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 …
originally written by Jim Brandon Those who are much more elite than myself are sure to disagree, but I appreciate the ethnic turns black metal has taken since its inception. It’s come a long way …
Since Kovový Háj is the first encounter I’ve had with Umbrtka, I wanted to begin with a bit of investigation through the band’s back catalog. Investigate I did, and to my very pleasant surprise, I …
There’s something about good folk metal that always allows us to feel a strong connection with the interesting planet on which we live. Personally, I’ve spent the past week or so wondering why that is, …
Invidious – adj; “calculated to create ill will or cause offense, hateful”; “offensively or unfairly discriminating, injurious.” To a fan of classic death metal, this Dominion doesn’t create ill will, nor is it offensive, but …
originally written by Chris McDonald Like many bands which possess both a high level of instrumental talent and the desire to deviate from music’s expected norms, Cephalic Carnage’s albums have always been balancing acts between …
Originally written by Melissa Mercury. Hailing from the Netherlands, the influential death metal band Pestilence can be credited with creating the foundation for what death metal is today. Originating in 1986, they exploded onto the scene with …
In today’s world, everything old is new again. In a day when the biggest movies are based upon forty-year-old comic books or twenty-year-old television shows, that adage seems truer than ever. In the metal world …
Korzus formed in Sao Paolo in the early 1980s as a typically feral Slayer-indebted Brazilian-thrash outfit. By 1991’s Mass Illusion, they’d refined their approach into a more controlled Bay Area-styled attack, and then by the …
