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 …
I have a very serious question to pose to you all: Was the Disney film Fantasia integral to your childhood? If so, then you can probably join me now in connecting most of metal’s subgenres …
Dylan Carlson’s Earth is the closest thing to a genuine glacier that music can offer. Sure, plenty of other bands take a similarly crawling approach, but Carlson’s project has been inching its way down the mountain …
originally written by Chris McDonald Much like its semi-kindred spirit power metal, epic folk metal often walks a fine line between cheesy and bad-ass, where a few misplaced slips of the foot can land the …
originally written by Chris McDonald Despite not being a huge fan of sludgy doom metal, something about Weedeater has always been peculiarly endearing to me. Maybe its the sense of humor that comes through in …
As the so-called “thrash revival” begins to recede over the horizon, we can start to notice the cream bands of the crop rising to the top. One such act is Denver’s Havok, who with 2009’s …
It is no small secret that symphonic black metal has been in a lull for several years now. Really, calling it a lull is far too nice. A more accurate statement would be to say …
Originally written by Erik Thomas So it appears that Glen Benton has gotten all the personal, anti-marriage, anti-wife and divorce bullshit that filled the In Torment In Hell awfulness of 2008’s lame ‘Til Death Do Us …
In the world of Slavic black(ened) metal, you’re most likely to find these three things: awesome music, an awful lot of hilarious-looking bands that like to dress up and play flute in the forest, and, …
