Is that it? Am I the last one? Dang. Again. Wait, maybe one more to come… Anyway, I guess I’ll start this off on my soapbox as always, by noting that I truly cannot comprehend where we are as a society. Well, I suppose I can, which is even more frustrating. If 2020 wasn’t a brutal enough year (not in a good way), 2021 seemed to serve as an appropriate encore. Seemingly everything we experience in life has been weaponized for political gain in one way or another, a global pandemic has been widely accepted as an endemic thanks, in part, to widespread misinformation, and, just as bluntly, climate disasters resulting from human activity are on the brink of running rampant for the duration of humanity’s remaining existence… however brief that may be. And those are just my three favorite, non-personal, items to discuss in our corner of the universe. It sucks, and I’m burnt out. Optimism has completely faded at this point, and I’m ready to run screaming into the woods. But hey, cheers to 2020, right?!
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Best of 2021: Zyklonius’s List
Huh, it appears that I blinked and a whole year went by just like that. Luckily there was metal, a lot of it in fact, to the extent that none of the albums on my list ended up on our staff’s combined list, which shows just how much diversity there is, in terms of releases, genres and our respective tastes and preferences. With majestic hails to the bands whose releases enriched my life in the past 12 months, the following contains my 20 favorite albums of the year. I hope you will find something that intrigues, excites and animates you.
Continue readingThe Path to Paradise Begins in Hell — Post-Metal
Look who’s back for the last time!
As a farewell to this column, where I have prattled about my various love affairs with various genres, I have decided to save the genre I have grown to love for last. After all, I still need to continue to expand my musical education before I talk about more genres, so maybe, one day, I will resurrect this column once I have more stories to tell.
Who knows? Maybe down the line, my tastes will have changed enough so I can revisit some of these genres with a new perspective – and maybe talk about some of others that I have still haven’t warmed up in my years as a metal listener (looking at you, thrash).
Now, at the most current point of my story, I think it’s time to bring up a genre that I have noticed has gotten more traction over the years and has moved on from its rather humble beginnings. After all, this genre seems to have gotten under my skin and I want to talk about it at length.
It’s time we talk about Post-Metal.
Continue readingAlbum Review: LLNN — “Unmaker”
Have you ever found yourself wondering if everything is fine? Nothing out of the ordinary is happening, yet you find that nothing is quite as it seems. Maybe it’s the deep-seated paranoia that comes in waves while you sleep; after all, you did check everything before retiring for the night. The stove is off, the glass you used is on the table, and you left your keys in your bag. However, as you try to sleep, something moves from the corner of your eye, and you can’t help but feel that something is not quite right in your home. This is the feeling you get when becoming immersed into Unmaker, an album filled with a certain amount of dread that just makes you uneasy. You cannot trust what you are hearing – after all, are the screams sitting below the sludgy, sonic threshold inside your head or within the demented post-metal LLNN weaves into existence?
Continue readingInitial Descent: September 19 – 25, 2021
Look, I don’t know all the answers, nor does anyone else for that matter, apparently. However, I do know a good one which is something the old guard of country knew well: let’s just get wasted and kick all the footlights out. Very effective. Anyway, new metal time and we’ve got another long list ahead that’s full of it. First up are the undisputed kings of goth metal, Unto Others, with their second full length that’s everything you loved about Mana, but better. Next up is a technical platter from Rivers of Nihil who continue to show how adept they are at exceptional ideas and making them heavy as lead, then we’ve got Wraith who show that the thrash revival is better than ever, and last up top is LLNN with their healthy serving of sludge, hardcore, and post-metal. Many, many more follow these picks so jump in and grab them all.
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