Generally Impressed With Riffs
[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 …
[Cover artwork by Subhuman at Desert Dungeon] Let’s talk about our love for quirky metal. Okay, sure, any definable level of ‘quirk’ is obviously subjective, but I’m guessing you know we’re not talking about the guy who loves The Black …
In its unenviable position sandwiched between the dueling masterpieces of one of the single most important bands in metal history, Individual Thought Patterns tends to get the short end of the proverbial stick. Thought Patterns …
originally written by Chris McDonald Another band attempting to cross-pollinate deathcore and modern tech death, As You Drown pulls off this union a lot more smoothly than many bands I’ve heard. Rat King takes the …
“Captain’s Log: Stardate 43205.6. The Enterprise has arrived at Orelious IX to chart the battle in which the Menthars and Promelians fought to their mutual extinction. Among the ruins, we have found a relic: a …
I like a good turkey sandwich; lightly toasted sourdough with some lettuce, tomato, spicy mustard and a bountiful pile of gobble-gobble is a combination that’s equipped to win. Unfortunately, it’s also a combo I’ve encountered …
By and large, the works of 90s Midwestern death metal outfit Morta Skuld have been consigned to obscurity, a casualty of time and fading memory. The Relapse-released Through The Eyes Of Death is a compilation …
originally written by Chris McDonald Since its birth as a musical style, many have endorsed and embraced metal as an escape from the rigors of everyday life as opposed to a reflection of it; an …
Originally written by Rae Amitay Insomnium takes the rather vague classification of ‘melodic death metal’ and creates their own melancholic, complex, and driving definition. Above The Weeping World was a masterpiece; Across the Dark felt a …
For no real reason other than the foolish human yearning for order and symmetry, I’ve often thought of the ‘Big Three’ of German thrash – Sodom, Destruction, and Kreator – as having a cross-hemispheric counterpart …
