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 …
Have you ever come across music that just leaves you cold? I don’t mean an album that everyone seems to love that you think is crap; I’m talking an album that you know is good …
Originally written by Erik Thomas My last personal experience with Sweden’s Draconian was 2005’s excellent Arcane Rain Fell, and in fact, “Death, Come Near Me” is still one of my favorite doom tracks. I missed …
Impatient Pharaoh fans will be forced to wait a little longer for the rightful follow-up to the stellar Be Gone (supposedly due to hit the streets in the Fall), but this cracking EP will make that wait a little …
originally written by Chris McDonald Carnival is Forever is the kind of album that will always be tied to the context in which it’s released. In this case, it’s the first new output in over …
Spanish power metal act Vhäldemar has clearly taken much inspiration from their Teutonic cousins to the northeast – quite simply, they couldn’t sound a whole lot more German unless they were chanting “Deustchland Uber Alles” …
Singapore’s Rudra has been kicking around in some form since 1992, but it was really with the 2005 release of Brahmavidya: Primordial I (the first in a trilogy that is completed by the album currently …
For forty-two years, Uriah Heep has rocked right along. It hasn’t all been easy living, of course – those early 70s records that are almost universally recognized as the top of the Heep are long …
Elitist is a four-piece band from Portland, Oregon, but for all intents and purposes, you may as well just think of the band members as four spiky signposts pointing the quickest road to Hell. This …
