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 As evidenced by the comments on my review of I Declare War’s 2007 Amidst the Bloodshed, heaviness is in the eye of the beholder. And until you get your own website or …
Horseback is the singular vision and nearly singular execution of North Carolina songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jenks Miller. The Invisible Mountain is the project’s second full-length, and it should create a good amount of interest in …
Norway is better known for prog metal than power metal, even if both are but dimly lit stars amidst all the black metal in that icy north. Maybe it’s because what little power metal does …
Assuming one can look past their overly verbose name, in Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire (hereinafter referred to as “Clinging“) one will find a promising young grindcore unit, one that blends their …
originally written by Erik Thomas As most regular readers at my various outlets know, old school Swedish metal gives me a tremendous boner. From its fore bearers in Entombed, Grave and Dismember through unheralded gems like Nirvana 2002,Gorement and God Macabre and …
Get ready to bust out your skateboards and vandalize your neighborhood, because after hearing D.I.S., you won’t be able to do anything else. That’s right, Critical Failure contains 25 minutes of non-stop classic thrash action. …
Confession: I signed up to review this album because these Swedes named their band Zombiekrig. That’s it. Any of you who say you wouldn’t do the same are either liars or just too damn uptight …
Despite their nearly thirty-year career (beginning in 1984 under the name Avenger), Rage has only rarely crossed my radar before now. I have a few tracks of theirs on compilations, most notably the old Doomsday …
