When music of speed reaches some unknowable tipping point and morphs into ambient noise, it becomes akin to music at the opposite, unbearably, sluggish pole. These pioneers of doom played so slowly the prefix ‘funeral’ was added to emphasise just how fucking slow it is. They are aesthetically closer to black metal than they are... Continue Reading →

Primitive death metal’s ability to constantly re-invent itself within such simplistic parameters really is remarkable. By the early 1990s death metal was in danger of stagnating on all fronts. But despite the risks, there were those that insisted on carrying the flame for simple music that avoided the pitfalls of being simplistic. Two releases by... Continue Reading →

Tampa Florida, what started life as an extreme take on thrash metal, by the 1990s, developed into a surprisingly diverse set of artists that swept to international stardom as a result. Morrisound Studios, where the majority of these works were recorded, became something a spiritual home for American death metal, indeed for the international scene... Continue Reading →

For a style of music that developed in the late 1980s from heavy metal, thrash metal, progressive rock, and punk, deeply rooted in the traditions of romanticism, narrative composition, high fidelity musicianship, and a smattering jazz of jazz and horror film scores, by around 1992 death metal was proving to be a surprisingly limited subgenre.... Continue Reading →

You may have just saved the entire Alpha Quadrant, and all it cost, was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal, and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer The first batch of episodes that make up Star Trek Deep Space Nine watch like a Krusty-Brand-Imitation-Gruel version of its predecessor, Star Trek: The Next Generation.... Continue Reading →

Following the rebirth of Swedish extreme metal in the form of Nihilist and Grotesque came a plethora of artists set to take the world by storm and pioneer a style of simple yet grandiose death metal that is still cherished today. Here, we discuss two of the best. At the Gates formed out of the... Continue Reading →

Metal has a long and proud history of cross-pollination with other subcultures, the oldest, closest, and most important being punk. When post punk exploded in the 1980s it sprouted something of a revolution in alternative music. Artists as diverse as Blondie, Joy Division, The Talking Heads, Swans, and The Fall all made headways in alternative... Continue Reading →

Guest entry exploring cherished albums courtesy of Francis Swift Preface: It should be noted that the following list was incredibly difficult to compile, and took quite some time to finalize. Why? Well, certainly not because of my encyclopaedic knowledge of art and music history, as will become quite evident. Rather it is due to the... Continue Reading →