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 …
When this six-track EP first fell into my lap, I expected Deceptor to be more of a trad metal beast. Chains Of Delusion is released on Shadow Kingdom Records, for one, a label responsible for …
I suppose if you’re only gonna release one record, you’d better make it a winner. And if time and legend mostly overlook it, well… I guess that’s just how it goes sometimes… For Denmark’s Witch …
There’s a term used by sports analysts called “upside,” meaning that a prospect is often not judged based on current production, but what they could potentially become. It is why a baseball team will often …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell Aeon‘s career trajectory is something of an extended plateau. Their debut, Bleeding the False, shot them to notoriety, and not just due to the juvenile blasphemy of “God Gives Head …
Frontiers are borders in reverse. To the extent that the dream of America (that’s largely “America” – the idea, not the country) was that of a radical break from tyranny and tradition, the Western frontier …
Germany’s Sacred Steel comes from that uniquely European school of corny power metal, but up to now, they’ve usually managed to overcome all but one of their cliché-ridden faults through sheer enthusiasm. Sure, they exhibit …
The acronym D.I.S. is short for “Destroyed In Seconds” – knowing that information makes this band quite a bit easier to research, I’ve found. Without it, a quick Google search of “D.I.S.” brings up stock …
The general consensus amongst long-time fans seems to be that Behexen fully hit their stride with 2004’s By the Blessing of Satan – a benchmark example of how to produce blistering, vile and decidedly heavy black …
