Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Album artwork by Harshanand Singh] The third album is in some ways a litmus test for a band’s longevity. Three albums is a sufficient sample size—you can generally tell where a band is headed, whether they’ll last, whether they speak …
[Pre]-historically speaking, the boys, Nocturno Culto and Fenriz, have always been influenced by the likes of Celtic Frost, Bathory, and all things ‘80s. In fact, they don’t shy away from the fact that it’s always been about that era. After …
[Cover art by Quinn Henderson] You’re familiar with the term, “unc,” right? If not, it generally refers to a washed up older feller whose personality in large part revolves around extravagantly performing confusion and/or displeasure at the mere notion of …
[Artwork by Caroline Harrison] “Nonsense” opens with a slow fade-in of distorted guitars and seismic drums — the chaos before the swarm. It’s a trick of the trade, the extreme metal equivalent of a camera operator calling out “speed” before …
[Pictured above: Konrad Kantor (left), Warren Binder (right)] Here’s a sentiment I’m guessing is shared by quite a number of people out there: I first met Warren Binder at a metal festival, and what I …
[Cover art by Lauri Laaksonen] Phobocosm’s fourth album, Gateway, is very much an album that sounds like its cover. It is a bleak, colorless, and intimidating swath of rocks with some room to breathe that …
So here’s the thing about Rotten Sound: They kick ass. That’s really the end of the review, but okay, let’s keep going. Now some thirty years into their career, Rotten Sound has set themselves into …
I don’t know what it’s like in your neck of the woods, but down here, in Aotearoa New Zealand, there’s often been a reluctance from fringe music-makers and DIY labels to celebrate their creative successes. …
There’s a moment when listening to Pull to God, the debut EP from NYC’s Sire Languish, that makes you feel as if you’re being drawn into an endless tunnel of some sort. It’s spacious, incredibly …
Howdy, friends. It’s time for the final edition of Staff Infections for 2025. I know it’s only November, but to avoid contributing to list-overload come the year’s end, we cut Staff Infections off a month …
[Cover art by sole band member Evan Daniele] I had a roommate in college who would regularly say, “I’m gonna spray noodles out your dome” after a few drinks (i.e. shoot your brains out of …
[Artwork by Ted Nasmith] Of course, a funeral is bleak, the very idea of it. Grief, loss, despair, the shock of a vital presence suddenly become absence, all of it placed in a fishbowl for …
