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 …
To take Sanguis Imperem as straight-up death metal is a mistake. These Californians (also active as live backing for similarly-minded noiseniks Nocturnal Blood) clearly take their inspiration from that murky, ill-defined, yet fertile territory often …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell It’s no secret that Blut Aus Nord has been on an absolute creative tear over the the past few years. After Odinist‘s baby steps, Memoria Vetusta IImarked a glorious emergence …
originally written by Chris McDonald Sarpanitum’s full-length debut, Despoilment of Origin, was a masterful display of monolithic blasting death metal that really opened my eyes to the potential of said style after being bored by …
It’s a given that everything new borrows and steals from the old, and while this platitude ought to liberate us critics from the tiresome debate over authenticity versus pastiche, there’s enough of a difference between …
Ty Brookman’s take: What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Canada? Of course, the foking infamous bacon. Canada’s claim to fame, the Canadian crown jewel. The final compliment to my …
We’ve already seen superb releases drop from all of metal’s varied branches this year. But when the dust eventually settles, 2011’s most celebrated sub-genres will be those that give a solemn nod to a very …
Lost, the 2010 debut from Dutch act An Autumn for Crippled Children, was a pleasant surprise: a moody, expansive, atmospheric and dynamic album that threaded the line safely between depressive black metal, doomy dirges and …
Funeral doom is, in most appreciable ways, a niche within a niche. Forcing the listener to bear witness to a cripplingly slow march to oblivion is not, it must be said, the easiest way to …
