Generally Impressed With Riffs
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 …
[Cover art by David Preissel] The sounds of Neurosis’ “Locust Star” emanate from a desktop speaker wired to an iPod Nano via ⅛-inch cable “Hey maaaan … is that Ponderous Post Metal?” “Yeah maaan …” “Well turn it up MAAAN!!” …
[Artwork by Vicky “Liddo” Morales] In a soak-your-underwear sweaty, tetanus-to-the-touch warehouse in the middle of Skid Row, Raw Addict played its first show. Weeks earlier, drummer Isaac made the irresistible sales pitch, stating that the multinational band connecting grind lifers …
[Cover artwork by Juanjo Castellano] I dove into Nocturnal Visions – Invictus’s sophomore effort – having heard zero seconds of the Japanese death metal band’s debut, The Catacombs of Fear. In some ways, it’s an …
Artwork by Robin Mckenzie Do you like beautiful things? Your answer to that question is surely “yes, of course,” but also likely involves some concept of “beautiful” that might be up for discussion between individuals. …
[Cobweb Logo by Tanya Finder] As an individual who’s spent the better part of the last four decades venerating and meditating over the works of Mercyful Fate (and King Diamond), I have made my stance …
[Artwork by Rudi Yanto] By most measures, Stabbing’s second album, Eon of Obscenity, is good. In a way, it is certainly more successful than its predecessor, 2022’s Extirpated Mortal Process, the Texas brutal death metal …
It’s extremely difficult to win a championship in sports. Everything has to align: player personnel, performance, coaching, and health are all requirements, and a little luck doesn’t hurt. Sure, you hear of teams “overcoming adversity” …
Have you ever stubbed your toe and then cursed so violently that you accidentally opened a portal to an alternate universe where it’s always raining and everyone scowls at you like you owe their grandmother …
[Album artwork by Zbigniew Bielak] Since at least 2012’s Phantom Antichrist, Kreator has been an arena metal juggernaut. No matter how one feels about the releases that followed, we can agree that record, for better …
[Album artwork: @maldoillustration (drawing) and @branca_studio (concept)] It’s been four long years since we last heard from Sweden’s self-proclaimed ‘adventure rock’ outfit Hällas, and that time away has given the band ample opportunity to explore …
