News, Reviews and Interviews
Heavy Metal Around the Globe
Oblivion Circle – Oblivion Circle
I was immediately struck by the music. While Oblivion Circle doesn’t play straight-up black metal, they do play black metal with plenty of death metal influences and a ton of atmosphere.
Virus – Memento Collider
This is no simple strum-along–either take it as a challenge to figure out these knotty chords or surrender completely and let yourself dissolve in a wash of sound you may never be able break down or understand.
Tomb Mold – The Bottomless Perdition
There was so much gravel in the vocals that I had to empty my shoes at the end of the album.
MI Metal Shows Update: 8.01.16
MI Metal Update 8.01.16: Lots of Hair Metal glory happening in MI this week with Ratt, Warrant, Lita Ford, L.A. Guns, Downtread @ Chene Parkin Detroit. Alice Cooper is coming to KZOO, The Plot In You in The Stache @The Intersection, New Music from Valient Thorr and Ringworm. Plus… Upcoming Shows, New Releases, Videos and MORE!
MI Metal Shows Update: 7.25.16
MI Metal Update 7.25.16: Slipknot and Marilyn Manson at DTE, Hellmouth’s only 2016 show, Black Sabbath’s final tour and Lacuna Coil’s new video. Plus… Upcoming Shows, New Releases, Videos and more!
The Night Watch – Boundaries
The music is challenging, but the presentation is deliciously unusual, and while one might envision such a piece as a cult classic…
Koneskin – Liberty Place
On Liberty Place, their new EP, the Italian three-piece band Koneskin conjure up a groove, fall into place, and never seem to look back…
MI Metal Shows Update: 7.18.16
MI Metal Update 7.18.16: Janes Addiction at Freedom Hill, Vans Warped Tour hits Detroit, Scour releases their album and a metal book to read. Plus… Upcoming Shows, New Releases, Videos and more!
They Mostly Come Out At Night – Scorched Upon This Earth
Band - They Mostly Come Out At Night Album - Scorched Upon This Earth Country of Origin - USA Genre - Post-Metal Release Date - May 18th, 2016 Label - Independent Author - Credible The atmospheric sound created by They Mostly Come Out At Night creates a...
Rail Yard Ghosts – Hiræth
Imagine, if you will, somewhere in an alternate dimension, Johnny Cash, Crass, and Mumford and Sons engaged in an open relationship which resulted in a child. That child would be the Rail Yard Ghosts.
Castle – Welcome to the Graveyard
Vocally, she reminds me of a siren, luring you in. The difference is that she is not luring you to sea, but to your eternal damnation.
Sallow Moth – Moss Deceptiva
Moss Deceptiva is a brutally beautiful meditation on the destructiveness of modern society… It is with this weapon of musical destructiveness that we will be cleansed.
Bifid Corpse – Dead and Decaying
The whole EP comes at you like a wounded bear, perhaps mortally wounded, but still having enough strength to eviscerate you on its way out. Dead & Decaying is filthy and ugly in the best possible way.
Scour – Scour
The short EP gives the sense of a relentless, many clawed demon screaming across the landscape for the sole purpose of rending flesh from bone.
Quinta Essentia – Initiates of the Great Work
I always love an album which forces me into some involuntary reaction, especially an album that touches whichever part of my lizard brain causing headbanging. Initiates in the Great Work is just such an album.
Nox – Ancestral Arte Negro 7″
It can be difficult to find worthwhile black metal in the underground, but also well worth the effort. The swirling riffs, brutal blasting, and flesh-rending vocal delivery of this brief release make it one of the black jewels that keep you looking.
Cough – Still They Pray
They are fantastic as making you feel the torment within the songs.
Anderson/Stolt – Invention of Knowledge
…a dazzling album overflowing with joy, warmth, drama, spectacle, and pure positive energy.
MI Metal Shows Update: 7.11.16
MI Metal Update 7.11.16: Inter Arma’s new release, New Gojira video, Rebel Road Motorcycle Rally in Mux and Morta Skuld in Hamtramck. Plus… Upcoming Shows, New Releases, Videos and more!
Asschapel – Total Destruction (1999-2006)
Though Asschapel doesn’t really sound like Napalm Death – you would never confuse the two – I was impressed by how much the rage of the songs reminded me of Napalm Death.
Ghoul – Dungeon Bastard
…from the very first riff, I was transported back to my 15 year old self, down in my basement bedroom, boom box cranked to 11, and shouting along with Mike that “All I wanted a Pepsi. Just one Pepsi.”
Inter Arma – Paradise Gallows
Paradise Gallows, like Sky Burial before it, is both expansive and oppressive in its ferocity, sometimes glacial, sometimes frenetic pacing, and its ability to suck all the light from the room in a way both tragic and beautiful.
Abominant – Napalm Reign
Let me present you with another exhibit in the case of “How to Make Excellent Death Metal.”
Fates Warning – Theories of Flight
Throughout the album’s 52 minutes, the band nicely builds a bridge between their prog-metal roots and more modern sounds, with gorgeous production that presents the songs in full technicolor.
