Ashenspire – Hostile Architecture Review
Here’s a truth about art that is all too often forgotten: art needs to be political. Art begs to be political. Here’s another truth about art that is all too often forgotten: art needs to …
Bekor Qilish ‒ Throes Of Death From The Dreamed Nihilism Review
In music (and all art), there’s generally a distinction between things that are blatantly, intentionally strange or just end up that way because the people making it are weirdos. Even just within the “avant-garde” tag, …
Mournful Congregation ‒ The Exuviae Of Gods – Part I Review
In his intro of our Devil’s Dozen of My Dying Bride, Dan Obstkrieg describes the UK greats’ overwhelming commitment to sadness, and I would go even farther and anoint MDB the all-time lords of heavy …
Luminous Vault ‒ Animate The Emptiness Review
[Cover art by fivetimesno] Animate the Emptiness, the first full length from New York’s Luminous Vault, is by definition a heavy metal album, and yet, it is also not a heavy metal album. To frame …
I Am the Night ‒ While the Gods Are Sleeping Review
[Cover art by Kristian “Necrolord” Wåhlin] The Grand World of Heavy Metal Music is no stranger to works of tribute, typically to an era or sound or Days of Yore, but sometimes bands zero in …
Meshuggah ‒ Immutable Review
In the six years since Meshuggah released The Violent Sleep of Reason, a couple things have become clear about that album: it was their weakest effort since debut Contradictions Collapse, but was more than strong …
Satan – Earth Infernal Review
[Cover art by Eliran Kantor] The Court in the Act lineup of Satan has now been back together for over a decade, and the quality of their studio output in this time has been as …
Scorpions – Rock Believer Review
From the moment they started doing interviews for their 19th album Rock Believer, the Scorpions made a point of mentioning records like Lovedrive and Blackout, and of saying that they wanted to return to just …