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 …
South London’s Carl McCoy has taken fans Fields of the Nephilim on an interesting journey over the past 20 years. McCoy grew up in an environment steeped in religion, and found his days as a …
Originally written by Jeremy Garner Hmm…this is interesting. Just when I was giving up on US black metal and the genre in general of putting out anything that really advances and pushes conventional boundaries, a …
Originally written by Doug Moore. It’s hard to believe that Oxbow has been around for nearly twenty years now. It’d be hard to believe that anything as stubbornly atypical and unfriendly as these Californian lunatics could last …
Originally written by Chris Chellis. While Annihilator version 2006 may no longer be of interest to the same fan base the group garnered in its early years, this spiffy new DVD should certainly turn those stubborn heads. …
Originally written by Jeremy Garner I’ve always got a kick out of pulling some of my records of The Gathering around my friends and watching their puzzled slack jawed expressions as their light tones floated through …
If I say heavy metal to you and you think of abstract and hollow soundscapes that drag on for ten minutes without getting anywhere, I think we may be unable to communicate at all. Yes, …
I love Cathedral. I have ever since 1994’s The Ethereal Mirror. I’m probably the only fan I know of that even found redeeming qualities in 1999’s poorly received Caravan Beyond Redemption. After a return to …
Originally written by Erik Thomas Ill admit it; I have not heard a single album beyond the seminal Roots and I have never even heard a single note from Derrick Green since he replaced Max Cavalera; Against, Nation and Roorback. Never …
