Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Cover artwork by Douglas Leal] Listening to the new album from Brazil’s Deafkids, Cicatrizes Do Futuro, I’ve been thinking about rivers. [indignant voice from the back]: WHAT? Mea culpa, friend. I’m here today to preach the gospel of Under the …
[Album artwork by Harshanand Singh] The third album is in some ways a litmus test for a band’s longevity. Three albums is a sufficient sample size—you can generally tell where a band is headed, whether they’ll last, whether they speak …
[Pre]-historically speaking, the boys, Nocturno Culto and Fenriz, have always been influenced by the likes of Celtic Frost, Bathory, and all things ‘80s. In fact, they don’t shy away from the fact that it’s always been about that era. After …
[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 …
[Cover artwork by Jose Gabriel Angeles] Take a journey with me, my fellow grizzled riff-gluttons who’d likely rather bong all the world’s remaining Schlitz wounded soldiers in lieu of sacrificing an original Effigy of the …
The metaphor isn’t hard to spot in the cover art of Stratovarius’ 16th album, nor in its title, Survive. The world’s pretty fucked up these days and we may very well be beyond the threshold, …
“Sometimes you just need some… disgusting blastbeats and just like… y’know…” “…some fuckin’ sick fuckin’ vocals, man.” And when you do, then here you go. From the idyllic Midwestern paradise of Lima, Ohio, comes Couple …
It feels like it’s been ages since Cruz came crawling out of Catalonia with their first album, Culto Abismal, but apparently it’s only been six years, and really only five since I first heard it, …
Fast Rites: because sometimes brevity is fundamental. When your band pedigree includes members of tech-heads Obsolete, dissonant death metallers Sunless, black/death churners Suffering Hour, and several others, you’re probably creating both a certain level of …
Long, long ago—even before the days when the lonesome warble of AOL’s “You’ve got mail!” swept through the wilds of the heartlands—goths and metal freaks shared an equitable “the enemy of my enemy is my …
[Cover art by Randy Ortiz] “I don’t believe that you mean well” That lyric perfectly sums up KEN mode’s eighth album. The artists involved don’t feel the world has their best interests in mind, and …
Given the current collective headspace, the thick layer of death/doom on Dead Void’s Volatile Forms probably isn’t the healthiest use of forty four minutes for the lot of us. There are certainly days where I …
