Slipknot: All Hope Is Gone (2008)

Or is it?I’ve been going back over the discography of Slipknot, because they were an important gateway band for me. Finally I’ve come to the last of their previous studio albums. This one is a bit different to me personally. Whereas their first three albums got a whole lot of spins from me in an earlier time, and have a lot of nostalgia value, my view of All Hope Is Gone is not clouded by such

Anaal Nathrakh: Desideratum (2014)

Of Maggots, and HumanityI’m going to, once again, borrow a metaphor from a particular Decibel review, because it’s perfect: listening to Anaal Nathrakh is like hearing the gates of hell opened, just a crack. No one else can do that. They made my own end-of-year list a couple years back, because Vanitas brilliantly combined that utter sonic chaos with undeniably catchy melody and close to a score

Dawnbringer: Night of the Hammer (2014)

Back-to-BasicsChris Black is on a roll. An unstoppable heavy metal force. He is truly one of metal’s most gifted songwriters at the helm of two of metal’s most likable bands.

Oh, do you still need more? After the last couple of Dawnbringer albums and the great High Spirits record from earlier this year, I thought you’d already be convinced that you need Night of the Hammer. Well, this time

Menace Ruine: Venus Armata (2014)

Lovely Vocals and Arcane MusicA couple of years ago I said that Menace Ruine sounds like occult church music. That’s still pretty much the case. If you’re the kind of person who is mesmerized by Botanist, or intrigued by Sabbath Assembly, then you will certainly enjoy Venus Armata.

Simple (distorted) organ pieces and guitar played in an unusual fashion—plus who knows what else—the instruments

Slipknot: Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses (2004)

Slipknot, SouredThis is part 3 of my continuing reexamination of a band that meant a great deal to a younger version of me.

After defying all expectations by going harsher and heavier with their sophomore album, Slipknot took a short hiatus. The members went off and pursued their own projects for a while, most notably Corey Taylor’s Stone Sour. And upon their return, they went to a much more

Exmortus: Slave to the Sword (2014)

Welcome to ChotchkiesI had joanismylover move his desk to the file room before writing this review.

Exmortus - We need to talk about your flair. I mean Exmortus, come on. You only have fifteen pieces of flair. Dragonforce, they have thirty seven pieces of flair. And a heck of lead guitarist. Yes we know that 15 pieces is the minimum. But people can get guitar leads anywhere. People listen

Death Denied: Transfuse the Booze (2014)

Intravenous Polish BrewtalityI’ve mentioned this time and again, but it’s worth mentioning again: My early 20’s found me in love with Black Label Society and the southern metal version of Corrosion of Conformity. Poland’s Death Denied are once again taking me back to that time, with their first full-length album.

When I reviewed EP Appetite for Booze, I thought it sounded more like COC, and now

Dark Americana Briefs, Volume 17

If God is vengeance, we all have it coming.Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding (1967)
4 out of 5 stars

With great tunes like "As I Went Out One Morning" and "All Along the Watchtower," it's easy to see why Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding is considered one of the greatest albums of all time. A consensus top 10 across genres and decades, if ever there was one. And Dylan is considered perhaps the

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1974)

A Reason to FightI'm a bit of a nerd. And I love to read, but I don't have the time/motivation to read a book in a weekend. It takes me a bit longer. So as I may have mentioned before, I set out to identify and collect some of the classics of science fiction. I'm still going through that collection that I amassed mostly over a decade ago.

Joe Haldeman's The Forever War is the latest book I

Death Metal Briefs: Clearing the Docket

Thrice DeadI've had some of these waiting for review for far too long, so let's get to it.

Concrete Icon: Perennial Anguish (2013)
3.5 out of 5 stars

Concrete Icon play lumbering death metal in the vein of Domination-era Morbid Angel. It's sort of like being slowly crushed by a steamroller from your legs on up to your skull, with some great halting rhythms and a big, burly sound.

Perennial

Fides Inferno: Correspondence (2011)

Drone That's Actually GoodReading magazines, blogs, and other sources of metal news: That’s a pretty good way to find out about new music. But they’re really no substitute for personal recommendations. Fellow metal blogger Apteronotus alerted me to the existence of Fides Inferno because he thought it sounded like something I’d like. Yes, yes it does.

In strict genre terms, Correspondence is a

Occultation: Silence in the Ancestral House (2014)

Stay OccultedI very much enjoyed the previous Occultation album. My take on that was that it was female-fronted occult rock which actually sounded occult, not just, you know, B-movie style witchy. That’s thanks in no small part to the lead guitars provided by the Negative Plane guitarist. You can imagine, then, that I was pretty excited to get my hands on Silence in the Ancestral House.

Tummler and Solomon: You've Worn Out Your Welcome (2014)

Three Bearded Dudes from Washington StateDoom just seems so simple. Why is it that there is such a wide gulf between the good ones and the bad ones, when, on the surface, they don’t seem all that different?

Tummler and Solomon don’t seem all that remarkable. Which is why it’s so remarkable that their level of quality on this debut album is so high. You’ve Worn Out Your Welcome is an example of

Mastodon: "The Motherload" Video

Social Justice Warriors at It AgainSo, Mastodon recently released a video for "The Motherload." Now, as I've said before, Mastodon had already released my two favorite songs of the last decade--"Curl of the Burl" and "Colony of Birchmen." Well, "The Motherload" is number three on that list. Just so you know where I'm coming from.

The video, in the band's long-standing practice, is silly. It's a