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 …
Superfluous. There isn’t a better word in the English language to describe Helrunar’s latest full-length, Sól. In fact, this album goes well beyond anything that even the most patient fan of metal would catagorize as …
In 1974, alongside Scott Gorham, an 18-year-old Scottish guitarist named Brian Robertson replaced Gary Moore (R.I.P.) in Thin Lizzy, solidifying the best and most popular incarnation of that perpetually underrated outfit. As a member of …
Originally written by Sasha Horn Tom S. Englund emailed me about three months ago, out of the blue. Could this be a belated rockstar-hate-mail response to a couple of jabs I took in my review …
originally written by Juho Mikkonen; band photos by Daniel Falk There’s a peculiar inborn dichotomy between volume and marginality in underground metal. On the other hand, the pint-sized flame that was ignited already forty years …
Originally written by Erik Thomas After an 8-year lay-off, Indiana’s Gorgasm are back (well, one member is) with the long-awaited follow-up to Masticate to Dominate, an album that, to many brutal death metal fans, is …
There’s a lot to love about the San Francisco/Bay Area, but if I had to choose one element that tops the list, I’d go with that region’s inclination for stubborn open-mindedness that stretches across nearly …
Originally written by Chris Chellis. Death metal ought to be crushing and blunt about it; no minced words and certainly no subtlety. It is neither an exercise in progression nor a safe haven for so-called …
Originally written by Jon Eardley New Jersey-based metallers Morbid Sin began their quest for all things metal roughly 25 years ago, but it wasn’t until early 2010 that the outfit finally released their first full-length …
