet manna or the sorriest, soggiest bunch of dreck imaginable. Personally, given the sheer amount and

Giant Squid – Minoans Review

The sea has long been a rich source of cultural, historical, and artistic inspiration. One of the earliest – and most potent – myths is the flood recounted in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was

Execration – Morbid Dimensions Review

As it was in the past, so it is again: something foul is creeping from the heart of Scandinavia. Morbid Dimensions is the Norwegian band Execration’s third album, and it emerges at an opportune time.

Pallbearer – Foundations Of Burden Review

For any band, the stakes are rarely higher than when writing a second album. Writing a second album when one’s debut reaped a groundswell of attention and near-universal acclaim, then, is surely an even more

Alraune – The Process Of Self-Immolation Review

Your affinity for The Process of Self-Immolation, the debut full-length from Nashville’s Alraune, may depend on your tolerance for genre traditionalists tinkering at the margins by melding together styles of black metal that don’t often