Sacred Guardian – Sacred Guardian Review
Sacred Guardian’s debut album is a case study in the importance of managing listener expectations. Take a minute, if you will, and examine that cover art. Warrior standing atop a crumbling castle wall? Check. Fierce-looking …
Cradle Of Filth – The Manticore And Other Horrors Review
It should be relatively uncontroversial to suggest that Cradle of Filth’s finest days are almost certainly in the past. That’s not intended as a withering indictment of the band’s recent output, but one imagines the …
Stagnant Waters – Stagnant Waters Review
Everyday usage does great violence to language’s origins. Case in point: the term ‘avant-garde’ originally developed in the context of battlefield strategy, and later became influential in the theorizing of revolutionary political movements. Loosely translated …
Neurosis – Honor Found In Decay Review
The eleventh album from the Oakland-based shamans in Neurosis is an hour-long answer to the question, “When is ‘tired’ not tired?” You see, on Honor Found In Decay, Neurosis sounds weary. Now wait, hear me …
Early Graves – Red Horse Review
It was always going to be a hell of a thing to listen objectively to the first Early Graves album since the tragic death of the band’s vocalist Makh Daniels in a bus accident in …
Converge – All We Love We Leave Behind Review
One of the drawbacks of being a venerated institution in extreme music is that you can never just quite write a damn album and leave it at that, y’know? Find some riffs hanging around, kick …
Pig Destroyer – Book Burner Review
The first few times I sat down to try and write about this new Pig Destroyer album, I will admit, friends, that I had a bad attitude. I had already formulated a number of critiques …
Weapon – Embers And Revelations Review
Embers and Revelations opens on a deep, subterranean drone, an ominous calm that gradually twists and shimmers through various introductory motifs and teasing riff-fragments. Weapon’s founder, guitarist, and mouthpiece Vetis Monarch sounds positively gleeful as …