Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Cover art by Per Spjøtvold] Want a fun way to acknowledge your own mortality? Think about how many years you’ve been listening to certain bands or albums. Of course, you, a distinguished devotee of this publication, surely engage in this practice, …
To put it mildly, I’ve been a bit sidetracked this year, so I apologize to all zero of my readers for not keeping them informed on the state of grindcore as I see it. Thankfully, I have some conscientious compatriots …
[Cover Artwork by Julia Proszowska] Something about the internet that only occurred to me recently is that it’s changed the way we think about death. Like just about everything else, the very notion of death has lost so much of …
[Cover artwork by The Blacksmith] I will freely admit that anonymity when it comes to art largely puzzles me, particularly as it relates to music. Aliased with some sort of elaborate costume? There’s potential there; who doesn’t love a little …
In his book American Zombie Gothic, author Kyle William Bishop unveils his theory that the walking dead standout as the pinnacle American monster among their legendary peers like vampires, mummies and so on. While the …
</INITIATE.PROTOCOL: (coverART.Awesome!) Music always comes first, here at YourLastRitesCorp, Inc. (GIWR on the heavy metal stock exchange; available in units of RiffCoin only.) But we also recognize that the right image will hook us before …
Fast Rites: because sometimes brevity is fundamental. A confession: I saw this name and immediately thought of Cannabis Corpse’s Tube of the Resinated and got really excited for some sort of stonery death-sludge, then I …
Disclaimer: This is not a DSBM album. For some odd reason, “depressive” black metal gets associated with a certain trope of mournful, angsty sadboys drooping around their candlelit bedrooms and gazing up softly at the …
Even during the humblest of beginnings, there are signs of emerging greatness. The Gathering’s beginnings were indeed quite humble. Founded by brothers Hans (drums) and René (guitars) Rutten along with vocalist buddy Bart Smits in …
Can death metal mature? Perhaps not like a fine wine but more like an angsty teenager who finally put down the Noxema and decided to work on their insides because that’s what is truly important …
Ten years ago, I reviewed Gorgatron’s Torturetorium album, and that was the last thing I’ve heard of theirs, which means that I apparently missed 2014’s Inner Supremacy entirely. My review wasn’t a brilliant piece of …
Contagion of Despair, the first full length from the UK’s Self Hypnosis, is a huge, sprawling album in more ways than one. Most obviously, it pushes 80 minutes in length, which would seem very long …
