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 It’s ironic that I write my review of Insomnium’s fourth album the same week that Be’lakor’s second album also gets reviewed as there are a lot of similarities between the two acts; both ply …
Sanctification shares members past and present with Dark Funeral, and despite that they play a totally different style of metal, they share some similarities with their better-known blackened brethren. Like Funeral, Sanctification is an energetic, …
Originally written by Ross Main. Only the most old school and knowledgeable vinyl-lover will be able to give you a technical explanation to why they think vinyl sounds better than CD. For most vinylers though, …
The Gates of Slumber’s last album Conqueror was by all accounts a triumph, and hailed by many as the band’s best work to date. The downside to releasing such a successful album is that the …
Although his name will be rightfully forever prefaced with “former Accept vocalist,” metal veteran and Elmer Fudd lookalike Udo Dirkschneider has fronted this eponymous outfit since the late 1980s. With this twelfth record, he’s now …
Here is the deal with shitty vocals: they are permissible if, and only if 1) they are not the focus of the songs, 2) the music is good enough to render them inconsequential, and 3) …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell While certainly not flamboyant in displaying their mediocrity, UK industrial metal outfit Minethorn don’t do much to cloak it, either. Junk Hive Noir, the band’s debut full-length, has been in the works for …
In the case of The People vs. 3 Inches Of Blood for crimes against metallic credibility and musical decency, I side with the band’s defense. In fact, I’ve never quite understood why 3IOB rubs so …
