Posted by Chip McCabe on May 13, 2016
Black and death metal have been kissing cousins for longer than anyone would probably care to admit. Even when the corpse painted legions of Scandinavia took over as the underground’s flavor of the month in the early to mid 90s, while death metal seemed to, in general, take the proverbial back seat, the two genres […]
Posted by Chip McCabe on May 5, 2016
Worshiping of the sun has been practiced for literally thousands of years and across various regions of the globe. The Ancient Egyptians obviously saw a large chuck of their religion revolve around that big, fiery ball in the sky. Various Native American tribes in North and South America held the sun in high importance, including […]
Posted by Chip McCabe on April 29, 2016
Once upon a time, genre descriptors mattered much less than they do today. Even now, when some folks look back on metal from its earliest days the music gets tagged with genres that simply didn’t exist at the time. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact it can help those in search of a […]
Posted by Chip McCabe on April 22, 2016
There are dozens of death metal bands these days taking the genre on long, strange trips into a world of atmospherics that are almost cinematic in scope. Instead of just simply growling and blasting away about all things dark and frightening, this new generation of bands wants to personally take you there, hand-in-hand, down the […]
Posted by Chip McCabe on April 15, 2016
The history of doom metal is one that runs deep and basically parallel with metal itself. From the first lumbering notes that emanated from Tony Iommi’s fret board, doom metal has been able to trace its roots right back to the genesis of it all. While it may have waxed and waned in popularity over […]
Posted by Chip McCabe on April 1, 2016
As death metal continues its decade-long rebuild from the ground up, more and more acts are taking the genre on long and strange trips, often times, making highly successful forays back to whence it once came. Enter Oakland’s Necrot and their new (not so new) album The Labyrinth. Not so new because it’s been culled […]
Posted by Chip McCabe on March 25, 2016
Sometimes worlds collide, and sometimes two already amazing entities transform into one. Sometimes the most provocative and most profound results can be achieved by the union of two seemingly unlikely sources. Such is the case with the stunning new collaboration between Sweden’s Cult of Luna and American vocalist Julie Christmas. Since their first studio album […]
Posted by Chip McCabe on March 18, 2016
Spain may not be the hottest of metal hot beds, but the once former champion state of all things Catholicism has spat forth their fair share of musical blasphemy. However there may be no Spanish bands more blasphemous, none more downright savage in their musical leanings as the relatively new outfit, Suspiral. Fresh off the […]
Posted by Chip McCabe on March 11, 2016
While the one-man black metal jam, usually playing the lowest of the lo-fi, became a somewhat popular trend in the 90s, the concept of putting together an album all by your lonesome remained a very large anomaly in other extreme genres. But as time and technology moved forward the idea of putting together something completely […]
Posted by Chip McCabe on March 4, 2016
There are bands that treat their music like a roller coaster ride – methodical ascensions, drastic descents, stomach churning twists and turns. For the last decade and through a bevvy of releases Germany’s caustic sextet known as Black Shape of Nexus have built a foundation upon taking their sound not just on a roller coaster […]
