Progressive metal is trying its best; it really is! It’s not from lack of releases that we find ourselves a bit exasperated with the genre. Instead, it seems as if some sort of lethargy, a lackluster sheen to the ideas and their execution in the genre, has taken hold of…
The word “savage” gets thrown around in conversations about extreme music a lot. Honestly, too much. Way too much. So much in fact that the word itself has begun to lose any and all meaning. You know the argument: If everything is savage, nothing is. Because pulling out the thesaurus…
As much virtue as there is in charting previously unexplored sonic territory, there is an equal amount of reward and praise to be found in the act of taking something that’s already been done and improving on the formula in small but substantial ways. Not every new album needs to…
It’s the second episode! This week Eden and I talk about our weekly listening including Caspian and Alustrium, Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan’s antics, Cloudkicker, new After the Burial and the reinvigorated genre of neo-folk. Our opinion discussions include crowdfunding in metal, where we think innovation is happening in metal, and post-metal’s position in…
One of the most interesting things about 2015 as a year of metal is that many of the best albums have integrated a great deal of emotion and atmosphere in some way or another. From WRVTH’s self-titled techdeath landmark to Hope Drone’s post-rock/atmospheric black metal masterpiece, there’s been a huge…
Volumes and Struc/tures are two bands that polarize the staff, and by polarize I mean there’s only two or three people who enjoy them here. It’s not that their music is bad (although, given our review of Struc/tures’ last album, that could be debated) but that they are a bit too…
Many words have been spilled onto numerous pages about the dangers of trends. From a young age we are inured against taking the more traveled road, encouraged to beat our own path. As life goes on, our eyes start to wander, eyeing the easier solutions, tempting ourselves with shortcuts. “What’s…
Metal and hardcore are supposed to be loud, but I’m of the opinion that it should be a choice left up to the listener, not the people involved in production. Structures were major casualties in “The Loudness War” in the likes that we have never seen before from a professionally produced…
The recent Veil of Maya headlining tour — whether intentional from its inception or not — was a great representation of international music in this particular metal scene. America, Canada, Australia, Sweden, and Mexico were all represented on this tour, and that’s definitely something special. To make this tour that…
Finally, the first bit of dates for the North American Veil of Maya, featuring Structures, Northlane, Vildhjarta, and Here Comes The Kraken have been made available. The dates announced so far are fairly extensive considering the international acts, but they don’t hit close enough to home for me to get…
