Death metal has always been a very hit-or-miss subgenre for me but most of it I do appreciate it. In good news, I have been listening to the new Engulfed album, Unearthly Litanies of Despair (Me Saco Un Ojo/Dark Descent Records), and it is certainly a hit and not a miss. Just shy of forty minutes, the four-piece from Turkey slams and shreds their way through your cranium. Just the right mixture of grimy OSDM and technical fretwork gives this album some replayability.Continue reading
How many times have you heard a band described as genuinely “unsettling” to listen to? In all honesty, this scribe in question has probably described a few in writing as such. Well, more than likely those acts cannot come even close to the nauseating realism, punishing content and sonic barrage of New York’s Couch Slut over the last few years.
Hot on the heels of 2023’s excellent Nature Morte, experimental doomgazers BIG|BRAVE release their sixth full-length record, A Chaos Of Flowers (Thrill Jockey Records). Continue reading
Edinburgh-formed Progressive Metal heavyweights Dvne take their latest step forward with the accomplished Voidkind (Metal Blade Records).
Twenty years into their existence, Metalcore prize fighters The Ghost Inside look, feel, and sound as good as they ever have. Searching For Solace (Epitaph Records) the sixth installment in the band’s catalog, is not only a de facto extension of the emotionally driven self-titled album; it’s purposeful, tight, and as good a case as any that TGI are (still) at the height of their career.Continue reading
One day we pulled the curtains open on a bright, new day and out there on the street we were greeted by Melvins, taking their Tarantula Heart (Ipecac Recordings) procession all the way through the town. Zombie teddy bears and dogs in suits up on their hind legs stepped in time while King Buzzo, Dale Crover, and Steven McDonald lead the way, soon joined by drummer Roy Mayorga and guitarist Gary Chester from the flanks.
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Despite crust death metallers Necrot forming in 2011, the Oaklanders’ newest slab is only the trio’s third full-length in their brief-yet-inviting discography.
Essentially, the band doesn’t rush to put out a record, nor do they seem to want to release something before every “i” is dotted and “t” crossed.Continue reading
The concept of Epic/Atmospheric Black Metal seems to thrive on extreme ends of the spectrum: it’s either performed as passionately and pristinely as a fantastical saga, or it’s generic drab that breeds vague cliches and untethered musical arrangements. There is no in-between.Continue reading
One of the least high-profile sign-offs since Button Gwinnett affixed his moniker to the Declaration, Ghost Stories (Frontiers Music srl), billed as Blue Oyster Cult’s final studio album, still qualifies as a “must have” for aficionados, even if it will never be widely celebrated or remembered in the same way as Secret Treaties, Agents Of Fortune, Cultosaurus Erectus, or Fire Of Unknown Origin.Continue reading
Social media might be to blame for the increasing enmeshment of Pop music into the Rock genre. Pop artists are more marketable and interchangeable with social media influencers. What record label would not want an artist with the iconic charisma of Taylor Swift? Continue reading