Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Cover art by Quinn Henderson] You’re familiar with the term, “unc,” right? If not, it generally refers to a washed up older feller whose personality in large part revolves around extravagantly performing confusion and/or displeasure at the mere notion of …
[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 …
If you thought bands who wrote songs based on “Lord of the Rings” and other such works of fantasy were huge nerds, wait until you get a load of Germany’s Logar´s Diary. This six-piece concept …
Back in 2004, I had the privilege of interviewing Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul during a local stop with Damageplan on the Headbanger’s Ball Tour. Two of the nicest guys you could ever hope to …
Originally written by Tim Pigeon Like a musical representation of Barry Bonds, Moonspell only get thicker and heavier with age, as if injected with vigor. Nearly vanished are the monotone clean vocals that may have made them …
Matthew Cooper’s take: I’ll make two things clear. First, in certain cases the most helpful thing a reviewer can do is to make his opinions on a band’s prior work as clear as his thoughts …
It’s sadly appropriate that it was on 1999’s heroin themed titled Dark Side of the Spoon when Ministry hit their rock bottom. Clever title aside, Ministry ended the decade with an inconsistent and lackluster effort that came on the heels of Filth …
Originally written by Ben Graves. The Undying Darkness, the latest showing from German metalcore stalwarts Caliban, has quite a few redeeming qualities. The musicianship is tight, the riffage alternating between visceral and soothing, the vocals – …
Originally written by Ian Duncan-Brown. Sapthuran: Ah, this is truly the very best kind of modern black metal. Instead of taking the droning approach employed by much of the scene, Sapthuran’s sound is built upon riffs, …
Tim “Ripper” Owens is a real trooper. Plucked from relative obscurity out of Winter’s Bane and a Judas Priest cover band to front the metal gods, he went on to sing on two studio albums …
