Mick R.

Inactive

Mick R.'s latest post – March 23, 2021

Mick R.'s most recent reviews Browse all

Tribulation

Where the Gloom Becomes Sound
Century Media (2021)

This is not the record that I would want to be Tribulation's swan song. However, if that ends up being the album's legacy, I will not be surprised. The group started out as an above-average brigade of blackened rock and rollers with overt death metal influences on 2009's The Horror. Within the next four years, the band would learn to embrace … Read more

Venomous Concept

Politics vs the Erection
Season of Mist (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 an election is due to them being too dumb, misinformed, … Read more

Primitive Man

Immersion
Relapse (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 classes). To really do a piece of art justice, you … Read more

Old Ghosts

Crow
State of Mind (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 I remember it having in my early twenties. And of … Read more

Mick R.'s most recent features Browse all

Necrot

Interviews • October 5, 2020

It feels rare to see a death metal institution be minted in real-time, but that's exactly what happened this year when Oakland's Necrot dropped their second LP Mortal in August of this year. Mortal is a fresh take on the American death metal playbook that plays to the sinister strengths of the genre without sounding derivative. And people are going … Read more

Primitive Man

Interviews • September 7, 2020

Primitive Man is one of the filthiest, meanest sounding bands active in North America. Metal usually strives for an extreme aesthetic, but few succeed with the same clarity as drummer Joe Linden, bassist Jonathan Campos, and guitarist/vocalist Ethan Lee McCarthy. On their latest record Immersion, the trio has forced forth from the Earth another harrowing blast a fury. A geyser … Read more

Imperial Triumphant

Interviews • August 6, 2020

Imperial Triumphant is one of the few bands able to capture the spirit of our age. Rising like the Temple of Gozor above the New York City skyline, they channel the sounds and sights of a city and a time that was never meant to sleep. Where power knows no limits and the fate of millions may hinge on a … Read more

Vegas

Interviews • August 6, 2020

There are many complaints one could lob at the modern rock ‘n' roll industrial complex. One of the less toxic, but consistently chafing contemporary aspects for me, is a loss of mystery when it comes to the people who make the music we enjoy. Rock used to have an edgy, inscrutable quality that left die-hards pouring over liner notes and … Read more