It takes effort and drive in today’s metal market to bring something that goes outside the box. To bring in fresh ideas to an extreme sound without alienating your core fanbase is something even tougher. Read more […]
Quite the profound title: Your Ultimate Urban Nightmare, eh? It doesn’t mince words when pointing the finger at those responsible for the rapid destruction of our ecosystem and various animal species, Read more […]
Together since 2003, Exlibris hail from Poland – and push a sound that combines traditional heavy metal, power, and progressive shades with orchestration/symphonic elements. The diversity aids their Read more […]
Almost a decade ago, Obscura released Cosmogenesis to the masses. Helping to rush in the tech death onslaught (along with earlier bands like Necrophagist of course), what made Obscura stand out was their Read more […]
The year is 2004. Melodic death metal was in all of its shining, if not near-saccharine glory, bands seemingly coming out of every nook and cranny of the globe to bastardize At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity Read more […]
Coming up amid the metalcore movement of the early 2000s, The Agony Scene was not a band to stand around and offer the same album each time around. The three they released all offered some different takes Read more […]
Shifting priorities from a more band-oriented situation with Alterius into a solo driven venture that inherently focuses on his instrumental skills, guitarist Rithiya Henry Khiev has a lot to say in the Read more […]
Coming in hot from The Oath, Johanna Sadonis took to Lucifer as the next logical jumping point and teamed up with Gaz Jennings (ex-Cathedral) to pen the band’s first offering. After the release of I, Read more […]
When it comes to the progressive metal scene, one of the first bands that people tend to think about has to include Between the Buried and Me. Though it wasn’t always that way, with the band rising Read more […]
“Psykotisk självinsikt,” the second cut on Vanhelga’s new Fredagsmys full-length, moans and drones alone, suffocating the atmosphere with a rather pervasive feeling of pure black metal melancholy. Read more […]
One has to admire the directness of a band name like Violent Life Violent Death. It’s direct, it’s pointed, and it tells you exactly what to expect. There’s a reason why the subject of aggression Read more […]
In the spirit of full disclosure, this is much less of a review of Ordinary Corrupt Human Love and instead an autobiographical retrospective for myself and a kind of shared path of development with Deafheaven Read more […]
Otep has never been one to shy away from controversy. If you look at any of the band’s releases, you’ll find a common factor that vocalist Otep Shamaya is going to call it the way that it is. No Read more […]
An artist that seems destined to be crossing over into the larger realms outside rock/metal in the very near future, Diamante has an intriguing blend of sounds on her debut album, Coming in Hot. There’s Read more […]
Across mainland Europe, it’s safe to say that two bands that have transformed the power metal market in one shape or another have been Sweden’s Sabaton, and the following German act Powerwolf. Between Read more […]
Forever pulling double-duty with Leaves’ Eyes, Atrocity frontman Alexander Krull is a busy man (as is the rest of the band). With the buzz that Leaves’ Eyes has generated over the years, sometimes Read more […]
While it’s been about 7 years since Trillium released a new album, Amanda Somerville has been far from resting on her laurels. She’s continued to build-up a name for herself, in both collaborations Read more […]
The problem with being from an exotic, much-queried upon country is that the fascination may never run out. Geographic location is often used as a sonic measuring stick in metal — it’s a time-honored Read more […]
We will be past the half-year point by the time you’re reading this and surely you’ve made up your mind as to what has been hot in 2018, as have we. Since there are so many releases that are “hot” (saying Read more […]
Yearning to bring stadium rock back, German act Kissin’ Dynamite are a rare breed in today’s melodic hard rock/metal landscape. Releasing five studio albums and a live double album/DVD set over the Read more […]
Halfway through the year at this point, and almost to the one year anniversary of this particular column. With that said, let’s just focus on the videos for this month. We check out Among Gods, Blitzkrieg, Read more […]
The duo of Hoth is one that has been in constant evolution. From their very blatant Star Wars inspirations that led their debut album, to a more adventurous and dark sophomore effort, the band has continued Read more […]
New England has had a wide array of heavy music appeal across all genres for decades. From classic/traditional offshoots to symphonic acts, and everything from doom to thrash, power, progressive, death, Read more […]
It’s still a nice feeling to find a band that’s firing on all cylinders through random discovery. The UK’s Mask of Judas are a band that’s hard to describe in a one-sentence blurb, but they are Read more […]
With the onset of summer comes the yearly tradition – time to get out our lists and see what has made the first half of 2018 enjoyable (from a musical perspective at least). Being that all of our staff Read more […]
One of the select few in heavy metal culture that truly needs no introduction, Devin Townsend has had a long, storied history with the genre. Most recently, his journey has involved a group of musicians Read more […]
With summer festival season ramping up in Europe, all of us in North America can take solace in knowing we have a few more months to pinch pennies before the fall touring season commences. With that in Read more […]
While stoner hard rock/metal and its subsets garner a larger piece of the underground heavy attention, let’s not forget musicians who strive to cut their teeth from the Trouble/Candlemass cloth – where Read more […]
It’s an exciting time for tech death metal if you are in seek of forward-thinking, progressive material. Not simply the ‘tech for tech’s sake,’ but those who are looking to advance the genre forward. Read more […]
An up and coming act from Northern New Jersey, Dead City Crown play with a distinctively European approach to their material. While most Stateside bands take the melodic death metal approach and either Read more […]
