Slipknot: Iowa (2001)

Iowa Is Close to HomeFor nostalgia’s sake, I’m going to go see Slipknot next month. In anticipation of that, I’m trying to figure out how 32-year-old me feels about the band that the 22-year-old me loved so much. I began that with a review of the debut, which left me with an understanding of why I loved them, but not really feeling it the same way I used to.

Iowa, on the other hand, holds up

Wreck and Reference: Want (2014)

Machine of ConfusionWreck and Reference isn’t a metal band, but it’s certainly extreme. Sort of like Botanist in that way—Botanist’s Otrebor is actually the one who told me about this project. But this is the first time I’ve heard some Botanist influence in Wreck and Reference, particularly the piano parts in “Apollo Beneath the Whip.” But that’s jumping too far ahead.

Wreck and Reference is

Slipknot: Slipknot (1999)

DilutedThe history of how I came to be the metalhead I am today has been thoroughly documented on this site. But I don't think I ever explained just how much I loved Slipknot around the turn of the millennium. There was a time when Slipknot was, if not my favorite band, at least in the top three. They're not even close to that now, but to a teenager who had never heard anything more extreme (with

Lucifer's Fall: Lucifer's Fall (2014)

Checking All the Right BoxesReview by joanismylover, the third metal attorney.

All hail us some doom metal, probably my favorite of the sub-genres in metal. "Traditional" doom. This wizard of a genre is (not really) suffering a lot lately from offshoots of the death, sludge, and gothic variety. Not counting Pallbearer, there are only a couple of bands out there doing it - Hour of 13 and Magic

Witch Mountain: Mobile of Angels (2014)

CodaSouth of Salem came out of nowhere. A dormant doom band of little note recruited an unknown female soul singer, and suddenly they were a legitimately one-of-a-kind band. Not only that, but a compelling one, who garnered a whole lot of attention. Cauldron of the Wild expanded their palette even further. In the three years since, I don't think anyone has once come close to Witch Mountain's

Death Metal Briefs 2014

Seared Flesh--Hold the TomatoFor the most part, I haven't been devoting much time to the simple pleasures of death metal. But there's only so much depressing folk and doom I listen to before I've got to break out the audio junk food. To pair with the reliable joys of death metal, I'll be breaking out the tired tried-and-true metaphor of music as food--specifically, fast food hamburgers.

Empatic:

Ides of Gemini: Old World New Wave (2014)

Ides of ApolloWhen we last left our heroes, they were doing a little something I called "dream doom." I wasn't the first to call them that, but I found it appropriate enough. The earthy female vocals delivered in an ethereal style, the slow but not terribly heavy guitar riffs, and overall dreamy feel was pretty well summed up by that.

With Old World New Wave, they've changed direction. They

Out of the Darkness

This weekend is the Out of the Darkness suicide prevention walk in Omaha, which I will be attending. As many of you know, my brother committed suicide nearly two years ago.

I've embedded a widget in the sidebar that you can follow if you would like to donate to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Wolvserpent: Perigaea Antahkarana (2013)

Not Merely Amplifier WorshipWolvserpent is an accessible drone doom band. At least, if that’s possible, then they are it. If there is an entry point to this realm, Perigaea Antahkarana might be it. Or perhaps that’s asking too much.

The thing about Sunn O))), or Nadja, or some manifestations of Boris: they sound cool and everything, but a lot of what they do doesn’t sound like a song. Throughout

Summary Judgments, Volume 14

These are the ones that don't get a full hearing from me. But that doesn't necessarily mean you won't enjoy them.

Volume IV: Long in the Tooth (2014)

Volume IV is named after my favorite Sabbath album, and they have influences I really like: mid-period COC ("Blackwater"), Mastodon ("Utero/Long in the Tooth"), Alice in Chains ("Save Your Servant"), doom, hard rock, and more. But it doesn't have

Earth: Primitive and Deadly (2014)

InstrumentalityAfter a while, you start to pick up on key words and phrases in promo e-mails that will help you sort things out. There are certain words that are meaningless, but then there are words that say “download now” and others that say “you can safely delete this.” As far as I’m concerned, “instrumental” is an easy ticket to the trash bin. It’s not that I hate all instrumental music—it’s

More Death Metal Briefs

Death!I know you want to read about three more death metal albums that are going under the radar.

Vassafor / Sinistrous Diabolus: Split (2014)
3.5 out of 5 stars

Let's take that murky Incantation aesthetic and run with it. Take it to the logical extreme. That's a common enough idea behind many bands, but these two groups did a remarkably good job of it. Vassafor is a bit more death metal and