Earlier this year I shared my thoughts on Spotify’s “Loud and Clear” mission statement. Spotify operates an unjust business model for artists and their attempt to dispel concerns about this only served to draw greater attention to their stingy payment structure. But I argued that the implications of this for the average user and independent … Continue reading On Spotify Part II – nails, coffins, and art on the battlefield

Krvna: SempinfernusOut 26th November on Séance Records Krvna may be from Australia, but their heart is very much Romanian, as mastermind Krvna Vatra explains: “this album very much was a way of harnessing the very utilities that helped diminish these superstitions and other darker aspects of 'Balkan' culture to, in fact, become a means of … Continue reading I like the beats and I like the yelling: Krvna, Concrete Winds, Abhorration

Sometimes critical acclaim can be the worst thing to happen to an artist. Carcass in their current guise are not so much Carcass as they are the Heartwork Appreciation Society. Varg got so caught up in his legacy that he conceived a desire to rework some of his greatest hits into the warm diarrhoea that … Continue reading Proscriptor McGovern’s Apsû and metal appreciation societies

Death metal in its purest state is a surprisingly difficult element to isolate. This could be because the disparate interpretations of the form on both sides of the Atlantic based their approaches on very different antecedents – thrash, punk, NWOBHM etc. Or it could that death metal as it is understood today – a set … Continue reading Isolating an archetype: Morpheus Descends and Monstrosity

#34 Hod / Pious Levus Carl (Lord Necron) and Beer (Vladibeer) join from the band Hod to discuss their music. Also, some bants. Being that both men are veterans of the metal scene here in San Antonio, we went in-depth into the scene here, their other projects, and so forth.

Morguiliath: Occult Sins, New Unholy DimensionOut 26th November on Osmose Productions Old gods under new lights, this is apparently the order of the day for this French black metal outfit. Morguiliath is the solo project of one...Rats. Their new album ‘Occult Sins, New Unholy Dimension ‘ sees Rats offer up a template of raw but … Continue reading I like the beats and I like the yelling: Morguiliath, Prospectors, Dauþuz

Goatcraft: Sic Transit Gloria MundiOut 26th November on I,Voidhanger Records Within the milieu of metal instrumentation, the keyboard is often viewed as a means to an end, an affordable substitute for a rich array of instrumentation. For the vast majority of musicians, access to a real orchestra is well beyond budgetary means, and even for … Continue reading I like the beats and I like the yelling: Goatcraft, Autokrator, Demonic Temple

How fitting that Eastern Europe proved to be one of the few holdouts for quality black metal just as the more world-renowned scenes began to decline at the turn of the century. In the last twenty plus years artists from Poland, Ukraine, Romania, and of course Russia were all releasing work that challenged the maturity … Continue reading Tales of stone and bark: Evilfeast and Ygg

Ezra Brooks/Serpent Rider: Visions of Esoteric Splendor (Split)Out 22nd October on No Remorse Records This split EP provides a welcome holdout for proudly traditional heavy metal, offering many rewards and lessons for the discerning listener. Ezra Brooks is a Canadian solo act, brainchild of one Shawn Vincent, which here deliveries plenty of infectious heavy metal, … Continue reading I like the beats and I like the yelling: Ezra Brooks/Serpent Rider, Evil Damn, Pressor

The best of death metal is notoriously fleeting, with today’s canon still chiefly consisting of releases from a brief moment in time when the stars aligned in the early 1990s. Of the two artists discussed today, there has been much speculation as to their possible artistic direction had they endured. Would they have unseated their … Continue reading Candles in the wind: Eulogy and Molested