Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Cover artwork by Michael Cloutier] Prog, of course, is known for technical musicianship and songwriting complexity above all else, a reputation well-earned by the early giants of the genre and happily maintained by their progeny ever since. It’s also true …
[Cover artwork by Timbul Cahyono] In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I’ve always found the concept of the split to be flawed. It works best when there’s a shared theme or the band’s involved cover each …
[Cover art by Mars Triumph] Petrichor, the sixth full length album from Greece’s epic metal stalwarts Battlelore, commences with the sound of rain and an invitation to reflect. That word, “petrichor,” is a relatively new one (coined by scientists in …
To start, let’s acknowledge that you and I don’t really know each other. This means, among other things, that I can’t say what “war metal” means to you. To some extent, maybe you just throw your hands in the air …
Eyes close. The faint light that lingered in the bedroom vanishes beneath the curtains of eyelids. Sleep slowly envelops like a blanket wrapped tightly around the body. Consciousness shifts gears, opening a world that no …
Do you guys remember touring? Back in the Days Before The Plague, that was when bands would travel around from town to town — and even from country to country, if they were lucky — …
[Artwork by Necrolord] Consistency is obviously ideal and a noble goal for anyone producing a consumable product, including music, but even that eventually wanders into an unfavorable light if the dreaded s-word, stagnation, rears its …
Since the inception of heavy metal as a genre, roughly 666 subgenres, sub-subgenres, and subs to genres — who mostly spend their time being flogged by bullet belts and wrist spikes while listening to their …
Let’s get the obvious point out of the way right now: about half of Anaal Nathrakh’s career has been rather superfluous. They haven’t really done much new since they truly cemented their formula on the …
[Artwork by Allyson Medeiros] So you have probably noticed that everything is terrible right now. Not End Times bad, and maybe The End wouldn’t be the worst, because at least then we’d all be dead. …
The greatest artists tap into something beyond themselves and speak elemental truths from everyday syllables. Certainly in the case of music, the presence of a sympathetic or at least engaged listener helps to close the …
I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, dear reader, but the year 2020 has been a bit of a shitshow. It’s some consolation, however minor, that times of woe at least inspire kick-ass pissed-off punk …
