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 …
This Civil War began in 2012 when two-thirds of Sabaton seceded. The opening shots were fired later that year in the form of a self-titled EP, and the first major engagement came in the form …
You ever get that feeling that music takes you to a dark place? Of course you do, you’re metal fans. Some darkness comes from the blackest of metals, leaving you cold and alone (Katharsis, Ayat); some …
In today’s underground, where perceived honesty and “trueness” are of the utmost importance to many, a new black metal band formed by guys that had done most of their time in hardcore and post-metal acts …
Something you quickly learn as a devoted music enthusiast is the fact that there really should be no lines drawn in the sand when it comes to appreciating the things that resonate with us. Just …
German deathers Sulphur Aeon did something neat with their full length debut, 2013’s Swallowed by the Ocean’s Tide – they pulled from all over the place without going overboard in any single area. Bombastic, blasting, …
There are plenty of adjectives in death metal these days. Progressive, technical, cavernous, blackened, atmospheric… And that’s all well and good, of course – it’s helpful to people like me trying to describe a record …
Admittedly, Deep Purple falls a little outside Last Rites’ usual scope of coverage. Deep Purple is not, strictly speaking, a metal band, but the group is ten times heavier than some of the fruity bullsh… …
After a few albums that mixed their signature doom/death/dark-plus-Celtic Frost-on-an-80s-goth-binge metal with some wondrous throws out of left field, Germany’s Valborg delivered an album that was, well, rather straightforward in 2012’s Nekrodepression. Of course, it …
