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 …
For two albums now, Mastodon has been a regular band. No matter how flimsily the ‘four elements’ scheme actually informed the band’s music, the Atlanta quartet’s run from the rampaging tumult of debut album Remission …
[In the spirit of the recent round-ups of things you may have missed out on in the first half of 2014, the resident grindfreakers at Last Rites pulled together a quick write-up of a few …
originally written by Craig Hayes New Zealand four-piece Beastwars has been on the receiving end of high praise at home and abroad since forming in 2007. The band’s steadfast maxim, “Obey the Riff,” might seem …
originally written by Craig Hayes The roll call of New Zealand metal bands finding fans offshore is ever growing. Bands like Vassafor, Ulcerate, Diocletian and Witchrist have led the charge, and in recent years, groups …
It’s the last day of our Best of What You’ve Missed series: we’ve collected twenty-five albums that haven’t created much of a stir yet this year that we think you should hear before diving into …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell Happy Independence Day, Planet Earth. Today, the fifty United States of America (and probably Guam and Puerto Rico or whatever) will celebrate our liberation from taxation without representation (hmm…) by …
Darkthrone, to black metal metal fans, needs no introduction. For the rest of you, here’s the quick rundown: Formed in the late eighties, Darkthrone began as a death metal band releasing several demos and the …
