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 Battleroar, 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 …
Deep in the forest at the edge of the clearing, near the overgrown ruins of the Toad King’s ancestral palace, a letter lies on the ground, splashed with blood and caked in mud. It is …
Who is to truly say in which “wave” of black metal we currently reside? Most black metal these days is sold with descriptors of “second wave” or “early” or “trve kvlt” or perhaps “pagan.” What …
Let’s go ahead and clear something up right now. If you like your black metal on the more polished side, or are looking for frostbitten riffs from the howling fjords of Norway, then just go …
That Tamás Kátai and Thy Catafalque can still surprise after several albums of increasingly decreased musical boundaries isn’t just impressive, it’s a testament to the very nature of the project. Kátai and his ever-expanding band …
Hyperbole is a useless endeavor, particularly when allowed to run amok within the often comedic realm of music reviews. Beyond the sheer awkwardness of it, limitless hyperbole mostly ends up yielding the opposite of its …
A few preliminaries: before note one of Worm’s Gloomlord plays, it is recommended that the canny listener pause a moment and wonder at its tremendous title and cover art. Are you a gloomlord? Am I? …
Like most of us, Andrew D’Cagna grew up in a quiet town bereft of Crusades, wars fought upon horseback and plagues. Thus, we were all forced to cobble together medieval weaponry made from sticks, battle …
The kitchen sink approach is risky. Throwing a bünch of inflüences together in hopes of carving oüt a distinctive soünd can have its payoffs, büt can come out as a jümbled mess much more easily. …
