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 Ross Main. Nothing says you’re Swiss like a small note on your website reading “Eluveitie consider themselves a neutral band on topics [such] as politics and religion!” So assuming crypto-fascist enlightenment isn’t on …
Conversations between young metalheads and old about metal’s pioneers – Priest, Maiden and, first and foremost, Black Sabbath – seem to always involve comments from the younger pups that come straight from the “what have …
I’m not going to bore you with a lot of introductory details. By this time, everybody knows who and what Heaven & Hell is, and that pretty much speaks for itself. That being said, this could be …
Metal has long been embraced as a metaphor for darkness, and funeral doom may be its most effective vehicle, as its crushing heaviness and ponderous pace instantiate at once the blighting of sight, sound and …
Originally written by Ross Main. Sasquanaut is like a lazy student; extremely laid back, but obviously has a vague idea regarding what they want to do in life. You can tell the deep fuzz of the …
Originally written by Erik Thomas Considering death metal’s general empathy for all things violent, bloody and brutal, I’m surprised there are not more death metal albums about WWI – indisputably the most violent, bloody and …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell Give ’em points for persistence. Hatesphere have been cranking out pissed-off Gothenthrash practically non-fucking-stop since 2001, peppering the metal masses with ‘roid rage speedballs (and awful cover art) to the point of …
General Surgery is another one of those bands that bring to mind the term “Carcass-worship.” For this, their second full-length in nearly two decades of existence, this bunch of blood-splattered Swedish malcontents offer up Corpus …
