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 …
If I was feeling like kind of an asshole, I might suggest that this review of Nemesis, the ninth and newest Azaghal record (and third for Moribund) could be kept to three words: “Finnish black …
originally written by Chris McDonald Lantlôs has long been my favorite band of the wimpy black metal genre. In addition to the band’s skilled melodic sense and intense drumming and vocals, their ability to channel the …
When Drudkh announced that their ninth album would be a return to their harsh roots, many preparing to groan at another Handful of Stars probably held their breath and raised a cautious eyebrow. After all, …
From the ashes of New Orleans-based outfits Suture and Catholicon comes Excommunicated, debuting with this Vatican-bashing platter of respectable black/death. The promo of Skeleton Key came complete with a glossary of terms and explanations of …
I awoke and found myself still in a daze. What happened last night? Or even the night before that? When was it, anyway? The calendar on the wall indicated that several months had passed since …
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Riffology. In this course we will examine great riffs in metal history and attempt to discern the nature of said greatness. Course requirements include good ears and a strong neck. …
Black metal as an art form has woven itself a web of interpretive tangents of late, unwittingly (perhaps) getting all gnarled up in scrutiny. While some of the validity vetting is surely self-interested, much is …
The unfortunate reality about diving ass-over-ankles into the mystical forests and blood-stained steppes of extreme metal (or any other niche art-form, for that matter) is that the longer one spends banging the heads that will …
