I SEE DEAD PEOPLE A CONVERSATION WITH AHREN STRINGER OF THE AMITY AFFLICTION The frailty of life has been explored through music since its earliest roots, artists creating bleak portrayals of reality or giving legs to the heaviest emotions so [...]
DREAMS ALWAYS DIE WITH THE SUN A CONVERSATION WITH TODD STRANGE OF EYE AM There are many layers that musicians strive to convey through their art, going back to what they’ve created to ensure that everything was delivered exactly the way it was [...]
GELD Currency // Castration Relapse Records Visceral, bare, aggressive, and dissonant are some of the key descriptors that come to mind when describing hardcore at the height of the scene, and while many bands keep the sound alive, they do so by [...]
Gloryhammer Return To The Kingdom Of Fife Nuclear Blast Soaring melodies, layered vocals, frantic double bass drumming, and a penchant for epic storytelling. These are the most integral components of power metal and ones that the band [...]
AJJ Disposable Everything Hopeless Records For a band like AJJ, vulnerability and transparency are dominant, allowing their music to achieve greater impact across a very dedicated fanbase. Their newest LP Disposable Everything is the epitome of [...]
LATELY I’VE BEEN FEELING GOOD AND THAT MAKES ME FEEL SO BAD A CONVERSATION WITH SEAN BONNETTE OF AJJ It is not uncommon for a band to utilize emotions and anxieties typically felt by most of society, sometimes even framing them into a dystopian [...]
The Used Toxic Positivity Big Noise For a group that has a career spanning over 20 years, ingenuity and relevancy can prove insurmountable, especially when previous records have held such a warm spot in the hearts of millions of fans. This [...]
Solar Flare Solar Flare Independent Originally released in 2020, power metal quintet Solar Flare have revisited their debut album and given it a brand-new remix/remaster polish, bringing their classically derived sound to a different level that [...]
Dave Lombardo Rites Of Percussion Ipecac Recordings An album that belies conventional expectations, or even structure, is usually reserved for artists favored within post-modern circles. In the case of Rites Of Percussion, we have an album [...]
Cradle Of Filth Trouble And Their Double Lives Napalm Records For their first live album in 20 years, Cradle Of Filth knew that fans would crave something more sinister than the usual affair that makes up a project such as this. Eschewing the [...]
Jesus Piece …So Unknown Century Media Over the past 10 years, the landscape of metalcore has mutated into various forms, with a penchant for the melody/breakdown routine of the post-hardcore movement. Philadelphia’s Jesus Piece has instead [...]
JOHN ROBB – THE ART OF DARKNESS: THE HISTORY OF GOTH LOUDER THAN WAR BOOKS BOOK REVIEW BY RYAN RUPLE If there was ever a genre that surpassed the confines of sound, constructing identity, and expression through the sonic base to reach into [...]
TEARING DOWN THE PILLARS OF THEOCRACY A CONVERSATION WITH OV SULFUR GUITARIST CHASE WILSON As the integration of black metal, a genre built on defiance and raw blasphemy, continues to become prevalent in heavier music, the possibility to carve [...]
Ecthirion Psalms Of The Risen Dead Soundmass Finding the commonalities between the grandiosity of orchestral music and the aggression of heavy metal is a much more meticulous process than it may seem on paper. Both contain raw passion and power [...]
Praises In This Year: Ten of Swords Hand Drawn Dracula When it comes to a truly great album there are those in which the listener places themselves inside, exploring every aspect of the experience from the themes to its technicalities with [...]
Sundecay Gale Independent Every year we find bands and artists creating territories that they feel drawn towards that have otherwise been uncleared, nearly hidden by the overgrowth of sounds that others still continue to sow. Every year there’s [...]
Ulthar Cosmovore 20 Buck Spin The San Francisco Bay Area has produced no shortage of exceptional death metal acts in recent decades, with an annual three-day festival solidifying their place in extreme music history. One of the newest bands to [...]
Brainoil Singularity To Extinction Tankcrimes There is a certain dissection of sounds that is integral to the core of many sludge metal acts, especially ones that incorporate the styling of doom and crust punk. Long-running Oakland outfit [...]
Matthew Dear Bunny Ghostly International As the final days of the year begin to tighten down, it’s a good time to take note of the number of notable pop releases that have all worked to eschew traditional musical structure. However, with nearly [...]
Lizard Pool Spark Out Of Line Finding a dark harmony between the frenetic melodies of indie rock and the depressive tones of post-punk is the artistic drive behind Lizard Pool’s second LP Spark. Through the employment of heavily synthesized [...]
Thus Owls The Mountain That We Live Upon For The Living And The Dead Swedish-Canadian duo Erika and Simon Angell have been steadily traveling into the depths of sound possibilities for nearly a decade, reaching out to incorporate unconventional [...]
