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 …
One of life’s great tragedies is the fact that you can never really, truly, completely know another person. We all live rich, stubborn, vertiginous inner lives, playing out a second-by-second drama etched on the interior …
One of the most rewarding pleasures of being an avid music fan is watching a new band grow. The vicarious thrill of accepting a new band into your own personal pantheon is usually all the …
Unless you live under a tremendously large rock, it will not have escaped your attention that our beloved heavy metal has been gaining interest from more mainstream listeners and media outlets over the last few …
Originally written by Chris Redar Instrumental music is always a juggling act to pull off. One noodle-noodley too many and you’re doing a Joe Satriani impression sure to please guitar nerds and no one else. …
I don’t really know what America is, y’know? A place this big and beautiful and awful and ridiculous, though, I suppose it can’t ever be A Single Thing. (Which, probably, is also what makes it …
Who, exactly, decides which bands get the blacklist treatment, and when? Why are certain bands, at particular points in their careers, just expected to drop a turd, and the expectations of said dung heap earn …
They say he uses the whip, the manacles and the torment-frame they call Skeffington’s Daughter. It is a portable device, into which a man is folded, knees to chest, with a hoop of iron across …
Alright, folks, I’ve spent the better part of three months trying to figure out what to write about The Circle and the Blue Door, the debut album from England-based Purson. To borrow a bit from …
