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 …
The Maldives is a small and scattered nation in the Indian Ocean, comprised of two chains of islands and atolls running north to south in roughly parallel lines—it lies approximately 500 miles southwest of the …
“Witness: march of the giants.” Few bands or artists of any media forge a legacy in which their fans can be one hundred and ten percent confident that new work will give them the thrills …
If there were ever an award for a band whose talent, professionalism, and overall musical concept has gone unnoticed for too long, Mar De Grises would certainly be one of my nominees. 2010 may just …
There’s good reason so many metal bands continue to crop up sounding like they just stepped out of Bill & Ted’s phone booth from the early 80’s: it was a bloody kickass time that produced …
originally written by Jim Brandon Whether it’s because of my own personal tastes in breakneck-speed black metal, or the fact that there’s so much of it out there to listen to, an album like Wolfshade’s …
originally written by Juho Mikkonen It’s rather unfortunate that the term “cult” (let’s just pretend that the other transcription doesn’t even exist) has gone through a process of depreciation through inflation of Weimarian proportions and …
Tally another under the win column for Shadow Kingdom Records. Their latest discovery is UK doom unit Crowned In Earth, the vision of vocal-guitar-bass-organ specialist Kevin Lawry. After bringing in drummer Darin McCloskey (Pale Divine, …
