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 Chris McDonald After such a massive, sprawling outing as last year’s Denunciatas Cinis, Haeresiarchs of Dis is taking a decidedly more compact approach with this follow-up effort. In Obsecration of the Seven …
Let me paint you a picture: A chill autumn wind rustles leaves like dry bones as it creeps across the fog-enshrouded fields of verdant Mother England. There is a small house at the top of …
WarHorse. That word alone might be all that’s necessary to push a number of folks towards this album. Despite the fact that he shoveled coals to the flames pre–As Heaven Turns to Ash, Faces of …
Japanese power(ful) trio Boris is one of those bands that is constantly accused of nonstop musical shape-shifting. While I’m more likely to identify these shifts as different ways of investigating the same basic aesthetic, it’s …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell If you’re a Boris neophyte, there are a couple of things you need to know about Heavy Rocks straightaway: 1) By and large, it’s relatively heavy…and it occasionally rocks. 2) This is the second …
Originally written by Sasha Horn With a setlist made up of primarily pre-90s Voivod, it’s hard not to get sentimental. So it’s off to the elementary school daze for a momentary lapse… Summer vacation 1988, Chicago, 90º …
After being left to rot for six years, the withered carcass of Exhumed, has been… exhumed, and I suppose it should not come as a surprise that the band has emerged all the stronger for …
The power and traditional metal genres are filled with bands that aspire to be the next Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. To date they have all failed, but in the process, some have made some …
