A multi-national, dual gender outfit with two of the members going under pseudonyms (2008 (drums) and Behold the Pentagram (guitars, bass), respectively), one wouldn’t initially peg Skeletal Spectre as Read more […]
Sole Majestic Downfall dude Jacobo Cordova probably spins the same albums DR does when he’s feeling solemn (or in a good mood – take your pick): Katatonia’s Dance of December Souls, Paradise Lost’s Read more […]
Caffeinated power metal (which is not to be confused with happy, or epic power metal) had its first moment in the sun via Sonata Arctica’s “Blank File” in 1999. As an old college friend once described Read more […]
Rogga Johansson and Christian Alvestam should hook up one day, just so the ridiculous amount of projects that bear both of their names can have some kind of joint union. At last count, Johansson has roughly Read more […]
Past tense to future tense, let history unfold. So ends a decade now, what will the 90’s hold? Wait a second…different Sanctuary. Our bad. With a “k” in place of the “c,” this Sanktuary might Read more […]
A bunch of long-hairs playing blackened sludge. That’s what Philadelphia’s Hivelords are. As if we’ve gotten enough of this sort of the thing the last 18 months, it’s no longer worth harping about; Read more […]
When the voice of an iconic act leaves not once, but twice in a band’s career, you better step up to the plate for the replacement or risk alienating a healthy reputation. Eric Wagner possessed such Read more […]
Guys, the French have done it again. After listening to CROWN’S latest offering Psychurgy, I feel it’s safe to say that the record is a worthy addition to the growing pantheon of forward-thinking metal Read more […]
Pete Flesh (he of Deceiver, Maze of Torment, and Thrown fame) is hardly a prominent name in death metal circles, but hey, when trying to get your name out there, what better way than to name your band Read more […]
A two-man black metal crew from Flip, Flip, Flip-adelphia (sorry, was watching It’s Always Sunny prior to writing this), Averse Concept, like their city mates Woe, play a sort of raw, viscerally-tinged Read more […]
Would Armed for Apocalypse be a nu metal band if this were 1998, and not 2013? DR certainly wonders such a thing, what with the band’s love of all things down-tuned and simplistic, two rudiments of the Read more […]
Between DR and our Blistering.com predecessor, perhaps no name has been dropped more than Dan Swanö’s. As a producer and multi-instrumentalist, Swanö’s imprint is on some extraordinarily vital bodies Read more […]
Thank goodness actual full-length album releases haven’t gone the way of the dinosaur – how else would a band like Black Tusk give us a stopgap EP? It’s almost a negative term, you know? “Stopgap.” Read more […]
Guitarist Jack Frost has traveled a lot in his pursuit for the art of metal through the years. Recording and touring opportunities that include Savatage, Metallium, Lizzy Borden, the Bronx Casket Co. and Read more […]
No one will ever out-cheese Manowar in the chest-bumping, loin-cloth wearing, quasi homoerotic arena…that’s pretty much a given. It’s in the bands that have spawned from Manowar is where the line Read more […]
If you like power metal bands that flirt with the thrash aesthetic, then Circle of Silence may be the band for you. Hailing from Germany, the band can easily be grouped into the Mystic Prophecy and Iced Read more […]
In early 2012, a mass exodus took place when Rikard Sunden, Oskar Montelius, Daniel Mullback, and Daniel Myhr all left Swedish power metal band Sabaton. The move was shocking to say the least, but ultimately Read more […]
Self-proclaimed “party thrashers,” Toronto’s Fatality went the Indiegogo route in order to fund their Psychonaut second album. There’s a growing stigma toward bands who opt to solicit for funding Read more […]
If funeral doom is the proverbial snail pace-setter, then a group like Massachusetts’ Morne are the slightly more motivated tortoise. Their 2011 Asylum effort hunkered down with bogged-down doom riffs, Read more […]
Lesbian’s Forestelevision is one long song, so get your Crimson (Edge of Sanity) or Holy Mountain (Sleep) comparisons out right away. It’s not that big of a deal, to be frank, for there’s a vast Read more […]
The retro psych bands of the 60’s and 70’s keep on coming and Norway’s Spirits of the Dead exhibit all the hallmarks of progressive folk rock of yesteryear. To a very large degree much of this style Read more […]
Having escaped the 90’s by the skin of his teeth, Ronnie James Dio found fresh footing in the 00’s, starting with Magica. Looking to bounce back after the poorly-received (and clunky) Strange Machines Read more […]
Perhaps the most integral part of a traditional rock band is also the most difficult to secure. I must have listened to hundreds of what could have been notable bands, diminished by a bad voice or maybe Read more […]
Considering 2/3’s of Ereb Altor’s lineup holds court in Swedish doom masters Isole, a certain expectation of quality loomed for their third album, Fire Meets Ice. You can see the Bathory homage based Read more […]
Summon the Faithless is the debut album from Portland’s Lord Dying, a band made up of members from other established bands, who have (rather impressively) released an album and are embarking on a national Read more […]
Released earlier in the year via Sacrament Music, Sannhet’s Known Flood debut is getting the worldwide treatment via ConSouling Sounds. Hailing from Brooklyn, the trio of Christopher Todd (drums/samples), Read more […]
Admittedly, this scribe on some level is still smarting over the fact Mercenary never became metal’s next big thing. They have all the ingredients for such an ascension, of which we’ll detail below, Read more […]
Enslaved’s Eld make it possible for Scandinavian bands to play Viking/folk inspired death/black metal without having to resort to native instrumentation as a point of focus. From there (read: early 90s), Read more […]
Five years ago, Mouth of the Architect looked like the next band to break out of the post-metal ruckus and ascend to sub-Isis levels. Their 2008 effort Quietly was achingly broad and cerebral, with a title Read more […]
The production on Void Meditation Cult’s Sulfurous Prayers of Blight and Darkness is horrendous. Okay? Certain members of the metal journalism community sometimes have difficulty overlooking such a fact, Read more […]
