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 …
Last year’s Passiondale put this Dutch death metal outfit back on my radar—that one was a damn solid slab of melodic World-War-One-themed metal; it was the best record God Dethroned had done in quite awhile …
Acid Witch, everyone’s favorite psychedelic / Satanic / horror / doom / death metal band, has brewed up another cauldron full of cavernous growls, spooky organ licks, wailing solos and anvil-heavy riffs. Though there has …
It’s been said many times that vocals represent something of a fulcrum in heavy metal music. Lo! how many times we’ve relegated to the shelf an otherwise quality album because the vocals render sallow even …
California’s Holy Grail is comprised of the majority of a previous White Wizzard line-up—vocalist James Paul Luna, guitarist James J. Larue and drummer Tyler Meahl all abandoned that project in 2008 after the release of …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell It’s been a while since this album’s release, so advance apologies to those that expected prompt analysis. Something as (purportedly) monumental as The Crown‘s reunion album should be dissected posthaste, should …
Once upon a time, this New England outfit dropped something of a lost classic in 1987‘s A Crystal Vision, a record that succeeds as much through youthful exuberance as through the band’s nascent talent. That …
originally written by Jim Brandon This year certainly has not lacked in ugliness, but there’s been a fundamental absence of forward movement among the black and death metal crowd in many cases. The relatively short …
Regardless of which era of Dylan Carlson you prefer to listen to, his music will always have a subtle way of, well, droning over your thoughts. After all, this is the man responsible for inventing …
