Drama. It’s one of those things that, in the context of metal or extreme music, often feels clichéd like some sad self-parody, or just hackneyed and predictable. Things like the demonstrative highs and lows of symphonic or power metal and the cinematic tension of post-metal immediately come to mind, but…
A couple years back, bay area doom trio Brume caught some ears with their fantastic debut LP, Rooster. The Billy Anderson-produced effort put them on doomsters’ radars with an enjoyably dark, psychedelia-tinged brand of slow and low. Since then, few records have seemed to zero in on the unique concoction…
For the past two years, Post. Festival has emerged as the best weekend of the year for a re-energized American post-rock scene and transformed Indianapolis into the unlikely beating heart of this small but dedicated musical community. It’s fitting though, seeing as Indy’s own PILLARS have positioned themselves at the…
Uniqueness is often conflated with interesting ideas in our modern music consumption landscape. There’s plenty of experimental music that, while undeniably different, is pretty deniably good. I’ve encountered albums of all-acoustic black metal and blackened trip-hop on my travels, both of which defied the norms of their genres but were…
Normally, lately, when I’m discussing the great music scene that Toronto has going on it’s to talk on and on about the tremendous well-spring of punk music that it has become. As with any scene hitting a creative spike, though, there are great things happening in that town across multiple…
One thing I can say about Russian Circles is that they have always been consistent. I’ve seen them open for Minus the Bear in Brooklyn in 2006, headline a tiny club in Milford, Connecticut in support of Geneva in 2009, open for Coheed and Cambria and Between the Buried and…
I don’t know if I’ve ever come across a band whose name is so appropriate. Like ice scraping powerfully against the earth’s crust, Glacier drag you along at a methodical and purposeful pace, slowly crushing you into a pulp while laying waste to what once stood before you. They shape…
Like most Granite Staters, I’ve driven through the Bedford Toll Plaza countless times. It sits on New Hampshire’s main highway connecting the state’s three biggest cities. In many ways, it’s a perfect symbol of a mundane daily routine: virtually everyone commuting from or above Manchester down to Massachusetts passes through…
Many words have been spilled around these parts in service of post-rock and post-metal. Yet – outside of more expansive, god-tier, genre heavyweights; such as Isis and Neurosis – I’ve never found myself particularly captivated by the genre(s). Lush soundscapes building to cathartic crescendos are all well and good, but…
It’s been a long six years. Times have changed greatly since Pelican’s last record. Post-rock – as Nick, Eden and company regularly detail – has wiggled its tendrils into an increasingly diverse pool of influences, blurring things to a point where I’m not even sure where to draw the lines…
