Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Album artwork by fleshflies] If Conan The Sumerian had pursued The Secret of Acid in lieu of The Riddle of Steel, Conan The Barbarian would have been a very different film. Like, eat shit, Wheel of Pain; so long, time …
[Cover artwork by David Dubenic] It’s tempting to call Dissona a passion project. Based in and around Chicago, they’ve been making progressive metal for more than 15 years, outlasting the tides of misfortune and disappointment, including the pandemic cancellation of …
[Cover art by Alex Eckman-Lawn] If you look at other pages and conversations about An Abstract Illusion, you’ll likely find that they are most often saddled with the progressive death metal genre tag. Surely, I’m being a bit pedantic here, …
[Album artwork by Martin Messner and Patrick Klopf] Perhaps you’ve noticed by now that these Diamonds & Rust treatments have a tendency to dip into a sort of narcissistic form of self-interest when generated by yours truly. Why am I …
Originally written by Erik Thomas. Synopsis: So here’s a brief and very general history lesson. The term “Varangian” is a general term for ‘barbarian’ or ‘Viking’ used by the people in Eastern Europe (namely the Byzantine …
originally written by John Hearn Reviewing a technical death metal album is a tricky proposition for me. The musically-inclined (and attention-deficient) parts of my brain generally leave me fawning over the accomplished musicianship and complex …
Erik Thomas’ take: Synopsis: Nile. The name brings out the fanboys and haters like no other. I personally sit somewhere in the middle, as while I enjoy each album, I feel Nile’s Egyptian themed death metal …
originally written by Jim Brandon When I first heard last year that Angelcorpse were reuniting and quickly working on new material for future albums, it was pretty exciting news. Among the warlike middle-tier blast beat …
Originally written by Jason Jordan. Fuck the Facts are the best band with the word “fuck” in their moniker, which is both a blessing and a curse. Aside from that, anyone familiar with these grindeath Canadians …
Originally written by Dan Staige. There’s a top secret room about the size of a walk-in closet in an animal testing lab. You won’t see it by taking an employee-guided tour. It’s buried behind a …
Originally written by Erik Thomas. Synopsis: For those that don’t know, Darkest Hour were releasing At The Gates melodic styled death metal as far back as 1996, while in their teens when most current metalcore bands were in Hot …
Originally written by Jason Jordan. Red Harvest have been releasing material since the early ‘90s, and from my understanding, they periodically undergo stylistic changes that result in each album sounding different than its predecessors. Still, though …
