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 Erik Thomas Further cementing the UK’s recent underground death metal growth and improvement over the last few years by the likes of Ingested, Trigger the Bloodshed, Sarpanitum, Annotations of an Autopsy, Man Must Die, Porkfarm(also on Deepsend Records), Detrimentum, and Ignominious …
For myself and many others, there are very few bands quite like John Cobbet’s Hammers of Misfortune. Their unique theatrical qualities, mixed with the fact that they largely forego instrumental self-indulgence, gives the band their …
Fans of the genre know too well that picking up a new folk metal album can be such a crapshoot. The search for quality in this niche of metal can be like treasure hunting in …
Anyone who considers themselves a serious music fan has had a beloved band drag them through the triple “A” threat of anticipation, apprehension and anguish. The anticipation rides in high when we first hear tale …
Brilliant music, although all around us, can sometimes be rather elusive. We, as music lovers spend a significant amount of time searching for those special albums, which are not merely enjoyed but also take strong …
Originally written by Juho Mikkonen As the first day of the revelry finally culminated in Devin Townsend’s mesmerizing Ziltoid-spectacle, our quartet of first-string journalism was well on its way to reach objectionable levels of self-imposed …
Originally written by Juho Mikkonen For the uninitiated: Tuska Open Air is the biggest and oldest running extreme metal festival in Finland. By no means am I trying to say that it’s also the most …
Originally written by Chris Chellis. Black metal is as convoluted a sub-genre as any that currently exists; so when a straight up, second wave and unapologetic Czech band like Sator Marte comes slithering within our perimeters like …
