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 Chris McDonald Imagine, if you will, a band that epitomizes everything sleek, modern, and forward-thinking about underground metal music. A band akin to Decrepit Birth, Angra, or Wintersun perhaps. An outfit whose …
Okay, so everybody understands the appeal of the Ferrari. Who can resist the draw of 490 horsepower, 340 foot pounds of torque and 0-60 in 4.8 seconds? And, of course, it’s so, so sexy. But …
Originally written by Michael Roberts. The Relapse debut from Tombs isn’t an easy beast to pin down. Winter Hours may be a relatively tidy thirty-seven minutes in length but feels significantly longer, such is the diversity and sheer density that it …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell Quite honestly, it’s tough to swallow another helping of technical death metal at this point. Everything from the band name (come on, guys), the computer-generated cover art, and the maddingly …
For nearly three decades, Germany’s Grave Digger has soldiered on, (mostly) bringing us some killer epic speed metal. (They’d probably love to forget their brief departure into Bon Jovi-esque pop metal—under the abbreviated name Digger—as …
originally written by Chris McDonald While some may view the reissue of such a readily available album as Amon Amarth’s debut Once Sent From The Golden Hall as excessive, I for one am happy to …
“Happy metal” is such a dubious concept. But if it’s humanly possible to listen to Turisas and not be inspired to thrust one’s fist in the air, to move and to smile gleefully whilst doing …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell Progressive power metal is one of the arenas that American bands tend to fare extremely well in. Ball-swingin’ and crunch-centric, we Yanks tend to place just as much importance on …
