Generally Impressed With Riffs
[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 artwork by Luca “Zeero” Zironi] There was always something uniquely charming about Konquest’s brand of traditional heavy metal—an almost whimsical breeziness that still felt like a near perfect balance of playful and substantive. A long-lost Italian cousin to Sweden’s …
[Cover art by Beyond Art] There are bad musical moods, and then there’s Mylingar. Over the course of the last decade this group of anonymous Swedes has concocted the type of ill-meaning black/death that makes Diocletian seem like a Care …
Anthrax, those thrash elder statesmen and little brothers of the Big Four, recently released an EP full of classic rock covers, something not unheard of for veteran acts looking to pay homage to heroes–or just …
In looking back at it now, 2011’s Venerable lived up to its name. Following rightful critical praise for that record and a grueling tour schedule to support it, KEN Mode was rewarded with a Juno …
originally written by Juho Mikkonen Being the odd one out. That’s Black Crucifixion’s existence in a nutshell. They’ve been around since the very birth of Finnish black metal, yet they never released a classic Finnish …
VHOL‘s debut is less than a month old, yet the fields already seem armpit-high with glowing reviews from critics and fans alike. It’s admittedly pretty tough not to have an itchy finger on the happy …
The great thing about Coronation of King Darkness is that it requires no predicates. From the perspective of a metal historian, sure, you might want to know that Black Crucifixion played a fairly seminal role …
Some people peak early. If you graduated high school more than five years ago, you can be guaranteed that somewhere in your hometown is someone who was once at the top of the pecking order, …
Originally written by Ian Chainey Lately, I’ve been daydreaming of a black-and-white photo getting the Ken Burns pan-and-scan treatment. On one side of the frame is a crusty punker. On the other, as soon as …
We are all doomed to repeat ourselves right? Yeah, sure… but that’s hardly a fitting intro for a review of a new Hypocrisy album, as they’ve most assuredly repeated themselves over their long career. There …
