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 …
Moonspell has weathered a number of things in their long career. Not unlike many other bands that found popularity in the mid-90s, they weathered a period of artistic experimentation that fragmented their fan base, and they …
Originally written by Rae Amitay Goddamn, this is some great melodic death metal. In the same vein as Dark Tranquillity and Insomnium without intense mimicry, Be’lakor (the name comes from Warhammer, in case you weren’t …
The simple fact that this record exists is all kinds of awesome. (How’s that for unbiased journalism?) Years after his death, Townes Van Zandt remains an underrated figure. He’s found some success in the country …
In 1985, Ralf Hubert started a band he didn’t intend to join. At the time, he was the owner of the beautifully named Aaarrg Records, as well as a sound engineer for the likes of …
The first and last time I heard Singapore’s Impiety was on the band’s third album, Kaos Kommand 696, which was released almost ten years ago. Despite enough line-up changes over the past decade to make …
Let’s get one thing straight from the beginning: Jeff Loomis is a guitar god, and one of the last, really. His playing on Nevermore albums: divine. His playing on his solo work, including these here …
Whether rightly or wrongly, Marduk had become something of an extreme metal punch line by the late 1990s and early 2000s. (Example: Q: How many Marduks does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: …
Before I signed up to review this new Dying Fetus record, I was tangentially party to a conversation between my fellow MetalReview staffers Doug Moore and Dan “Dr. Obstapus” Obstkrieg wherein this pair of irrepressible …
