Phobia – Lifeless God Review
These are good times for pissed-off political grind. And there are few better purveyors of such than SoCal’s erstwhile Phobia. Now in their twenty-seventh year, Phobia still bashes heads with the best of them, their blend …
Tombs – The Grand Annihilation Review
Tombs presents me with something of a conundrum. Ordinarily, if you handed me a record and said, “Check this out: It’s a hybrid of black metal and NeurIsis post metal,” I’d thank you and nod, …
Astral Doors – Black Eyed Children Review
Traditionally, Astral Doors has never been my favorite of Nils Patrik Johansson’s projects, but with his abrupt departure from Civil War earlier this year, I guess it is now. Formed fifteen years ago as a …
Suffocation – Of The Dark Light Review
In his review of Suffocation’s previous album, 2013’s world-crushing Pinnacle Of Bedlam, my erstwhile compatriot Zach Duvall posited the half-in-jest idea of The Mullen-Hobbs Code, the qualitative phenomenon by which every odd-numbered Suffocation album is …
Seven Kingdoms – Decennium Review
Originally released on Nightmare Records back in January, Decennium proved itself worthy enough to score a re-release just a few short months later, now on power-metal “major” Napalm. In their ten-year career (hence this latest …
Lock Up – Demonization Review
On paper, Lock Up looks like a killer band. And it should be, in whichever of its four incarnations (so far) that you choose. It should add up to a sum greater than its parts, …
Diamonds & Rust – Exploring Metal Classics: Queensrÿche’s The Warning
I’ve always been an anachronism. I was born in 1977, and thanks to some older cousins, I got into metal in the dying days of the 1980s, mostly through records and bands already well established …
Looking For An Answer – Dios Carne Review
If there’s two things I know about Spain, it’s that the rain there falls mainly on the plain, and that Spanish death metal bands have a great way with that thick, oozing, rotten sound, and …