20 total search results
Envy – The Fallen Crimson
Review — February 18, 2020
I doubt that many musicians would claim to not be slightly jealous of Envy's career trajectory. From humbler beginnings as a hardcore band singing in a non-native tongue, to issuing splits with the likes of Thursday and Jesu, releasing albums through Stuart Braithwaite's Rock Action, and palling around …
Body Count – Carnivore
Review — March 9, 2020
You couldn't keep them on their leash forever, and now that they're back on the streets, it's either ride or die with Ice-T's and Ernie C's hardcore thrash revival, Body Count, and their seventh album, Carnivore. Body Count are well into the second leg of their career, having …
Beast of Revelation – The Ancient Ritual of Death
Review — March 23, 2020
There is a lot of scholarship devoted to determining which monstrosity in the Book of Revelations is its titular "Beast." Revelation 11:7 introduces us to a creature that rises from the abyss (or the sea… it's somewhat unclear), a mysterious creature, adorned with crowns and proclaiming blasphemy. The second contender …
Temple of Void – The World that Was
Review — March 30, 2020
Doom-death is not a crowded field, but it is one that can feel difficult to innovate in. There are only so many ways you can bolt doom elements on to death metal at all. A band can slow down the tempo, add more distortion, maybe toss in a few more …
Code Orange – Underneath
Review — April 7, 2020
What is it that even makes a good album, good? Good is a slippery concept of course, and your definition is going to be shaped and tinted by your life experience, environment, and even physiology (some people naturally just have more acute hearing than others). Tomes could, and have been …
Dodenbezweerder – Vrees de Toorn van de Wezens Verscholen Achter Majestueuze Vleugels
Review — April 13, 2020
You ever get lost while driving in the woods at night? I grew up in Wisconsin and this happened to me often before I got a GPS. It will spook you good if you're not careful. The roads stretch into the night and disappear into the surrounding landscape. The roads …
Kvelertak – Splid
Review — April 13, 2020
There is a party going down in the Norwegian woods. There is a massive bonfire and hundreds of long-haired figures, stumbling around it, charging at each other and howling at the moon. The golden light of the flame reflecting off their leather jackets. Beer slacking their throats in preparation for …
Golden Light – Sacred Colour of the Source of Light
Review — April 21, 2020
Black metal has a limited association with light-emitting objects. The genre's name references a void, or space that is absent of light. Most album art features monochromatic night scenes. And lastly, its adherents tend to be pale (that is pre corpse paint application) and vitamin D deficient from an apparent …
The Black Dahlia Murder – Verminous
Review — April 21, 2020
Humankind has always had an uneasy relationship with rats. Many people hold on to the belief that they are disease vectors, and they've been blamed for the spread of many awful maladies over the centuries, the black plague and leprosy being two the most famous and deadly. They also tend …
Paradise Lost – Obsidian
Review — May 25, 2020
I don't think I'm the first metal critic to acknowledge that they haven't been keeping up with Paradise Lost as well as they should have over the years. I feel like this is a product of both my own evolution of interests, and frankly, Paradise Lost's overwhelming success over the …
Revenge – Strike.Smother.Dehumanize
Review — June 8, 2020
At this point Canadian extreme metal malcontent J. Read has had two entirely different but noteworthy careers. The man (something I assume he identifies as, and not a woodlen spirit, demon, or other apparition) helped to invent one of the more punishing confluences of metal subgenres as the vocalist and …
Cro-Mags – In the Beginning
Review — June 15, 2020
New York hardcore legends Cro-Mags's waste no time getting started on their new album In the Beginning. Opener "Don't Give In" kicks in the front door and immediately begins stalking the grounds looking for revenge, relief and solace, with deep growly, cross-over guitars leading the way like a …
Died – Less Life
Review — June 23, 2020
Does Died’s debut LP Less Life see the band growing up, or is it just them getting old? It’s an odd question to ask of a group who are in the midst of pushing out what should be their first (and best impression) to the world, but hardcore bands tend to …
Xibalba – Años en Infierno
Review — June 29, 2020
Southern California's Xibalba is back with a new LP titled Años En Infierno. The title of their third studio album translates to "years in hell," and it is a loathsome pillar, raised in tribute to the pain of living in a world populated by misery and ruin. Somehow the …
Skeleton – Skeleton
Review — July 14, 2020
There are a lot of skeletons out there. Stuffed in closets. Hanging on metal hooks in medical school classrooms. There is a skeleton in me writing this. And there is a skeleton in you reading it. If you think about all of those sharp, calcified rods and lobes, shifting below …
Sanctifying Ritual – Sanctifying Ritual
Review — July 20, 2020
Most death metal bands exhibit a morbid quality to their sound but few would be believed if they said that their music was actually recorded in a catacomb. However, if the German death-thrash thrallers Sanctifying Ritual confessed as much to me, that their raw and cavernous debut was recorded in …
Old Ghosts – Crow
Review — July 28, 2020
These last few weeks I've started to notice that the creases in my forehead are deepening. It's a subtle change to my face, but it's progressively becoming more noticeable. My pores are becoming more visible as well, and my skin doesn't have the same spongey, moist quality to it that …
Primitive Man – Immersion
Review — August 31, 2020
Writing about music is a bit like being an anthropologist. The kind who immerses themselves in a culture to better understand it. Not the kind who comes up with whacked-out theories while staring blankly at the wall of the faculty lounge (or I guess now, their kitchen cupboards between Zoom …
Venomous Concept – Politics vs the Erection
Review — September 28, 2020
People tell me all the time that they don't "get" politics. That they don't really understand them and try to avoid them whenever they come up. CNN contributors usually pan these types of people as "undecided voters," usually implying that lack of decisiveness in choosing a political candidate ahead of …
