The Carcass guys never wanted to be grindcore; they wanted to be guitar fireworks speed metal, and on this album, they stick to roughly where they were on Heartwork: fast and intricate speed metal and power metal riffs based on established patterns with an ear for melody but linear development.
19 CommentsTags: carcass, Speed Metal
Poised somewhere between speed metal and death metal, Slayer re-invented heavy metal by incorporating punk and classical structures with trademark raging speed, complex arrangements, occult and literary allusions, and intricate rapid-fire guitar solos.
17 CommentsTags: death metal, metal blade records, slayer, Speed Metal
It is with sadness that we note the passing of Ruben Elizondo, famed Houston-area percussionist for bands such as Imprecation, Adumus, Dark Reign, and Morbus 666. We wish him well in the eternal battle of good versus evil that plays out on the land as well as the lands beyond.
1 CommentTags: imprecation, ruben elizondo
Already gaining a lead on all other contenders for the most compelling underground metal album of the year, Kaeck has on Het Zwarte Dictaat made the masterpiece of violent rhythm riffs and melodies that much of the underground wishes it could, combining black metal and war metal with doom metal and death metal to create a constantly changing mood within a fluid style. Fortunately, guitarist/composer Jan Kruitwagen had a few moments to give us his take on the band and state of the metal genre.
2 CommentsTags: Black Metal, jan kruitwagen, kaeck, War Metal
They always tell you to “think outside the box,” as if having everyone focused on non-conformity will result in anything but a new variety of conformity. So much of life comes back to the mirror image, where we are staring at a representation of ourselves, and trying to change how it looks, despite everything happening in reverse since left is right and right left.
2 CommentsTags: gawith hoggarth & co., pipe smoking, pipe tobacco, pipes, tobacco
Foundational proto-black metal band Sarcófago announced today that its 1987 classic of blasphemy, I.N.R.I., has been re-issued in a “woke version” by Washington, D.C. label Dischord and will be in stores shortly, packaged with a commemorative Satanic Lust N95 face mask.
4 Comments
Pipes and Cigars sent out its tobacco-drink pairing guide:
7 CommentsTags: hermeticism, pipe smoking
Easily a candidate for album of the year, Het Zwarte Dictaat from Kaeck makes a form of war metal that incorporates the subtle melodies of black metal and the longer atmospheric riffs of later death metal, melding a primitive assault along the lines of Zyklon-B and Blasphemy with the type of elaborate construction we might expect from Emperor or Demigod.
With use of precise riffs, this album creates atmosphere in the classic underground metal style that contrasts loping hypnotic riffs with bursts of fury, allowing the song to emerge from a smoldering inner conflict like a car shooting out of a darkened tunnel into the light, looking for clarity within a shifting landscape of ambiguity and violence.
In its blend of war metal, doom-death, and black metal, Kaeck runs the gamut of tempi and rhythms over the course of this album, transitioning from the primitive to the almost reverentially mood-driven. By blending current methods with the most ancient of metal traditions, Het Zwarte Dictaat keeps a foot in the past while stepping into the future.
2 Comments
Jason Kiss of Goatcraft has reinvented himself again with a podcast called Necropolis, and he graciously invited me on to talk about ANUS, Dark Legions Archive, the classic underground, and the nowadays internet and corporate/hipster metal.
13 CommentsTags: dark legions archive, jason kiss, necropolis, spinoza ray prozak
