Mastodon's 'Medium Rarities' Contains Gems but Is Mostly Inessential

Published Sep 10, 2020

Medium Rarities — a jumble of Mastodon's rare tracks, covers, live recordings and instrumentals — is itself a mixed bag, where some things s...

Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin's 'Stygian Bough Volume I' Rewards Patience

Published Jun 25, 2020

Visionary bands like Bell Witch are a rare commodity. Leave it to the doom duo to stretch a five-song EP out over sixty minutes. Together wi...

Cro-Mags' 'In the Beginning' Is the Most Classic Hardcore Punk Imaginable

Published Jun 23, 2020

The amount of bands that check Cro-Mags as an influence is mind-boggling. As creators of 1986's The Age of Quarrel, Cro-Mags spearheaded a t...

Asking Alexandria Won't Win Over the Haters with 'Like a House on Fire,' but They Aren't Trying To

Published May 13, 2020

Asking Alexandria might be the most divisive band in modern metal. They inspired a generation of Hot Topic-wearing teens with Stand Up and S...

Elder Sprawl Out on Doom Rock Epic 'Omens'

Published Apr 24, 2020

The word "epic" is overused, but how else do you describe five 10-minute tracks of heavy doom rock? Omens is more of an extended jam session...

Katatonia Perfect Their Prog-Doom Stylings on 'City Burials'

Published Apr 24, 2020

Let's face it, 2020 has been one long, hard kick in the teeth so far. Has there ever been a better time for a bummed-out, beautiful Scandina...

The Mountain Goats Use Lo-Fi Sounds for Transcendent Results on 'Songs for Pierre Chuvin'

Published Apr 20, 2020

It's difficult to find fault with Songs for Pierre Chuvin, a ten-day recording effort to raise some money for the Mountain Goats' road crew...

Oranssi Pazuzu Struggle to Commit to a Sound on 'Mestarin Kynsi'

Published Apr 20, 2020

Their name aside, there's always been something different about Oranssi Pazuzu. Maybe they've always been too weird for most people to stoma...

Myth of I Myth of I

Published Apr 09, 2020

Oh, Berklee. Metal's relationship with one of the world's most famous music colleges has always been a double-edged sword. Berklee has produ...

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Viscerals

Published Apr 02, 2020

There are seven pigs in this band's name, but they might as well be called "Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow," because Viscerals feels like a punch in t...

Reflections Willow

Published Feb 21, 2020

What are Reflections doing to their poor instruments? Downtuning is as much a part of metal music as blast beats or long hair, but Reflectio...

Krosis A Memoir of Free Will

Published Feb 06, 2020

What is going on at Unique Leader Records lately? In the last few years, they've churned out some of heavy music's most exciting new bands,...

Sepultura Quadra

Published Feb 05, 2020

Sepultura's legacy can be divided into three rough eras: Max, Igor and Derrick. Though their name will forever by synonymous with the Cavale...

Serenity The Last Knight

Published Jan 30, 2020

If the album art didn't convey this enough, Serenity play power metal. Power metal has always been the territory of the nerds, and no band t...

Konvent Puritan Masochism

Published Jan 22, 2020

When a band get signed to the mighty Napalm Records with only a four-track demo to their name, you know they've hit something gold. Konvent...

Annihilator Ballistic, Sadistic

Published Jan 21, 2020

If Annihilator don't get your heart pumping, call a doctor. Few bands sound this pumped on their first album, let alone their 16th, but thes...

Ether Coven Everything Is Temporary Except Suffering

Published Jan 08, 2020

Bleak, disturbing, dystopian, apocalyptic — all words that describe Ether Coven's Everything Is Temporary Except Suffering. That makes it a...

An Essential Guide to the Who

Published Dec 10, 2019

Virtually every rock band of the last 50 years owes the Who a debt they can never repay. Apart from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the...

The Who WHO

Published Dec 06, 2019

Whatever you think of the Who's recent dark patch — Roger Daltrey's voice problems, Pete Townshend casually saying he "Thanks God" that Keit...

Astaroth Incarnate Ascendance

Published Dec 06, 2019

EPs have found new life in the age of streaming, acting as perfect packages for the attention-deficit generation to discover new music. Asta...