Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Album artwork by James Koehnline] As much as I love and appreciate the fact that my metal foundation was fortified by growing up alongside the genre in the ‘80s as a youth, I owe a great deal of my undying …
[Cover art by Fenomeno Design] Did you know that Chile is pretty darn good at death metal? If not, you must be new around these parts, in which case, I say, welcome friend! We’re glad to have you here and …
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 …
“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 …
In all things, balance is key. Such is the case here at Blast RItes, and so, for every disgusting gurglegore offering like the recent Organ Failure, we must achieve parity and a centering of our …
Two of the things I love most in this life are grindcore and the Green Bay Packers. So when the new EP from this Green Bay-based death/grind outfit landed in the ol’ inbox, it came …
