Receiving the Evcharist: Impetuous Ritual and Harmony Foretold

VincentLeave a comment

Receiving the Evcharist

Greetings my dear congregation.  While we normally try to find pairings that offer similar characteristics on this column, today is going to be a ceremony of opposites.  Dark beer and dark music is my usual modus operandi, but on a day where it is literally 100 degrees out, dark syrup-y drinks are not going to work.  Instead, something more palate cleansing is going to be on the menu.  Let’s get down to business. The Metal: Impetuous Ritual’s Blight Upon Martyred Sentience.  The Booze: Campanology Brewing’s Harmony Foretold.   Continue reading →

Album Review: Skelethal – Of the Depths…

DanLeave a comment

Skelethal - Of the Depths...

Lately, there seems to be an ever-flowing stream of Swedish-sounding death metal — and we’re talking real death metal, not melodeath — that doesn’t actually come from Sweden. I have a particularly dark recollection of Arizona natives Gatecreeper wowing the hell out of me with last year’s Sonoran Deprivation, while Germany’s Revel in Flesh and Holland’s Bodyfarm have also done a nice job carrying listeners down a Stockholm-inspired left hand path in recent years.

The latest addition to this group is France’s Skelethal, who’ll likely send listeners tumbling into the grave with their debut full-length, Of the Depths. It’s an album plucked straight from the murky depths where no life dwells, and while it’s hardly charting any new musical courses, it’s still a solid listen and one of the more entertaining death metal releases of the year to date.  Continue reading →

Album Review: Ex Eye – “Ex Eye”

ChrisLeave a comment

Ex Eye - Ex Eye

There’s a power to naming things.  Labeling, categorizing, putting things into some kind of identifiable framework helps us to make sense of our thoughts and feelings.  When something defies easy categorization it can challenge us to reconfigure that framework; putting the work in yields a greater pleasure than what came before.  Ex Eye, the new group put together and anchored by saxophonist Colin Stetson, seeks to challenge our perceptions of metal with their debut Ex Eye and succeeds in creating a enveloping, dense work of instrumental music that doesn’t sacrifice once facet of its sound for another.   Continue reading →

Donuts & CANTO: Danzig, Marduk, Otep and more!

DanLeave a comment
glenn danzig
Glenn Danzig

June 23, 2017

Good morning, it’s time to metal. Here’s some news you might have missed from the last couple of days:

    • Leading off, Glenn Danzig has revealed he’ll be playing Danzig III: How the Gods Kill in full at this year’s Riot Fest in Chicago. At this point, is there any more crazy shit for Glenn to pull out of his hat for Riot Fest?

Continue reading →

Album Review: american – “Violate and Control”

VincentLeave a comment

american Violate And Control digi cover 1500x1500

Black metal and noise have always been strange bedfellows.  Both, after all, seek to test the boundaries of what would be considered “listenable” in various capacities.  It stands to reason, then, that the combination of the two genres would be the ultimate essence of this desire to make the darkest and harshest music imaginable.  Enter american, and their new album Violate and Control, which sees the band utilize these concepts to create something truly menacing. Continue reading →