Having fun is sometimes an overlooked part of metal. Beneath all the buckets of blood, corpsepaint scowls, and arguments over who is or is not trve kvlt, the music is there to be enjoyed. Sure, some bands might not come out and say they want you to have “fun” with their ultra-serious endeavor and that…
Two decades is a damn long time to be doing anything. Sure, in the grand scheme of things, 20 years is a blip in human existence but, when you’re living the ins and outs of your daily life, that span of years can feel like most of a lifetime. Keeping with something and putting in…
Big, important shows are a Hell of a time. Seeing Tom. G. Warrior perform Hellhammer songs with Triumph of Death at Maryland Deathfest last year? Yeah, that’s a once-in-a-lifetime event. Getting to finally hit a Metallica concert, and it happens to be a headlining slot at Lollapalooza? Buddy, you better believe that’s quite the occasion….
Sometimes it’s easier and more efficient to just take care of business on your own. Don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely an appeal to teamwork and having others help with a task can certainly make the work easier and less lonely. That being said, when it’s a creative endeavor, other people around can dilute your…
What is the path to Hell really paved with? Good intentions don’t make a ton of sense if you think about it in either a literal or a theological sense. So what would that path toward the gates of Tartarus actually look like? What kind of monstrous road are you trudging along after your final…
It’s here. Today is the day; the day that most metalheads are all listening to the exact same album, except maybe those pretending to not even be curious. That’s right, Metallica’s first studio album in seven years, 72 Seasons, is out today. With 12 songs, it clocks in at an hour and 17 minutes. Let’s…
Metal, as much as any other genre, loves a good comeback story. There’s something immensely satisfying in a band that comes roaring back to life as strong as ever that just feels exhilarating for both the fans and the performers. The last decade has been filled with triumphant resurgences of a multitude of killer bands who have…
There’s a certain sound that you kind of expect to hear when you put on a metal album from New Orleans. The sludge, Southern rock, and blackened thrash styles that a lot of the town’s biggest bands trade in have become synonymous with NOLA metal. It’s a common enough theme in music that bands in…
Black metal has always had a history with helping people express deep wells of pain and sorrow within their lives. The tortured shrieks, the dark lyrics, and the harshness of the music all make for a natural outlet for artists to purge the demons from their minds or at the very least commiserate with other like…
When it comes to death metal, there’s a fine line between technical and incomprehensible. Plenty of tech death bands out there have players that can arpeggio so fast you’d swear their fingers were on fire and drummers who can double kick until their feet fall off but that doesn’t necessarily translate to music that us…