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One thing Europe has that America doesn’t is girls who are into metal. At my first metal show (Enslaved) here in Berlin, I was astonished to find that 40% of the long hair there was in fact female. Each time I go to the record store, there’s at least one hot girl in the metal […]

My review of Isis’ In the Absence of Truth is up at Stylus. The NY Times has also reviewed this album; the critic has the challenge of describing the album to the general public. Thus, he paints with extremely broad strokes. It would be futile for him to reference Neurosis and Godflesh as I did. […]

My interview with Relapse Records artist Dysrhythmia is up at Stylus.

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

“Oakland is a hard clique, if you don’t know someone there you’re a mark waiting to get got.” So begin the liner notes by Scott Kelly (Neurosis) to Eldopa’s The Complete Recordings (on Tee Pee). Despite being perhaps the most down-to-earth, racially diverse city in the Bay Area, Oakland has unimaginable poverty that gentrification hasn’t […]

If any band didn’t deserve its fate, it was Swarm of the Lotus. This Baltimore band recently called it quits after eight years of bad luck. Frequent lineup changes, touring problems, and shady promoters dogged the band, who left the world two full-lengths and a 7″ picture disc. (Ed. note: As of May 2009, the […]

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 […]

Jared Anderson recently passed away at the tragically young age of 30. He was the bassist/vocalist on Morbid Angel’s Gateways to Annihilation tour and on Hate Eternal’s first two albums. He also had a solo project called Internecine, which released one album, 2002’s The Book of Lambs. On this album, Anderson handled bass, guitars, and […]

Converge makes intensely painful sonic workouts that sometimes feel like scraping knuckles over rock. But they’re also emotionally fulfilling, if only for the feeling of, “Man, I thought I had problems.” Converge albums are definite moments in our lives, and No Heroes (on Epitaph) is a fine addition to the legacy of one of the […]