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 Ian Chainey In metal, we deal with the crap name better than most style fanatics. We can’t help it, we’ve been swimming around a smelly sea of awful monikers for decades. …
Indonesia is evidently home to a very active, vibrant heavy metal scene. However, because it is a financial near-impossibility for these bands to tour North America, you don’t have them showing up on “live ritual/assault” …
Originally written by Chris Redar Space is the place, y’all. Metal has been on a shit-hot streak of out-of-this-world jams as of late, with the likes of Wormed, Gigan, and Orbweaver all dropping superior tales of the void last …
For a minute, many moons ago, Flotsam & Jetsam was poised to move into the upper echelon of thrash bands. They came along in the first wave of thrashers, releasing an absolute monster in their …
2014 marks Raven‘s fortieth anniversary. In that time, they’ve released a dozen studio albums, from 1980’s Rock Until You Drop to 2009’s comeback effort, Walk Through Fire. Their hyperactive brand of riff-heavy NWOBHM (self-described as …
One persons poison is another’s nectar, and in the spirit of sparking the synapses into gear, Outré Monde is here to illuminate bands that might not be metal per se, but still retain plenty of …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell Oregon’s Nux Vomica has made sporadic (and violent) waves since morphing from Wake Up On Fire. Ostensibly a crust-caked collective, the band rattled conventions with 2007’s A Civilized World, a …
First things first: Yautja is pronounced “ee-WAT-yuh,” and apparently it’s the name of the extraterrestrial race featured in the Predator series, although the word “yautja” is never actually referenced in any of the films, only …
