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 remember it as if it were yesterday, wandering down the darkest and most bizarre alleyways New Orleans had to offer, blasting Folie Circulaire so loudly through my headphones that it felt as if putrid …
originally written by Chris McDonald The “comeback” of legendary underground metal bands has, perhaps predictably, turned out more disappointing results than commendable ones. Sure, the new Autopsy EP is pretty cool, and the new Gorguts …
In my review of Negura Bunget’s Masiestrit, I ran down a list of possible reasons why bands choose to re-record earlier material. In that case, the new version was well-justified, being a reimagining of lesser-known …
Arson Anthem was born of a shared love of vintage punk between Nola icons Mike Williams (Eyehategod) and Phil Anselmo (Pantera / Down). Homeless post-Katrina, Williams crashed in Anselmo’s guest quarters, and the pair would …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell Fleshgod Apocalypse proposed the hypothesis, and Beneath the Massacre has proven the theory: modernized, uber-brutal, ProTooled death metal bands absolutely shine in the EP format. The brevity not only maximizes the impact, it assures that …
The last record from these German crusty grinders hit a sweet spot for me back in 2005—Sedimente was raw, dissonant, angry, indebted to both Tragedy / From Ashes Rise crust punk and Assuck / Extreme …
originally written by Jim Brandon On the heels of writing about the newest Caspian album, Tertia, I almost find myself at a loss to describe my views on What We All Come To Need, from …
At the corner of Metal-As-Fuck Avenue and Shit-Eating-Grin Boulevard lies the more humorous/tongue-in-cheek side of the thrash/crossover style, which for over 20 years has been giving overly-pompous heavy metal and self-righteous hardcore punk the enema …
