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 …
It feels more than a little ridiculous to be reviewing this as a ‘new release’, given that Hatred For Mankind, Dragged Into Sunlight’s debut full-length, was released by Mordgrimm in the UK all the damn …
Every once in a while, it’s quite nice not to have to come up with some clever introductory sentence that tells the readers some brief, useless tidbits about a band they might have never heard …
Originally written by Justin Bean. Now is as good a time as any to get into American grindcore because it seems every which way I turn I find another quality dose of blast beats, distorted …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell While overshadowed in most circles by Profound Lore‘s irresistible sexiness, Metal Blade has been quietly rebuilding themselves into a pure metal juggernaut. With metalcore waning, Slagel and Co. have put out some incredibly …
One gets the sense listening to James Labrie sing that he takes his work very seriously. Not so much the pinpoint-focused craftsman, nor the humorless artisan, but just that he lets no sung note hit …
Originally written by Doug Moore. Black metal today can be divided (very roughly, mind) into two camps. One camp consists of traditionalists. Darkthrone’s Fenriz is their chief spokesman, and stalwarts like Immortal, Gorgoroth, Watain, and Inquisition are their field generals. The …
Originally written by Erik Thomas I vaguely remember receiving this Finnish black metal act’s self-titled demo a couple of years ago, but I never got around to reviewing it, in part put off by the …
Despite a moniker tailor-made for doom metal, the Virginia-based trio known as Solace of Requiem, in fact, plays death metal. The band’s third album, The Great Awakening was actually recorded in 2008, but the act, …
