Plenty of artists have gotten lots of mileage out of the end of the world. There’s something about looking at the state of humanity and seeing how precipitously we always sit on the edge of disaster that makes for compelling art. Mankind’s doom and downfall provides myriad avenues for musicians and writers to explore, everything…
Obsession is a double edged sword. Obviously, obsessions can drive you to get things done. That constant compulsion can prompt and prod you to get your music recorded, your short story written, your mile time down. It can be a wonderful tool to strive toward constant improvement and perfection. Of course, the dark side of…
Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. Well, at least you can when the band is NunSlaughter. The first time you hear that name, you can kinda guess what these dudes are all about: down-and-dirty metal custom made to piss off Christians the world over. There’s really no middle ground between the road…
Gore, at least in the fictional sense, has a certain appeal to it, doesn’t it? There’s something about seeing buckets of blood and foot after foot of intestines thrown around in a scene that makes you (depending on the quality), laugh your ass off or feel sick to your stomach. It’s a time honored tradition…
Quite honestly, this might be one of the more pointless reviews I’ve ever written. If you know Destruction at all, then you should more or less know what to expect from the band’s fifteenth longplayer in their 40-year career. The German thrash pioneers aren’t out to reinvent the wheel on Diabolical, nor would I particularly…
You would imagine a thrash band with the name of Texas Toast Chainsaw Massacre to have a robust sense of humor and you would be correct. The group, which has been a fixture in the Chicagoland metal scene for more than a decade now, is known for its less-than-serious lyrics and its very serious thrash…
If you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot to be miserable about lately. Ok, well maybe not just lately, but the current crop of obstacles to a happy and healthy future for our big blue ball can seem downright impassable sometimes. Between the never ending pandemic, a world always at war, and the rising cost of,…
For anyone with even a cursory knowledge of metal history, it shouldn’t be a shock that the San Francisco Bay Area is still pumping out great bands. When you talk about important scenes or locations in metal history, the Bay is really one of the top ones that has to come to mind. Although the…
Atmospheric black metal bands tend to be a dime a dozen. For every genuinely exciting release, there are five or six more littering release days that sound frustratingly similar. I’ve heard a couple this year already that just didn’t excite me in the least or do enough to differentiate themselves from other bands out there…
A harsh, nihilistic world calls for harsh, nihilistic music. The last few decades have seen catastrophe after calamity after quagmire repeated ad nauseam. In a world constantly engulfed in war, perpetually on the brink of climate disaster, and struggling through a pandemic that still kills by the thousands daily, waking life is anything but a…