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 …
originally written by Craig Hayes DA-DUM… When I was ten years old, I met a shark, face-to-face in the breaking surf. That encounter left me with a lifelong obsession with the species, and like every …
Originally written by Chris Redar This is the toughest type of album to review. Blatantly shitty albums are notoriously easy to drag through the mud, hose off, and then drag again. Good writers tend to …
Originally written by Chris Redar Ever since 1997’s Temple of the Morning Star, Today is the Day has replaced either most or all of the rhythm section with each subsequent release. This has, in essence, …
originally written by Matt Longo Mike and I contacted via Skype. It took a little longer than expected, as I sat in proverbial Limbo and imbibed its literal namesake. But it was well worth it, …
A solid entry in the regular-assed death metal category is Tyranny, the debut full-length from Phoenix Arizona’s Lago. Lago eschew both the processed-to-shit trappings of modern tech-death and the ever-popular, retro-as-fuck, early-nineties death metal sound. …
You know you’ve got a winner of a record when the best thing about it is the thinly-veiled pun in the title, this one of course alluding to the fact that this band’s primary appeal …
I know this may sound crazy, but this is a Southern Lord release. And it’s crusty hardcore. (insert the sound of an audience gasping) Sure, son, whatever. Next you’ll be telling me Blake Judd never …
Two years ago, the eponymous Unisonic album marked the first time that guitarist Kai Hansen and vocalist Michael Kiske had worked together since the former departed Helloween after that band’s landmark Keeper Of The Seven Keys, …
