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 …
originally written by Jim Brandon It looks like the battle between style and substance rages on. With the apparent hibernation of many tech-death torchbearers, the resurgence of ugly death metal bands seems to have reached …
Originally written by Erik Thomas I’ve long championed and enjoyed Germany’s underrated folk-metal act Suidakra. From Lupine Essence through the shaky pure melodeath phase of Command to Charge to 2009s Crogacht, and even with the …
Long-running stoner outfit Orange Goblin seems an unlikely candidate for the box-set treatment, but courtesy of Metal Blade, they get it nonetheless. Orange Goblin (the box set) is a 5-disc compendium of the band’s first …
You like power metal, right? Who doesn’t, after all, occasionally yearn for keyboards and wenches, widdly guitars and dragons, quintuple-tracked fake choirs and hymns in praise of the righteousness of the almighty George, Thunder-Unicorn Savior …
originally written by Chris McDonald Another elite black metal project from Germany, Infestus has been turning heads since its inception in 2003. At the core they’ve always been a tight, technically proficient black metal band …
Everybody sit back while I make this album seem way more complicated than it really is… London, England act End of Level Boss is many things, and yet they are not. In many ways – …
Two words quickly sprang to mind as I started putting together thoughts about my collective Yob experience: “epiphany” and “resonation.” That first choice is obviously pretty dramatic, so I’ll address it quickly in hopes of stemming …
If there were a physical embodiment of my mental working space for this Macabre review, it would likely resemble the scenes left by those they sing about: crumpled pieces of paper in place of dead …
