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 …
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the halls, not a creature was stirring, not even a Gaahl; church fires were started by the Norwegians with care, in hopes that Satan soon would be …
I didn’t mean to do a blitz this year. I really didn’t. In case you missed the story last year, that troublesome “personal life” thing prevented me from keeping up with all the great stuff …
If you believe everything you read, then any given year in music was either the most overflowing bounty of sweet manna or the sorriest, soggiest bunch of dreck imaginable. Personally, given the sheer amount and …
Originally written by Chris Redar This is awful. Awful, awful, awful. If that’s all you need to know, dear consumer, then the rest of the day is yours, I guess. Go run a lap or …
If you follow along with a lot of the heavy metal blogosphere closely, you might get the impression that 2014 was a down year for heavy music. I absolutely, positively refuse to accept that notion. …
When I first saw that there was a band called Facebreaker, I immediately assumed it had to be some third- or fourth-rate, chugga-chugga metalcore band. I didn’t even bother to read their bio or listen …
2014 was a year of escapism for me. Hell, who am I kidding – every year is a year of escapism for me. Anything to get me off this planet for a while. Anything that …
Originally written by Chris Redar New Jersey’s The Banner has been farting around the edges of the hardcore arena since 2003. According to the band’s Wikipedia, approximately 2/3 of the population of the Garden State …
