Vasaeleth – All Uproarious Darkness Review
They say he uses the whip, the manacles and the torment-frame they call Skeffington’s Daughter. It is a portable device, into which a man is folded, knees to chest, with a hoop of iron across …
Lychgate – Lychgate Review
For a genre as steeped in the rich, pungent peat of occult historicism as black metal, Lychgate is nearly a perfect band name. A lychgate is a small gate topped with a pointed wooden roof …
Venus Star – Nigredo Expulsion Review
Artistic minimalism can be a tough act to pull off convincingly. When it’s done well, the end result can be courageously focused and direct, clearly unwilling to allow anything extraneous to blur the edges of …
Autopsy – The Headless Ritual Review
By my count, The Headless Ritual took exactly twenty-five seconds to make its argument for being a supremely ass-kicking album. The remaining forty-four minutes or so? Just a victory lap. Autopsy has never seen nearly …
Summoning – Old Mornings Dawn Review
Why is fantasy such a hard pill to swallow? Lord knows reality’s a rotten enough morass to make any sane person long for escapism, right? After all, it’s only mercenaries, cutthroats, and lunatics that thrive …
Aborym – Dirty Review
Let’s get the main thing out of the way right up front: Dirty is not a good album. In fact, it’s a pretty lousy album. But, okay, let’s give them that. Win some, lose some, …
Botanist – IV: Mandragora Review
The children’s story of Goldilocks and the three bears has had a poisonous effect on the rhetorical skills of too many. *Crickets.* Yes, sure, it’s just a story about some thrill-seeking lady who likes her …
Control Human Delete – The Prime Mover Review
An unfortunate side-effect of the otherwise glorious surfeit of excellent heavy metal currently churning around in the fetid underground is that “pretty good” is rarely good enough anymore. Pair that general observation with the fact …