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Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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Music News

Z2 Comics partners with heavy metal legend King Diamond for the graphic novel adaptation of ‘Abigail’

Z2 Comics, the leading publisher of music-inspired graphic novels, reveals this fall’s jewel in the crown of the “king” of heavy metal himself: the first-ever comic written by the one and only KING DIAMOND. White Noise Studios scribe Dan Watters and October Faction artist Damien Worm team with The King himself for a chilling new version of the story of Miriam Natias and Jonathan LaFey and an inheritance far more terrifying than even the haunted mansion in which it’s discovered. To celebrate this unprecedented pairing, Z2 Comics will offer an exclusive brand new Abigail graphic novel picture disc edition of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Steel Bearing Hand – Slay In Hell

The last 25 years of metal never happened as far as Texas’ STEEL BEARING HAND is concerned, and that’s alright by me. These Lone Star Lunatics have constructed a love letter to the death and thrash metal of the late ’80s and early ’90s on Slay In Hell, steadfastly ignoring any “progression” since those days. By focusing on what they know and love, they’ve pretty much whipped the ass of any banger who lays ears on this. The album is just six tracks and pretty brief, but packs a lot into its length. The best thing about Slay In Hell […]

Music News

Cruz Del Sur Music Re-Releasing ORODRUIN’s ‘Epicurean Mass’ on Vinyl / Fundraiser for Solstice Guitarist Rich Walker

Rochester (NY) – Cruz Del Sur Music have announced the vinyl re-release of ORODRUIN’s classic doom album Epicurean Mass on May 28. The re-release is part of a multi-faceted fundraiser for stricken Solstice guitarist Rich Walker. ORODRUIN’s 2003 Epicurean Mass debut was a harbinger of things to come. So formidable that it took the band 16 years to release its Ruins of Eternity follow-up, Epicurean Mass paved the way for a resurgence in mournful, riff-laden Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus-styled doom. Doom was taken back to its earnest, dark roots, casting aside the occasional pomp and image-first angle that was […]

Music News

MEPHITIC GRAVE: Hungarian Death Bringers To Release Into The Atrium Of Inhuman Morbidity Debut May 7th Via Carbonized Records; New Track Streaming + Preorders Available

Stream / Share MEPHITIC GRAVE’s ‘Chthonicon’ HERE Hungarian death bringers MEPHITIC GRAVE will unleash their Into The Atrium Of Inhuman Morbidity debut via Carbonized Records this May. Made of jagged riffs and grisly vocal incantations, MEPHITIC GRAVE’s sonic venom — influenced by Abhorrence, Funebre, and Autopsy among others — runs deep discharging eight maniacally putrid odes of lo-fi grimness. Tipping their scythes to the works of H.P. Lovecraft, the band’s visual and lyrical concepts revolve around the philosophy of cosmicism which denies the presence of a god or any such ideas of divinity and upholds that humans are insignificant in […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: T.O.M.E. – I-III

Though from the hotbed of black metal of all discernable forms that is Finland, T.O.M.E – formed nearly a decade and a half ago – is only now seeing its debut realized for wider consumption. Originally independently released in 2009, I-III now bears the mark of Spread Evil, and, as such, is the herald of future material. Distended notes hang in the chilled air, no semblance of warmth at the start of ‘I’, near-doom tempo and plod ala AVSKY, yet fanged and clawed, let not the slowness be mistaken for lethargy or laziness. By 3 ½ minutes in, what’s come […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Witherfall – The Curse Of Autumn

While Nocturnes And Requiems and its follow-up, A Prelude To Sorrow, quickly established California’s WITHERFALL as modern prog-power players on a field that simply doesn’t have that many worthy competitors in the band’s native US, I confess a bit of trepidation when it came to The Curse Of Autumn. Would this be just another disappointment when it comes to third albums released thus far in 2021, or would the quintet finally find their own sound and wake the sleeping giant I felt might lie dormant within? After the neck-snapping rhythms and skipping riffs of ‘The Last Scar’ revealed itself as […]

Music News

Byzantine announces 21st anniversary USA tour

Formed in the summer of 2000, progressive groove metal band BYZANTINE will headline 15 performances this July and August, with local support acts TBA. Frontman and founding member Chris “OJ” Ojeda comments: “Maintaining a band with 4 members for this long has been one of the most difficult, yet rewarding tasks I’ve taken on. We formed the same year as Mastodon, The Ocean and Between The Buried And Me, and to be able to write and record music on a label such as Metal Blade Records at this point in our career is very rewarding. We look forward to performing […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: BRÆ – A Thousand Ways To End It All

Here we go a-fucking-gain. That’s it, after this one right here, I’m not reviewing anything with the word “ambient” in the one-sheet by choice for at least two weeks. I mean, all the boxes were ticked, in fairness to BRÆ. 40+ minute album, two songs clocking in at over 20 minutes apiece. Reverences to “faceless beings”, so on, and so forth. But “insane shrieks” and “raw” were mentioned, so there was hope I wasn’t going to end up in another DEAFHEAVEN album hearing critical darlings / Pitchfork dandies whine about their “feelings”. As the lone piece on A Thousand Ways […]

Music News

Cirith Ungol reveals details for new EP, Half Past Human; launches new single, ‘Brutish Manchild’

On May 28th, CIRITH UNGOL will release their new EP, Half Past Human, via Metal Blade Records. For a first preview, the new single, ‘Brutish Manchild’, can be heard at THIS LOCATION, where the EP can also be pre-ordered in the following formats: digipak-CD 180g black vinyl (EU exclusive) sheer violet marbled vinyl (EU exclusive – limited to 500 copies) orange aurora vinyl (EU exclusive – limited to 300 copies) yellow marbled vinyl (EU exclusive – limited to 300 copies) picture disc (EU exclusive – limited to 500 copies) dark red marbled vinyl (US exclusive) The globe was ravaged by […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Arepo – Arepo

In the ridiculously varied phases and moods of music I’ve gone through in my near half-century on the planet, this one seems to be new. Amid the standards – ‘70s guitar rock, doomed-out sludge, pagan black, Southern hymnody and Neofolk – this ambient thing has thrown me. Maybe I’m appreciating what background music can be? Damned if I could tell you, but here’s AREPO, a duo with a past in everything from BLEACH EVERYTHING (who I have heard and enjoy) to HARMONIC CROSS (who I haven’t, but will after this). Okay, the one-sheet referring to the album as “the most […]

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