Nile – At The Gate Of Sethu Review
At The Gate Of Sethu is a puzzling, enjoyable, and ultimately troubling album. After six albums and more than a decade of basically ruling the death metal world, Nile shouldn’t need to do anything more than …
Katana – Storms Of War Review
Sweden’s Katana reeks of the 80s worse than Judd Nelson’s jean jacket. There, you get the idea. This is unabashed old school metal that makes no attempt to update one goddamn aspect of music or …
Moonspell – Alpha Noir Review
Moonspell has weathered a number of things in their long career. Not unlike many other bands that found popularity in the mid-90s, they weathered a period of artistic experimentation that fragmented their fan base, and they …
Jeff Loomis – Plains Of Oblivion Review
Let’s get one thing straight from the beginning: Jeff Loomis is a guitar god, and one of the last, really. His playing on Nevermore albums: divine. His playing on his solo work, including these here …
Master’s Hammer – Vracejte Konve Na Misto Review
Although rising out of the tape-trading culture of the underground 80s, Master’s Hammer has long been thought of as the Czech branch of black metal’s second wave, probably because their excellent early works were contemporaneous …
Ancestors – In Dreams And Time Review
In the careers of most great bands, there comes an album where all of the cylinders fall into place. For LA’s prog-adelic doomsters Ancestors, it seems to have taken about six years. Their initial works …
Astra – The Black Chord Review
Albums like Astra’s The Black Chord reveal just how much the music industry has changed over the last 40 years. (I say 40 because that was about when progressive rock started flourishing.) Big, expansive, epic …
Municipal Waste – The Fatal Feast Review
Seven years ago, Municipal Waste’s now-classic Hazardous Mutation burst out as part of the big thrash revival — “revival” meaning “popular with the kids again,” since thrash never really went away. Hazardous was exactly what legions of bullet-belted youths were …