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 Jordan Campbell It seems a bit odd to wrangle words over a piece of music that flows so effortlessly. The eloquent tome in question is Samothrace’s Life’s Trade, a monumental upheaveal of crushing doom. …
Originally written by Kris Yancey I’ll give it to Naer Mataron: they’ve got fire in their bellies, if only dinky embers capable of creating an ulcer at worst. But I almost feel like the Darkthrone …
Originally written by Kris Yancey The use of “random” feels a little out of place, having just heard Phobia’s newest, 22 Random Acts of Violence for the umpteenth time. Maybe each of the tracks chronicle …
Helms Alee’s MySpace site sports the following biographical information, quoted here in its entirety: “We are a loud rock band.” Fair enough. I can’t—and I won’t—disagree with that, but I will say it could use …
originally written by Chris McDonald In a turn of events almost identical to the circumstances that led to the release of Arsis’ A Diamond For Disease EP, Finnish melodoom stalwarts Swallow The Sun have released …
Originally written by Jordan Campbell Light This City – the young, Californian wielders of what’s left of the melodeath torch – lived quickly and flickered out abruptly. Stormchaser, their posthumous work of Bay Area-bred Euroshred, is easily …
originally written by Chris McDonald Epic black metal has gotten its fair share of underground attention recently, particularly since the 2006 release of Drudkh’s masterful Blood In Our Wells, which utilized huge, hypnotic drumbeats and …
The extreme metal scene of Finland may not be as fecund as that of neighboring Sweden but it does seem to produce acts of exceedingly high quality, such as Amorphis, Demigod, Demilich and Impaled Nazarene, …
