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 →

Before I knew anything much about music, my older brother George was religiously reading Melody Maker in the early 2000s. Out of the many purchases he made as a result one album caught my attention at the age of 11 or 12. ‘Rated R’ perfectly encapsulates all of Josh and Nick’s strengths as musicians. Their... Continue Reading →

For early grindcore artists, after album number two, there seemed to be but two choices, start playing death metal, or breakup. Carcass have all but disowned their first effort, 1988's ‘Reek of Putrefaction’. This is largely because the sound one finds herein is a messy wall of noise, even by the standards of artists who... Continue Reading →