features

If YouTube is any indication, Sepultura’s “Refuse/Resist” holds a strange fascination for children. Exhibit A is a video showing two brothers playing the song. I’d guess that the drummer is about eight years old, and the singer/guitarist is about six. The latter is playing a guitar that’s practically taller than himself. He’s also wearing a […]

My dual review of Fuck the Facts’ Stigmata High-Five and Landmine Marathon’s Wounded is up at Stylus. You can read it here.

My review of Amon Amarth’s new album With Oden on Our Side is now up at Stylus.

My review of the new Agalloch album Ashes Against the Grain is up at Stylus. An excerpt: Agalloch has been tagged “gray metal” or “post-black metal,” awkward terms that connote black metal as a point of departure. While its riffs are muscular, with vocals occasionally dropping into a black metal rasp, most of this album […]

My review of Year of No Light’s Nord is up at Stylus. An excerpt: The proliferation of Isis-alikes has reached epidemic proportions. Every time you turn around, there’s another band with atmospheric riffs, eight-minute songs, understated artwork, and a beard (or two). It’s easy to see why this sound has caught on: Black Sabbath, Godflesh, […]

Stylus has a (roughly) monthly metal column called “Left Hand Path.” Issue #003 is up now, and it’s a monster – 32 reviews and a label profile of Aurora Borealis. Among the albums we’ve covered are the new Archgoat, Drifting Collision, Enthrallment, Eyes of Ligieia, Giant Squid, Passion, SunnO))) & Boris, Throne of Katarsis, Totimoshi, […]

Sunday the 22nd was the last show at The Pound in San Francisco. Evidently, the club was evicted for reasons beyond its control by the city’s Port Authority. The Pound was the place to see metal and hardcore punk in San Francisco for the past five years. Occasionally there would be a fight or accusation […]

My review of the new Trivium album The Crusade is now up at Stylus.

My review of the new Ludicra album Fex Urbis Lex Orbis is now up at Stylus. It’s awesome, hands down one of my favorites of the year. I usually listen to music in headphones before I go to sleep; this album is one of the few I’m afraid to hear before bedtime. Not even the […]

My look back at Prong’s Prove You Wrong is now up at Stylus.