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 …
Forgotten early Swedish death metal band Toxaemia gets the double-disc deluxe treatment with Buried To Rise, but there’s a bit of a hitch – it’s the same disc twice, albeit in different forms. The first …
The final short story in James Joyce’s collection Dubliners is entitled “The Dead,” and begins with the following line: “Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, was literally run off her feet.” The story involves an elaborate dance …
Traditionally, bands with an exceptional lead guitarist, if they’ve got their wits about them, craft their sound around that player’s leads and solos. Nothing’s more frustrating than getting an album from one of those acts …
originally written by Chris McDonald If someone asked me to give an example of what the “extreme” in extreme metal is supposed to denote, Rotten Sound would be one of the first bands I would …
Round about a decade or so ago a boldly-titled comp called True Kings of Norway was released on Spikefarm Records. Featured were embryonic early works by Emperor, Immortal, Arcturus, Dimmu Borgir, and Ancient, obviously slapped …
originally written by Chris McDonald Its been said plenty of times, on this site and others, but it bears repeating: Moonsorrow epitomizes the term “epic” in a heavy metal context. Time and time again, these guys …
It’s been said before (and it’s about to be said again) that Poland has a deserved reputation for metallic excellence but not necessarily for bold genre-expanding innovation – which is to say, if a generalization …
originally written by Jim Brandon I always raise an eyebrow at the appearance of collaborations between well-established musicians who come together to form new projects, especially since about seven out of ten times there’s nothing …
