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…
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 of our Grind My Gears 2019 wrap-up last…
Sometimes, a lead single can all but guarantee you’ll love an album, which was very much the case after I heard “Far from Where Dreams Unfurl.” As I outlined in my review, Wilderun have crafted my favorite prog metal albums of the year with Veil of Imagination by a wide…
“The passion caused by the great and the sublime in nature, when those causes operate most powerfully, is Astonishment; and astonishment is that state of the soul, in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. … It is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind…
The best part about bands with a completely unique identity is the way they not only differentiate themselves from other groups, but from their own sound with each subsequent release. This trait applies directly to Dysrhythmia and the vast field of other projects involving Kevin Hufnagel (Gorguts, Vaura) and Colin…
Sidian might not be a household name in the thriving North American prog and technical death metal scene dominated by acts (probably) from the Bay Area and signed to labels like Artisan Era and Unique Leader, but the project is borne and deeply embedded in its roots. Formerly an active…
Summertime. The living may be easy, the fish jumping and the cotton high, but Humanity’s Last Breath couldn’t give a shit about that. As Europe is broiled by a particularly ferocious heatwave, the Swedes prepare to deliver a relentless blast of bleak and uncompromising gloom on harsh Scandinavian winds. Abyssal,…
Progressive and technical death metal has been having a real moment over the last couple of years. As with everything, however, there is a dark side to the genre’s current boom. With so many fantastic progressive death metal albums flooding the market, listeners run the risk of becoming disaffected by…
Like their previous release, which we also covered on the blog, Of Modern Architecture’ Matricide is an aggressive whollop in the gut. One part modern, heavy, chuggy metal that borders the lines between deathcore and djent, one part progressive experimentation and unexpected, spastic structures, Matricide just keeps on hitting. The…
“Good artists borrow; great artists steal.” – Pablo Picasso, maybe This axiom drives metal. It only becomes more true as time’s inevitable march covers more and more ground and an increasing number of sounds are necessarily retread. I’ve written on this before in other reviews, but this holds especially true…
