Features

Les Discrets – Final Thoughts

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) By definition, Les Discrets mainman Fursy Teyssier is a real (cue French accent) “art-eest.” A well-respected animated film director in France, as Read more […]

Nevermore – Swell of Darkness

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) If the calendar year ended at this very moment, our nod for best album of 2010 would go to Nevermore’s The Obsidian Conspiracy. Not only is it Read more […]

Triptykon – Thou Shalt Still Suffer

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) The very public demise of Celtic Frost was a massive blow to the underground…let’s not pull any punches. After all, without CF, there wouldn’t Read more […]

The Haunted – Roamers and Wanderers

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) A sight this scribe will never forget is a sullen Anders Bjorler occupying the bar area at the now-vacant Club Laga in Pittsburgh. In the midst of Read more […]

Keep of Kalessin – The Infinite Orchestra

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) It’s funny to hear a musician knock their previous work. Hindsight is always, always 20/20 (and it’s still a bit fuzzy, right Mustaine?), so to hear Read more […]

Exodus – Class Is Still In Session

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) They just keep getting heavier, don’t they? And by “they” we mean Exodus, who have managed to defy the odds (read: the dreadful 90’s, the passing Read more […]

Watain – Where Dark and Light Differ

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) How Watain hasn’t got lost in the black metal (truffle) shuffle is a bit stifling. Considering their auspicious and deadly Casius Luciferi album Read more […]

Barren Earth – Dead Moon Rising

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) Finnish metal is top dawg right now and if there is one country that gets a free pass from the assemblage of a supergroup, it is Europe’s eighth Read more […]

The Ocean – Blame It On God

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) “Trashing Christianity is indeed a true metal hobby.” – Robin Staps, The Ocean. Darn right it is, Mr. Staps. Bashing God and his pals is Read more […]

Darkthrone – All the More Black

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) A bit of an apt title, Circle the Wagons, eh? Not like Darkthrone are the linchpin of black metal nowadays, but they are still one of the genre’s Read more […]

Dillinger Escape Plan – Sticking It To the Man

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) How many times have we read sob stories of bands being screwed over by record companies? Yeah, we can’t keep count either. It’s a cut-throat business, Read more […]

Helloween – Humor Has No Price

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com in April of 2010) By definition, Helloween’s career has been that of a roller-coaster. From the soaring highs of the twin Keeper albums, to the Read more […]

Dark Tranquillity – Alone In the Void

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) They’re the last Gothenburg band standing, it seems, whatever that means. Perhaps no band has been so intrinsically tied to its home city than Read more […]

Alcest – Forgotten Hopes

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) Rarely do we equate beauty and optimism in the realm of metal. This is not a pretty nor a fancy style of music – just reference the inordinate Read more […]

Megadeth – Using the Man (Again)

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) In the frenetic world of Megadeth, turnabout is always fair play. Dave Mustaine’s perpetual revolving door has done little to diminish the band’s Read more […]

Mnemic – Shock-Injected

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) Anytime an emerging metal band like Mnemic makes a not-so lateral career move, it’s bound to draw mixed reactions. One on hand, you can’t fault Read more […]

Dark Fortress – It’s A Deathexplosion

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) There’s no form of music that Blistering receives more than black metal. We literally have to step over and around this stuff at Blistering HQ Read more […]

Eluveitie – History Inversed

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) Having hit the neo-Pagan folk metal wave at just the right time, Eluveitie have quickly become the most prolific band of this style. Their 2008 effort Slania is Read more […]

Armored Saint – Still Delivering

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) After being sucked in and spit out by the music industry grinder in the 80’s and overwhelmed by the grunge explosion in the early 90’s, Armored Read more […]

Orphaned Land – Seeking Higher Ground

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) This is real strife, you poseurs. It’s not fabricated, not faked. Try as you like to get pity from your daily ills…it’s child’s play compared Read more […]

Charred Walls of the Damned – Atop the Crystal Mountain

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) It all started with the “fill.” You know it – the opening drum bombast to Death’s “Scavenger of Human Sorrow.” Its entire 10-seconds Read more […]

Fear Factory – Replicate This

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) During the course of Fear Factory’s much-hyped reformation, one quote has resounded: “The infection has been removed The soul of the machine Read more […]

Ronnie James Dio – The Man Who Would Be King

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) Please note this interview took place before it was announced in November 2009 that Ronnie James Dio was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Everyone Read more […]

Sigh – Convention, I Defy Thee

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) Leave it up to Sigh to toss convention, harmony, and tradition out the window. Their latest, Scenes From Hell is yet another unhittable curveball Read more […]

Devin Townsend – Sacred Serenity

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) Back in the saddle, metal’s certified mad scientist Devin Townsend appears to have finally settled into life post-Strapping Young Lad. Some may Read more […]

Hypocrisy – Superior Devotees

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) There’s not much ground Hypocrisy’s Peter Tägtgren hasn’t covered. The man has Hypocrisy (obviously) and its two-decade plus career. He has Read more […]

Paradise Lost – Believers

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) The metal world is a better place when Paradise Lost is a part of it. Granted, such statements would ascribe the Brits as having something akin to Read more […]

Katatonia’s Jonas Renkse – Nightstalker

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) The “anti-frontman,” Katatonia’s Jonas Renkse doesn’t milk for crowd participation. He doesn’t inspire mass clap or sing-alongs. And he Read more […]

Hacride – Moving Parts

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) For all of its intricacies and variances, French metal doesn’t draw nearly the fuss of Norwegian or Swedish metal. It’s hard to pinpoint and Read more […]

Swashbuckle – Off With Your Head!

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com) Swashbuckle don’t play metal of the sea-faring variety (read: Alestorm, Ahab, et al), rather, they take on the role of filthy, totally aggro Pirates. Read more […]