Category: Reviews – Audio
Glorious metal in all its earthly forms, compressed onto shiny plastic discs or into digital files. Which ones will become the soundtrack to your life?
-
Saint Vitus – Lillie: F-65
As much as I’m digging this record, I’d hate to give it a perfect 10 for being so agonizingly, cockteasingly short. But, y’know, it’s pretty damn close. If you ever enjoyed the Wino era of Vitus, you will definitely dig this.
-
Castle – Blacklands
Album number two from this Bay Area female-fronted doom trio. Funeral doom this is not—eight tracks spanning less than 36 minutes. From the upbeat (if none too uplifting) chugs and gleaming instro passages of the opener “Ever Hunter” through the piercing, haunted wails and jagged riffing of “Corpse Candles,” this is not your slogging bog-band…
-
Metallic Taste Of Blood – Metallic Taste Of Blood
If you crave intelligent, forward thinking, original and downright unsettling music than the self-titled effort by Metallic Taste Of Blood should satisfy your every need. This is sheer musical bliss. Utterly breathtaking!
-
Cattle Decapitation – Monolith of Inhumanity
Monolith of Inhumanity is the most notable of Cattle Decapitation’s releases so far, and its more progressive passages suggest possible future additions to the band’s traditional approach to things. They’re additions that I would be happy to see the band build on as they continue their climb up to broader recognizability and an increasingly unique…
-
Napalm Death – Utilitarian
So, there’s a new Napalm Death album that’s absolutely incredible? That’s about as surprising as the possibility of death and taxes.
-
Agruss – Morok
If you are into Black Metal and especially something with an atmospheric and ambient edge to it, definitely get this album; it will be well worth it.
-
Epica – Requiem for the Indifferent
Requiem for the Indifferent seems to focus more on the clean vocals of both Simone and Mark. Simone in particular seems to experiment and fully embrace more of her phenomenal vocal range on the new album. In respect to the instrumental aspects of the album, fans can anticipate to hear those familiar, brutal riffs and…
-
High on Fire – De Vermis Mysteriis
Though I’m not nearly as devoted to them as I am to Matt Pike’s previous outfit, the recent output from High on Fire has been solid enough that a new record from them still lands on my “must-buy” list. (‘Specially when it comes out on my birthday, heh heh.)
-
AtomA – Skylight
Skylight is a science fiction concept album, a sonic escape from the end of the world. As any musical journey through space should be, AtomA’s debut is rich with spectral textures and dramatic development.
-
A tenebrous tetralogy: reviews of four recent black metal releases
As a neurotic and obsessive metal fan I struggle to cope with the number of magnificently malevolent black metal releases I’m missing out on. It’s a depressing thought—which I suppose is quite apt really. Such is the enigmatic nature of the underground scene, coupled with the fact that I am essentially a troglodyte, for every…