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 …
We’ve all experienced that exciting moment when a non-metal friend has said, “ok, where do I start?” Your mind races as the available options from the 1 million albums you’ve listened to in the last …
[Artwork by Adam Burke / Nightjar Illustration] Listening to the debut full-length from Chicago’s Fer de Lance is akin to witnessing the epic origin story for the US interpretation of Germany’s Atlantean Kodex, but with …
There are no limits, you are only limited by however far you want to be limited. –Chuck Schuldiner Only death is real. –Thomas Gabriel Fischer Mortality casts its shadow over everything we do and experience. …
Once known as, ahem, Herpes, the buzzsaw devotees in Disfuneral distinguish themselves not in aesthetics, necessarily, but where it counts—quality songwriting. Though the Frenchmen’s debut, Blood Red Tentacle, borrows liberally from the Entombed, Grave, and …
In all of heavy metal’s fifty-ish glorious years, how many conversations have been had the world around concerning some variation on the theme “Who is the heaviest of them all?” Tens of thousands, no doubt. …
Surprises are relatively rare in this age of hyper-publicity. Yet every once in a while something like Azaab’s Summoning the Cataclysm falls from the sky to clock you in the noggin before landing at your …
Get your antibiotics ready, friends, it’s time for Staff Infections. Staff Infections, if you didn’t know, is our monthly examination of the Last Rites staff’s listening habits. Typically I also spend a little time discussing …
[Cover art by Lordigan] To listen to and fully enjoy Analepsy requires a state of mind matching the above. The band’s wares are most effective when you’ve turned off your brain and you can be …
