Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Artwork by Vicky “Liddo” Morales] In a soak-your-underwear sweaty, tetanus-to-the-touch warehouse in the middle of Skid Row, Raw Addict played its first show. Weeks earlier, drummer Isaac made the irresistible sales pitch, stating that the multinational band connecting grind lifers …
Picture this, brah brah: You’re out enjoying a nice meal with the in-laws. It’s a pleasant setting—a beach vacation, let’s say. The sun gently peeks above the horizon, illuminating the tides as they roll in and wash away the footprints …
[Artwork by Pierre de Palmas] When revealing Melting Rot as the first band booked to play at Revenge of the Corpse 3, festival organizer Isaac Horne wrote on Instagram that the Aurora, Illinois, trio was “the closest you’ll ever get …
[Album artwork by Staffan Lindroth] The last time we gathered together under the Dimhav banner, I was busy losing my grip over the Swede’s very excellent and very sudden debut, 2019’s The Boreal Flame. I say ‘very sudden’ in that …
Skeletal Vortex was originally released on Unmatched Brutality Records four years ago, which is right around the time Suture split up. But now both the band and the record are back again, the latter remixed …
By now you’ve surely at least heard some rumblings, as early press and publicity onslaught turn the initial trickle of new album chatter into a full-on landslide, that today’s Baroness ain’t exactly the Baroness of …
Originally written by Rae Amitay There’s a Finnish power trio operating under the Superchrist moniker, but I’d hate to see what would happen if they went toe-to-steel-toe with these Chicago natives. The Superchrist behind Holy …
Chicago death metal act Cardiac Arrest returns with Vortex Of Violence, their second album for Incantation mainstay John McEntee’s Ibex Moon Records. This band isn’t particularly known for expansionism or subtlety, so what you get …
Very few black metal fans would deny that any new Deathspell Omega is special, as their brand of ever-convincing evil never falters in execution or originality, but there is something extra nice about a new …
In this bimonthly column, staff writer Doug Moore takes a very close look at extreme metal lyrics. Some will be serious, some will be silly, but they’ll all go under the microscope. Extreme metal has …
Behold the birth of Death… In 1984, future Death-mates Chuck Schuldiner, Kam Lee and Rick Rozz released the five-song Death By Metal demo under their original name of Mantas. Now, nearly thirty years later, Relapse …
Though I’ve been a fan of Master and Death Strike for ages, I must begrudgingly admit that it was a long time before I dug much further into the Chicago scene, and in not digging …
