Category: Reviews

  • Cusses – Here Comes The Rat EP

    Cusses – Here Comes The Rat EP

    Before we attempt to pull Cusses‘ long-awaited new EP apart, I have two questions for listeners to consider: 1.) Do you like roller coasters and 2.) Why? For some, their love of rollercoasters springs from the rush of adrenaline which accompanies a fast ride; it’s a physical thing. For others though, the rush is far…

  • Weedeater – Goliathan

    Weedeater – Goliathan

    I love seeing Weedeater live, but I wasn’t really a fan of their last album, which came out back in 2011. There were a couple too many goofy tracks on Jason… the Dragon, and other songs weren’t very long or particularly memorable. Put it this way, it was no God Luck and Good Speed. But…

  • Wooden Stake – A Feast of Virgin Souls

    Wooden Stake – A Feast of Virgin Souls

    I don’t often judge an album by its cover, but in the case of A Feast of Virgin Souls, I was more than a little put off by the artwork. It’s kinda like classic Cannibal Corpse, only slightly less gorey and much more misogynistic. And yet, one half of this female-fronted death/doom duo is… well,…

  • Ghold – Of Ruin

    Ghold – Of Ruin

    So, I might be a little late on this self-proclaimed “Weight & Grunt” doom duo—which is just a nice way of saying they don’t have a guitarist. But hey, when it comes to this style of music, you’re better off with bass and no guitar than the other way around. From what I can ascertain,…

  • Gruesome – Savage Land

    Gruesome – Savage Land

    How much do you love Chuck Schuldiner’s legendary band Death? How much do you love that primal, teeth-rattlin’, gut-churning death metal that Chuck helped wretch out of the Florida muck? If there is love, the actual, physical need to listen to Death’s first few albums routinely, then does that love extend to wishing that there…

  • Venomous Maximus – Firewalker

    Venomous Maximus – Firewalker

    Though I don’t consider Venomous Maximus to be doom—they’re a little too up-tempo, IMO—these guys definitely stole the show at the third installment of Days of the Doomed fest a couple years back. They sure sold a lotta copies of their first CD that night… I didn’t buy one myself, but I’m still looking forward to…

  • Citizen Dick – Touch Me I’m Dick 7”

    Citizen Dick – Touch Me I’m Dick 7”

    Freelance journalist and novelist Joshua Foer once opined that “Monotony collapses time; novelty unfolds it. … If you spend your life sitting in a cubicle and passing papers, one day is bound ro blend unmemorably into the next – and disappear.” It might seem unlikely, but Foer’s logic is also applicable to the music industry;…

  • Barren Earth – On Lonely Towers

    Barren Earth – On Lonely Towers

    Barren Earth is a six-piece progressive metal band from Finland. They play a style that some might say is akin to Opeth and their albums Still Life and Blackwater Park – this meaning that the music is epic in scope and shape and contains retro progressive rock elements. Most fans of this genre may remember…

  • Valkyrie – Shadows

    Valkyrie – Shadows

    Been a while since we’ve heard from these Virginia doomsters—split 7” with Earthling aside, they haven’t released a record since 2008.  And yet, their profile has grown somewhat in their absence, what with guitarist Pete Adams joining Baroness.  Suffice to say, the Baroness connection secured their record deal with Relapse, providing the resources—recorded by Sanford…

  • Caïna – Setter of Unseen Snares

    Caïna – Setter of Unseen Snares

    I’m not afraid to admit that Setter of Unseen Snares serves as my introduction to UK black metal entity Caïna (as far as I can recall). And it’s quite the experience. Founding member Andrew Curtis-Brignell wasted no time impressing on these six tracks. Starting the album with a sound clip taken from True Detective was…