Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Album artwork by Harshanand Singh] The third album is in some ways a litmus test for a band’s longevity. Three albums is a sufficient sample size—you can generally tell where a band is headed, whether they’ll last, whether they speak …
[Pre]-historically speaking, the boys, Nocturno Culto and Fenriz, have always been influenced by the likes of Celtic Frost, Bathory, and all things ‘80s. In fact, they don’t shy away from the fact that it’s always been about that era. After …
[Cover art by Quinn Henderson] You’re familiar with the term, “unc,” right? If not, it generally refers to a washed up older feller whose personality in large part revolves around extravagantly performing confusion and/or displeasure at the mere notion of …
[Artwork by Caroline Harrison] “Nonsense” opens with a slow fade-in of distorted guitars and seismic drums — the chaos before the swarm. It’s a trick of the trade, the extreme metal equivalent of a camera operator calling out “speed” before …
[Cover art by Vince Locke – Duh] KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!! My apologies if that triggered your PTSD for that time you started your day with a cup of coffee and a pressing of the play button on Kill, …
To tell you about Egregore’s second album, I’d like to first talk about wildness. If you traipse back to heavy metal’s origins, it was about wildness, right? “Helter Skelter,” Blue Cheer’s take on “Summertime Blues,” …
Stoner rock is fun. Drinking beer is fun. So a stoner band titling their new album with an adjective for the taste of their favorite beer kind of just makes perfect sense. Karakuchi is kind …
[Cover artwork by Hugh Syme] There’s quite a lot to unpack when attempting to tackle the 50th anniversary of an album as iconic and transformative as 2112. Straight off the bat, Rush was in a …
[Cover art by Timbul ‘Bvllmetalart’ Cahyono] Here’s the logline on Screams from Beneath the Surface, the seventh full-length album from Florida mainstays Monstrosity: it’s a calorically dense slab of death metal that doesn’t even attempt …
“The [d-]beat is not a neutral entity. It is a pulse, a weapon, a sanctuary, a demand. There is no opting out. To listen is to take a side. To [mosh] dance is to vote …
In case the recent surplus of hair raising releases delivered via today’s heavy metal torchwielders (Vultures Vengeance, Morax, Tower, Kuenring just to name a few) has led us to believe it’s not that hard to …
Did you know that the English words “trope” and “tropical” share the same etymology? Hello, and I’m sorry to welcome you to this heavy metal album review. It’s true, though! Both words come from the …
