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 Chris Redar There’s a fine line between artistic vision and indecisiveness when it comes to peppering elements of several genres across an album. It only takes a couple of missteps to make …
Welcome to part six of The Most Essential Albums of the Eighties. Previous volumes are available here. This week’s edition is another smorgasbord of metal styles, featuring classic doom, ground-breaking death metal, foundational Norwegian black …
Oh, we knew you missed the sound of writers talking about music. That plucked and flicked eyelash was totally for us. Screaming “POD RITES!” three times into the mirror? That too. How could we not …
Originally written by Ian Chainey Like so many people I’ve met at Whispering Sunsets, Ted Galligan is working on a masterpiece. “Time. Nothing. It’s, like, stripped down. Baroque, but not,” he playfully answers when I …
New Jersey’s death/thrash warriors, Sacrificial Blood, are skilled in the martial arts of the elders. It’s grown-people stuff. The trio’s fighting form is a little dustier, a little more Occam’s Razor than wiz-bang modern borkers …
Hair metal: The most-mocked subset of 80s heaviness. Much of it barely qualifies as metal, occupying space more accurately described as hard rock, but its best records appropriate metallic riffage and attitude enough to warrant …
Originally written by Chris Redar Destrage’s Are You Kidding Me? No is an identity crisis if there ever was one. What are you going for here, dudes? Strapping Young Lad? Amon Amarth? Opeth? Pitchshifter? Linkin Park? Every UFC-core AND djent band ever? …
