Generally Impressed With Riffs
It’s a magical corner of the musical world where a band can combine an infectious nature with extreme oddness, and it’s in that corner that Idaho’s Seven Chains makes their home. Make no mistake about it, third album Swollen, In …
[Cover art by Claudio Elias Scialabba] Italy’s Into Darkness has been a band for approximately 15 years but is just now releasing its first full length album, Route to the Other Side, but all that time has been greatly beneficial …
[Cover art by David Preissel] The sounds of Neurosis’ “Locust Star” emanate from a desktop speaker wired to an iPod Nano via ⅛-inch cable “Hey maaaan … is that Ponderous Post Metal?” “Yeah maaan …” “Well turn it up MAAAN!!” …
[Artwork by Vicky “Liddo” Morales] In a soak-your-underwear sweaty, tetanus-to-the-touch warehouse in the middle of Skid Row, Raw Addict played its first show. Weeks earlier, drummer Isaac made the irresistible sales pitch, stating that the multinational band connecting grind lifers …
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 …
Brooklyn based experimentalists Tombs have been climbing their mountain of success for nine years. In that time, they have yet to find the proper footing as a foundation for their ascent. Across three full-lengths, a …
The appeal of desert rock as a musical genre has to be understood not just in musical terms, but in terms of the deep vein of imagery and mythology that its evocation of the American …
With only a single, three-song demo from five years ago to their name, the UK’s Wode is a relatively unknown quantity, which can be a welcome rarity in a musical culture that tends toward oversaturation …
