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 …
German duo Albez Duz evidently derive their name from some medieval Germanic meaning “swan noisiness” or “swan rush.” Because I don’t know what either of those things are, I’ll be sticking to my original theory …
originally written by Erik Highter Noise rock is back. Not that it ever went away, but it certainly fell out of vogue from its ’90s heyday. It was like you could be noise – pure, …
For any band, the stakes are rarely higher than when writing a second album. Writing a second album when one’s debut reaped a groundswell of attention and near-universal acclaim, then, is surely an even more …
After wearing a doom crown of their own design for years with monstrous albums such The Unreal Never Lived, YOB made their first real attempt at change in years (other than that brief breakup) with …
Godflesh, goddamn… Where should one even begin when describing this group? They are one of the absolute legends of extreme music, whose works shall withstand the test of time and who will always be ranked …
On the surface, Oakland, CA’s Cardinal Wyrm is a doom band cut from a similar cloth as ye Finnish acts of olde (and not-so-olde): Songs that primarily embrace loooong, marbled Rev Biz and Spiritus Mortis …
As you’d imagine, basing an entire genre around the work of one punk band begets limitations. As great and vicious as Discharge was and d-beat is, it’s inevitable that the legions of bands staying the …
Originally written by Matt Longo There are a few moments from my formative teenage metal years that particularly stand out. I can recall my first positive assertion of a “great” concept album in Operation: Mindcrime; …
