We should probably discuss an unpopular relationship: how much of underground music, and wider 1980s and 1990s subculture, came from the unexceptional suburbs.
21 CommentsTags: glenn danzig, misfits, suburbia, underground music
Cadaver – Edder & Bile (2020)
For most albums, you can write a shorthand review: needed more time in the oven. That is, they have the right elements, but in the wrong order, and the transitions do not make enough sense to be powerful, which results in a chaotic feeling with moments of “wow, this is pretty good.”
5 CommentsTags: cadaver, death metal
Mekong Delta – Intersections (2012)
Speed metal never went away; it went underground and combined its many different veins. Mekong Delta mix in some Voivod with their Helstar and Coroner, maybe throw in some Slayer and later progressive old school death metal.
No CommentsTags: mekong delta, progressive metal, Speed Metal
How Andrés Segovia Invented Rock Music
The official narrative in all things exist to sell people products, whether ideological or commercial, and so always consists of half-truths, namely some things that are facts, but carefully leaving out others to let your mind fill in the rest as is convenient for the sellers.
10 CommentsTags: andres segovia, Classical, classical guitar, rock
Lord of Evil
Garage-level bands are usually condemned to the usage of the same rudimentary forms which causes their music to be dominated by the distorted guitar which constitutes the common ground for metal, hardcore, grind and oi. But at the same time there is often a struggle to somehow project desired message into those almost universal, objective structures with only small variations, just as Hellhammer was struggling with confinements of the form, despite being wholly avant-garde in its visions. And it seems that if there is truly a will, it will successfully color those rudimentary structures with desired character.
1 CommentTags: Black Metal, lord of evil, nsbm
USBM: A Revolution of Identity in American Black Metal (2020)
Pandering to the aging millennials who still blight the black metal scene, USBM: A Revolution of Identity in American Black Metal attempts apologize for writing a book about “racist and misogynist bands” while simultaneously attempting to celebrate the same “racist and misogynist” bands. This baffling move should ensure that both USBM fans and SJW posers alike take a hard pass on buying a book that hates the very scene it features while also hating the values it claims to propagate.
20 CommentsTags: Black Metal, social justice, USBM
Satanath Records Censored By Facebook Over Burzum Track
Russian label Satanath Records found out the hard way that American politics have spilled over into cyberspace when Facebook removed its label page for supporting extreme traditionalist black metal band Burzum.
17 CommentsTags: burzum, censorship, facebook, satanath records
Tau Cross – Messengers of Deception (2020)
Amebix always had something that other crust bands lacked, a sense of the mystical or something existing beyond the consumerist, political, atomized, and individualistic modern world. It seemed to be connecting to something both ancient and futuristic.
5 CommentsTags: amebix, crustcore, Hardcore Punk, Heavy Metal, Industrial, tau cross
Sacramentum – Finis Malorum (2020)
Trendy albums age poorly, but those written for eternity tend to maintain their stature even as people gain more experience and cynicism over the years. Finis Malorum stands up to time with a new edition that includes the “Sedes Impiorum” demo, two covers, and an early track.
No CommentsTags: Black Metal, death metal, sacramentum
Confess : The Autobiography, by Rob Halford
Life assembles itself from opposites; what is a strength in one area is a weakness in another. Confess: An Autobiography serves as a great history of Rob Halford, but misses what his audience would like, which is a history of Judas Priest in which Halford discusses his own progress as well as that of the band.
5 CommentsTags: Heavy Metal, judas priest, NWOBHM, rob halford
