There are many cornerstone elements that congeal to make metal the incredible music it is. I think about the punishing drum work, guitar-based pyrotechnics, growled/screamed/wailed vocals, distorted tones, and aggressive themes that pervade some of metal’s most celebrated releases. But even this description, however generic it may be, is fraught…
Over the past several years, death metal has experienced a renaissance of epic proportions, fueled by movements of radical innovation (propelled by bands such as Ingurgitating Oblivion, Pyrrhon, Alkaloid, Artificial Brain, and a host of others) and adherence to the genre’s most cherished and essential elements (think early Horrendous, Blood…
Let me get this out of the way up front: I can count on one hand the amount of “supergroups” that met or exceeded the expectations laid on them by the collective success of their individual parts. Most supergroups are, in my opinion, either time-wasting cash grabs or light, inconsequential…
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You know Pabst Blue Ribbon? PBR? “America’s Best” since 1893? Beer of choice for hipsters and
It’s fitting that my first review of 2020 should be for a spicy technical death metal rebirth. I’m of course referring here to the resurgence of death metal legends Odious Mortem, who return to we the needy many after an 11-year hiatus with their third full-length effort Synesthesia. Comebacks are…
The echoes of 2019 are going to be ringing out for a while now, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if release from the previous year keep cropping up here and there. Especially if they were released in the final few weeks of the year and especially if they represented…
Welcome, Hellions, to our last Death’s Door installment of the decade! Wipe your feet on the mat and pull up a bone throne. We’re about to embark on a journey through another fairly amazing year of music. Oh yeah, baby. Let’s go. This year was, for myself at least, a…
There are few places in the United States that have experienced a more significant explosion in both the quantity and quality of metal music being produced than in Colorado. Over the past several years, bands like Khemmis, Dreadnought, Necropanther, Of Feather and Bone, Primitive Man, In the Company of Serpents,…
It’s been a good while since death metal has seen a significant pull toward mainstream recognition. The genre’s heyday is rife with stories of monetary success and cultural recognition (just look up the histories of Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, and Morbid Angel for vindication), but more recent iterations of death metal…
