Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Cover art by Mister Curse] Stack Overflow In Corpse Pile Interface. Stack Overflow in…Corpse Pile Interface? “What’s in a name? That which we call a corpse pile, by any other word would smell as putrid” – billy shakes Forgive my …
[Cover art by Jef Whitehead] Cognizance’s In Light, No Shape serves as a useful reminder that when it comes to our musical preferences, our whats are subservient to our whys. If, for example, you are a fan of the early …
[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 …
There’s great virtue in music that can appeal to different parts of the listener’s psyche all at once, teasing different moods, emotions, and styles without ever having to be obvious about it. Candlemass was as …
Originally written by K. Scott Ross. Ihsahn is many things to many people. The father of modern black metal. The killer of TRVE black metal. Master of interlocking jigsaw riffs. International sex symbol. Musical genius. Overrated …
The received wisdom is that post-metal is dead. Regardless of one’s affinity for the style, it shouldn’t be terribly controversial to note that we are now more than a decade past the most creatively fertile …
There were a number of albums that came across my desk as I pondered what I would follow up my review of Prong’s latest with. Some garnered more interest than others; some were destined to …
This is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to write, right up there with eulogizing Ronnie James Dio. Strangely, shortly before the news of each passing, I had just reaffirmed that they …
Punishing, savage, treacherous, merciless, bloodthirsty, bulldozing, butchering, buzz-sawing, spine-rupturing, bludgeoning, battering, primitive, old-school: All descriptors that threw all-too familiar punches toward the eyes, sternum and gut as I read the accompanying email for this promo. …
Along with Master’s Hammer, Root helped to define Czech black metal in the late 80s and early 90s. Through a series of demos and early albums, the band crafted a raw, ragged, and riff-centric approach …
In the beginning of 2013, I joined Twitter, and in the years and months since, I have gained a wider appreciation and scope of the metal underground as it relates to blogs, journalism, and the …
