Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Album artwork / art direction by Joseph Niet / The Creative Corporation] Offering up a textbook definition of “holy crap, time flies,” Black Sabbath’s swan song, 13, was released 13 years ago, on June 7th, 2013. In a curious move, …
If you’re just now catching up, well, we’re just now catching up. Seth Buttnam and I (plus one uninvited guest) are rounding up some of our favoritest grindcore (or grind-adjacent) releases of the past however many months, since we (read: …
[Album artwork by Truls Espedal] It’s 17 albums for Enslaved now, comprising a discography I find exceptionally challenging to wrap my arms around. What’s going on here? Does anyone else forget that the relatively rote and by-the-numbers Frost is actually …
[Cover art by Per Spjøtvold] Want a fun way to acknowledge your own mortality? Think about how many years you’ve been listening to certain bands or albums. Of course, you, a distinguished devotee of this publication, surely engage in this practice, …
The last few years have seen an explosion of tech-death bands, some exciting and some not-so-much. California’s Embryonic Devourment (whose gore-grind-esque moniker belies their robotic technicality) isn’t quite new—Vivid Interpretations Of The Void is their …
originally written by Chris McDonald The Mystical Beast of Rebellion has inexplicably become the “black sheep” of Blut Aus Nord’s long-running and highly celebrated catalogue. Resting between the raw, more traditional black metal explored on …
Bruce Lamont’s first solo LP, Feral Songs of the Epic Decline, is actually a compilation of prior EP’s, Feral (2008) and The Epic Decline (2010). Together, they represent Lamont’s foray into sonic exploration as respite …
Horned Almighty is yet another band from the Shakespeare-pun-tempting land of Denmark. Chances are pretty good that if you’ve heard a Horned Almighty album before, you know exactly what to expect, which is a teeth-gnashing …
I don’t usually listen to music when I work out, but if I did, I would likely turn to the fractured genealogies of death metal, thrash, and grindcore before I would black metal. Loi Martiale …
Originally written by Justin Bean. In the grand scheme of the history of grindcore, the mid-to-late 1990s saw Brutal Truth, Discordance Axis, Pig Destroyer and a handful of other bands introducing certain elements of what you might call ‘artistic …
This excellent split pulls off one of those relatively difficult feats: bringing together artists of generally disparate styles to vie for your earspace without coming across like random combination or mere pastiche. Of course, we’re …
Originally written by Erik Thomas Even though I was unfamiliar with Todtgelichter, I’m a fan of avant-garde German black metal like Secrets of the Moon and most of Aural Music/Code 666’s releases, so Angst was a …
