Simon Handmaker – Heavy Blog Is Heavy

Reaching Enlightenment: A Conversation with Spirit Adrift’s Nate Garrett

October 5, 2020

Spirit Adrift are one of the leaders of a cadre of bands currently pushing the sound of American heavy metal back to the forefront of the headbanger’s consciousness. Across three albums in four years - 2016’s ... Read More...

Atramentus – Stygian

Simon Handmaker

September 2, 2020

Reviews

In a recent interview with Invisible Oranges, Atramentus mastermind Phil Tougas (a metalhead’s metalhead by any account, as he also plays in Chthe’ilist, First Fragment, Cosmic Atrophy, Funebrarum, and Eternit... Read More...

Expander – Neuropunk Boostergang

Simon Handmaker

August 14, 2020

Reviews

Metal bands who excel are often those who are most masterful at drawing us as the audience into the depths of their aesthetic, at submerging us in the world they’ve created for as long as we can hear the sound... Read More...

THÆTAS – Shrines to Absurdity

Simon Handmaker

June 30, 2020

Reviews

Like 2019 and 2018 before it, 2020 is A Year of Death Metal. Obviously death metal isn’t the only metal subgenre seeing great releases at the moment - a cursory look at our Best-Of lists from the past couple ... Read More...

Elder – Omens

Simon Handmaker

April 21, 2020

Reviews

A new release from a beloved band is a chance to once again reconsider the question of identity. Like any artistic endeavor, an album is, on many levels, an expression of personality and a many-pronged stateme... Read More...

Spectral Lore & Mare Cognitum – Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine

Simon Handmaker

March 20, 2020

Reviews

When I was in my senior year of high school, I was really Going Through It. Due to a combination of factors - a couple years' worth of personal events with peers that I still don't really talk about much, seei... Read More...

Nightfear – Apocalypse

Simon Handmaker

March 4, 2020

Reviews

Recently, I've been handed a term by a friend and I've found myself using it a lot. That term is "Pringles metal," which they used to describe death metal stalwarts Cannibal Corpse, who have built a 30-year ca... Read More...

Fluisteraars – Bloem

Simon Handmaker

March 2, 2020

Reviews

It's been unseasonably warm and bright in Chicago recently. Not every day, of course, but over the past few weeks we've had a surprising amount of sunshine for a city that's accustomed to going a week at a tim... Read More...

Discoveries // 2019

Simon Handmaker

December 20, 2019

Best of 2019

This old song and dance. Every time, this is my personal favorite column of ours to be part of our bevy of year-end content. To quote my past self, the inherent and irredeemable "flaw of end-of-year music jour... Read More...

Heavy Blog Guest List – Dylan Walker of Full of Hell

Simon Handmaker

December 18, 2019

Best of 2019

Full of Hell, baby. You know 'em, you love 'em. We do too: they've appeared a handful of times on the blog this year, from our review of Weeping Choir way the hell back in May to their spot near the forefront ... Read More...

Author Simon Handmaker