There is no shortage of guitar heroes within the worlds of hard rock and heavy metal. Plenty of different axemen have come and gone and left their marks on not only the music and the fans, but also on the musicians within the scene as well. Pretty much any guitarist you talk to will instantly…
If you love death metal, you probably love Terry Butler, whether you know it or not. You can’t be a fan of the genre without liking Massacre, Death, Six Feet Under, Obituary, or Inhuman Condition. One, or all, of those bands has definitely been in your rotation at some point if you dig the genre…
When something molders, decay sets in. Neglect leads to the slow process of disintegration to the point where what you’re left with is a decomposed mess, barely recognizable as an object once valued and vibrant. It’s a process akin to rot setting in in the heart of an abandoned or forsaken entity. This deleterious mechanism…
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…
There’s something about experiencing the story of a thrilling quest to get you feeling alive, isn’t there? Knights, dwarves, and elves hit the road with the intent of reclaiming their birthright or vanquishing the malevolent force at the heart of the land or hell, maybe just to seek out copious amounts of treasure. Whatever the…
It might be the most fundamental truism on a universal scale but time really doesn’t wait for anyone. For death metal, that might be even more relevant than it is in any other form of music. Playing with the blistering speed and aggression needed to pound out classic death metal releases takes its toll on…
Anger gets a bad rap these days. The amount of people that I’ve seen complaining about people’s anger at the status quo as something bad over the last few years truly baffles me. Corporate greed keeps the majority of this planet locked into a perpetual cycle of economic servitude, politicians offer the illusion of choice…
Storms are some of the most destructive forces in all of nature. They have the power to rend the very Earth that they rage over and wreak havoc upon anything and everything unfortunate enough to be within their path. For anyone raised in the Midwest, there’s a special sense of dread that lies in the…
Some bands come out the gate swinging with a legendary debut that just grabs you and makes you a diehard from the jump (for examples of that from this year, see Cryptic Hatred’s Nocturnal Sickness or Pillaging Villager’s self-titled debut). Other times, you hear what a band is putting out to start their career and you can…