Search results for 'subversion'

Review

Angel

In the 20 years that have passed since PERIPHERY and TESSERACT began releasing music, those bands' distinctive formulae have been plundered, deconstructed and enthusiastically messed with by a huge number of bands from both sides of the Atlantic. Whether or not anyone is still clinging on to the ide...

Review

I Saw The World's End – Hangman's Hymn MMXXV

Masters of cross-pollinated underground metal for the last 35 years, SIGH have one of the most substantial and fascinating catalogues in all of heavy music. So many of the Japanese legends' albums have been genuinely mind-blowing, that it has often seemed that Mirai and his comrades have been channe...

Review

Primal Pulse Thunder

PURIFIED IN BLOOD were always an anomaly. Formed in Norway over 20 years ago, their unique strain of brutal metalcore seemed an unlikely development for a country dominated by the black metal scene. Initially affiliated with the straight edge movement, they rose to prominence thanks to a sound that...

Review

Damnatio Aeterna

When bands produce concept albums, it usually denotes one of two things. Firstly, it reveals a huge surge of confidence and self-belief, both in the compulsorily intricate music and in the band's ability to nail a convincing, flowing narrative. Second, it can also confirm that the band in question a...

Review

Edifice Of Vicissitudes

It may have started with relatively high-profile bands like SUFFOCATION and CRYPTOPSY, but brutal death metal has long since transcended its origins and marched down the left-hand path towards something darker, nastier, more brutal and more gleefully twisted. Over the last couple of decades, a signi...

Review

Syv

An obsession with emulating the past has led black metal down some fairly narrow alleyways over the years. Such is the reverence given to the Norwegian scene of the early '90s in particular, that there have not been many bands or artists with the courage to meddle with those original blueprints. Not...

Review

Memoria Viva

Few bands have the kind of progressive death metal intuition that WHITE STONES are packing. Formed by OPETH bassist Martin Mendez just over five years ago, the Barcelona-based quintet have already released two well-received and intriguing studio records. The spirit of his other band was undeniably p...

Review

My Veneration

The follow-up to last year's much praised "Reach For The Stars" debut, "My Veneration" suggests that Dan Lorenzo (HADES / CASSIUS KING / VESSEL OF LIGHT) and Johnny Kelly (TYPE O NEGATIVE / DANZIG) are becoming a very reliable source of dark, gritty and unpredictable metal. PATRIARCHS IN BLACK are a...

Review

Beyond Vision

If it's quality not quantity you want, ACID KING are a solid benchmark. Lori S.'s stoner doom crew have been a recognized name in stoner rock and doom circles since the early '90s, popping up every now and then to deliver a large dose of eyebrow-scorching psychedelic heaviness. Early records like de...

Review

93696

Black metal was always meant to be about individuality and a fuck-you attitude, and so it's always laughable when supposed purists get upset about the subversion of non-existent rules. LITURGY found themselves on the receiving end of much shrieking opprobrium when they first emerged, but the New Yor...

News

POPPY Announces 'Stagger' EP, Shares New Single 'FYB'

After emerging as one of the most quietly disruptive forces in culture, Grammy Award-nominated alternative insurgent Poppy will unleash her new "Stagger" EP on October 14. It notably marks her debut for Lava/Republic. She comes out of the gate swinging with the new single "FYB". Powered by a thrash-...

Review

Eternal Steel

Their name speaks of a certain bullish self-confidence, and so it seems only fitting that I AM's big label debut has an unmistakable swagger about it. Symptomatic of a subtle sea-change in the metal world, wherein many new bands are veering away from the overt commerciality of metalcore, "Eternal St...

Review

Recollections Of The Insane

The furious midpoint between primitive death metal and caustic thrash has always been one of the most exciting places to bang your head. The full-length follow-up to 2020's utterly murderous "Voices" EP, "Recollections of the Insane" confirms that Belgium's SCHIZOPHRENIA are flying the death / thras...

Review

Krüller

While gleefully hurling spanners into the works, at some unholy midpoint between industrial, drone, doom and alternative metal, AUTHOR & PUNISHER (Tristan Shone to his friends) has already made eight full-length albums of spine-wrenching, soul-flaying heaviness and avant-garde sound subversion....

Review

Degenerations

Death metal has multiplied and evolved with ferocious force over the decades, and it continues to spew up new and determinedly brain-mangling strains. DISKORD have been an intermittent force for death metal weirdness for over 20 years, but their recorded output has never exhibited the slightest incl...