J.C. Newman – Tampa Trolleys

by Brett Stevens on October 11, 2018

Every review site in the world likes to review fine, nuanced cigars, but this is a metal site, so let us look at cigars with the subtlety of an axe murder on a subway car. J.C. Newman named the Tampa Trolleys after the railcars that workers would take to the last American cigar-making plant in Tampa, Florida which was known as “Cigar City USA.” Coming from one of the birthplaces of death metal, these cigars aim for a similar brutality on the smoker but have lessons to teach.

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Profanatica – Altar of the Virgin Whore (2018)

by Lance Viggiano on October 8, 2018

Following the peak of John Gelso’s manic laughter melodic sensibility on Thy Kingdom Cum, Profanatica entered artistic decline by releasing the excuse-to-tour Curling Flame of Blasphemy where the riffs were merely those of Disgusting Blasphemy Against God in a lull given a slight boost in populist consonance for the purpose of pleasing crowds. The G.G. Allin of black metal Paul Ledney sounded tired and uninspired which was reflected by the shark-jumping biker bar promotional pictures which were included in the booklet of the album. With Altar of the Virgin Whore we find Profanatica once again selling an excuse to tour only this time it is said plainly.

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Children Of Doom by Eduardo Vitolo (2018)

by Brett Stevens on October 8, 2018

In the early 1990s, once it seemed that death metal had fired off its initial salvo and lost momentum by late 1992, the record labels immediately turned to what they had next in line to keep the kids occupied, doom metal. This followed years of gradual increase in interest based on the sound that Saint Vitus and Candlemass carried on from Black Sabbath, and tried to jump over recent hardcore- and prog-rock-influenced history to return metal to its heavy rock roots.

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Configuring Exact Audio Copy (EAC) With The Fraunhofer Professional (l3codecp.acm) Codec

by Brett Stevens on October 2, 2018

Maybe you are one of those people who can hear enough audio quality to realize that the Fraunhofer Layer III MP3 Codec is far superior to plebeian alternatives like LAME. Maybe you are not an Apple user because your blood runs red and you do not want to join a cult based on twee interfaces and brightly-colored plastic objects. This means you are stranded in the world of practical people who want to use an MP3 player like Foobar2000 or the renewed WinAMP, a real codec like l3codecp.acm, and an audio extractor like Exact Audio Copy (EAC). Digital downloads are for wimps!

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Inverloch – Distance | Collapsed (2016)

by Nicholas Vahdias on September 24, 2018

Inverloch are an Australian death/doom four piece mostly known for being composed of half of the members of Disembowelment and for being considered their rightful heir. With projects like these there is a fine line between upholding the heritage of a previous project and reiterating past works in hope of achieving former glory. Inverloch straddle that thin line but also manage to find influence in much more recent branches of death metal and the funeral doom subgenre and overall create an enjoyable piece of work that may push the listener towards the greater releases in the genre, especially Transcendence into the Peripheral.

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Mountains

by Ioannis Metaxas on September 23, 2018

Climbing a mountain is a noble struggle and it is metal as hell. It contains ebb and flow, within and without; without, one finds conflict and peace in nature, in the rocks, in the animal kingdom, everywhere. Within, one has to battle against oneself, tiredness, thoughts, injury, and disease; yet all those things make the achievement of reaching the summit real and worthy. They fill life with meaning.

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The One – I, Master (2008)

by Ioannis Metaxas on September 17, 2018

Hailing from Rhodes, black metal project The One comes to us from the mastermind behind Macabre Omen, who alongside Varathron have been the most consistent artists in the Hellenic scene during the past few years. The One performs a style of black metal that draws from various influences such as Mayhem, Hellhammer, and Bathory, yet it is filtered through the Hellenic prism of longer melodies and warm, ritual atmosphere.

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Analysis of Suffocation’s “Catatonia”

by Nicholas Vahdias on September 6, 2018

By the time Despise The Sun was released, Suffocation were on top of the death metal world and had at this point already influenced the rising slam and brutal death metal styles that would inundate and signal the downfall of the whole genre as the technicality and the percussive nature of the music would be the focal point rather than the incredible songwriting present. This short EP would prove to be the band’s final charge as they would soon break up only to reform a few years later, but without Doug Cerrito the band drifted off into mediocrity and tired attempts at pleasing the deathcore crowd. (more…)

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