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 …
Darkness is the most fascinatingly vast concept the universe has ever offered us, and the most terrifyingly claustrophobic. It is infinite — and nothing — all at the same time. Apply this concept to our …
In the eyes of many, At the Gates did it all perfectly. They rose out of a fruitful, creative scene in the very early 90s, gradually honing their cold, malevolent form of melodic death metal …
Heavy metal’s highway is stacked ten miles deep with bumper-to-bumper EPs, demos and diversely-inched short-players. In an effort to help our readers navigate the traffic, we offer an ongoing and sporadic editorial designed to shine …
In his review of Hatriot’s mostly forgettable Heroes Of Origin, my erstwhile compatriot Zach Duvall hit upon one fundamental truth about Exodus: In the absence of Baloff, Exodus needs Zetro, and Zetro needs Exodus. The …
Mare Cognitum is the sole project of Santa Ana’s Jacob Buczarski, and while one-man bands are not exactly an oddity within the blackened realms, rarely are things so meticulously composed, arranged, and performed as on Phobos …
I’ve been looking forward to a new Sanctuary album for a long time. It’s been twenty-five years since the last one, since 1989’s Into The Mirror Black. Mirror and its predecessor, the Dave Mustaine-produced Refuge …
The death of Mike Scaccia in late 2012 was a terrible loss, for multiple reasons. Amid the obvious myriad personal tragedies attached to someone’s death, one of those reasons was that the classic line-up of …
Mass & Volume was originally released in 2013 as a “limited edition” EP, only available as a Bandcamp digital download. All of the proceeds from that initial offering went to the family of the late …
