Tag: Black
Artificial Brain – Artificial Brain Review
[Artwork by a fellow called Adam Burke] “Wait, this is black metal! I’m eating black metal!” ~ Tom Colicchio There’s a thing that happens in extremely sophisticated restaurants and amidst scheming competitive cooking shows where …
Luminous Vault ‒ Animate The Emptiness Review
[Cover art by fivetimesno] Animate the Emptiness, the first full length from New York’s Luminous Vault, is by definition a heavy metal album, and yet, it is also not a heavy metal album. To frame …
I Am the Night ‒ While the Gods Are Sleeping Review
[Cover art by Kristian “Necrolord” Wåhlin] The Grand World of Heavy Metal Music is no stranger to works of tribute, typically to an era or sound or Days of Yore, but sometimes bands zero in …
Reaper – Viridian Inferno Review
Because I had done the bare minimum of reconnaissance, I was only vaguely aware of what awaited me when I first sat down to listen to Reaper’s debut, Viridian Inferno. That the Australian band plays …
Heltekvad – Morgenrødens Helvedesherre Review
[Artwork: João de Sá from a 16th century anonymous Flemish painting, The King’s Fountain] With Heltekvad, Ole Pedersen Luk of Afsky sacrifices little aggression in adopting a medieval theme. And though I am still not …
Skumstrike – Deadly Intrusions Review
[Mother Superior, jumping the gun*]: When the band is called Skumstrike and the cover art looks like that, Brother Francis, you know just what you’re getting: beach-tinged acoustic strumming, lavender incense, and sensitive crooning. The …
Vampirska – Vermilion Apparitions Frozen in Chimera Twilight Review
I had only heard of — but not actually heard — Vampirska before listening to Vermilion Apparitions Frozen in Chimera Twilight. From the little I had read, I expected something more chaotic and orthodox than …
Downcross – Hexapoda Triumph Review
Of all the criticisms thrown at black metal, the lazy, tired “black metal has no riffs” argument is easily the most likely to jerk the eyeballs of anyone with any experience in the style involuntarily …