Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Album artwork by James Koehnline] As much as I love and appreciate the fact that my metal foundation was fortified by growing up alongside the genre in the ‘80s as a youth, I owe a great deal of my undying …
[Cover art by Fenomeno Design] Did you know that Chile is pretty darn good at death metal? If not, you must be new around these parts, in which case, I say, welcome friend! We’re glad to have you here and …
It’s a magical corner of the musical world where a band can combine an infectious nature with extreme oddness, and it’s in that corner that Idaho’s Seven Chains makes their home. Make no mistake about it, third album Swollen, In …
[Cover art by Claudio Elias Scialabba] Italy’s Into Darkness has been a band for approximately 15 years but is just now releasing its first full length album, Route to the Other Side, but all that time has been greatly beneficial …
originally written by Erik Thomas This is my first exposure to this Finnish trio featuring Lasse Pyykkö (notably of doomsters Phlegethon and Sarnath, as well as old school death metal/grindcore act Vacant Coffin). It looks like I’m going to have …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell It’s been nearly nine years since the release of Karma to Burn‘s don’t-call-it-a-swansong Almost Heathen, a ten-ton stoner rock monument to the unadulterated glory of the riff. Since that album–and their subsequent …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell Order of Ennead’s self-titled debut flew over Metal Review HQ like a stealth bomber. Somehow, we failed to notice it at the time of release (for reasons still unknown), but …
originally written by Erik Thomas I’ve long championed Chicago’s Veil of Maya as one of the better shred-styled modern metal bands, from their 2006 debut to the overlooked Sumerian release, The Common Man’s Collapse. While labelmates Periphery seems to be getting an …
originally written by Erik Thomas Released last year on Scrotum Jus Records, the debut full-length from Singaporean trio Wormrot finally get more exposure worldwide thanks to Earache, who also gave Insect Warfare’s World Extermination the same treatment, and this album is right …
originally written by Erik Thomas Shifting is the album that I actually prefer to The Ocean’s recent Heliocentric as a mellower take on post-rock, also bringing to mind the likes of Day Without Dawn and Tides. What gives Italy’s At the Soundawn a little character …
None of my numerous visits to Indianapolis have ever led me to believe that the pleasant Midwestern metropolis could produce anything like this. Detroit and Toledo, sure, but not Indy, home of the champion Colts …
Celestia embodies the wonderful paradox of melody in black metal as well as any other band, and, at once bleak and beautiful, Archaenae Perfectii (L’Arche Arcane des Parfaits) is a model instantiation of the lately …
