Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Cover artwork by Old Hag] When I initially realized that Arckanum’s first album after a long hiatus—and, technically, its breakup—would be released on All Hallows’ Eve, I devised this rather cutesy and far-fetched idea to compare the entire album to …
[Album artwork / art direction by Joseph Niet / The Creative Corporation] Offering up a textbook definition of “holy crap, time flies,” Black Sabbath’s swan song, 13, was released 13 years ago, on June 7th, 2013. In a curious move, …
If you’re just now catching up, well, we’re just now catching up. Seth Buttnam and I (plus one uninvited guest) are rounding up some of our favoritest grindcore (or grind-adjacent) releases of the past however many months, since we (read: …
[Album artwork by Truls Espedal] It’s 17 albums for Enslaved now, comprising a discography I find exceptionally challenging to wrap my arms around. What’s going on here? Does anyone else forget that the relatively rote and by-the-numbers Frost is actually …
FAST RITES: because sometimes brevity is fundamental. In this, the very first edition of Fast Rites to grace the sacred new halls of Last Rites, we examine a Split EP from Metal Eater / Rope …
What ho! Wait, what? Ho, what? What happened here. Everything looks different. People don’t like different. People like uniformity. People like routine. We like routine. Last Rites has had the same routine for as many …
Prior to receiving a promo copy of Stand Your Ground, my exposure to Jack Starr’s Burning Starr was pretty limited. In fact, I knew exactly three things about them: 1 – their namesake guitarist founded long-running American power …
There is perhaps no more insuppressible force in nature than a volcano. Eruptions destroy the works of man and nature using a variety of elemental weapons, sometimes swiftly and sometimes through crawling inevitability. Lava oozes …
We all have those transcendent moments during our exploration of this genre where something manages to redefine the HEAVY part of heavy metal. Old dogs will cite interminable examples from the earliest days, as well …
Originally written by Chris Redar In 2014, Brooklyn’s Couch Slut dropped one of the most harrowing listening experiences of the year in My Life As A Woman, a bleak examination of emotional depravity set to …
So things got pretty dark the last time we met. Belated thanks to everyone for their support. I’ve taken a few more hits since then, but I think I’ve finally found the answer; a lucrative …
To fans of some of the greatest atmospheric, somewhat “avant-garde” works in the history of black metal, Boston’s Dzö-nga provides a bit of a conundrum. On one hand, The Sachem’s Tale provides a damn fine, …
