In the early days of death metal, when it was a hybrid of heavy metal and hardcore punk, it was widely viewed as technically incompetent especially by the jazz, rock, blues, and emo punk audience that was dominating record stores at the time. A few death metal bands set out to prove them all wrong, including Sadist, who kindly agreed to an interview for our readers, many of whom are Sadist fans.
257 CommentsTags: death metal, interview, Progressive Death Metal, progressive rock, sadist
Every genre hits a ceiling. How does jazz rise beyond The Shape of Jazz to Come, electronica exceed Computer World, classical beat the Beethoven nine symphonies, or black metal surpass Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, Pure Holocaust, and Transilvanian Hunger?
62 CommentsTags: amorphophallus titanum, dungeon synth, garden gnome, goatcraft
Moving through the underground without noticing Deceased over the past three decades would prove difficult, and many of us know this band as an early effort to bring heavy metal technicality to death metal at a time when the genre was still considered primitive.
74 CommentsTags: death metal, deceased, doomstone, Heavy Metal, hells headbangers
For years, our writers have enjoyed not just Zeni Geva but the subsequent outpouring of solo and collaborative works from Kazuyuki “K.K. Null” Kishino, who wrangles operatic emotional conflicts out of pure sound distorted, twisted, echoed, and stretched into plaintive sounds.
39 CommentsTags: joel gilardini, k.k. null, noise, zeni geva
As our longtime readers know, this site started out in the hacker days of the 1980s as a type of free speech protest designed to expand the various Overton-style Windows through shocking, disturbing, blasphemous, gory, apostatic, and sodomitic propaganda. We dislike censorship.
9 CommentsTags: bandcamp, censorship, eli azrael, soundcloud
The news filtered down through the grapevine the other day that Yosuke Konishi of Nuclear War Now! Productions had entered into a new venture named Helios Press which will manufacture vinyl records in Brady, Texas. This hopes to serve the rising vinyl market which has not only not fizzled but continues to gain strength:
34 CommentsTags: helios press, nuclear war now! productions, vinyl, yosuke konishi
Higher-powered home computers drove the democratization of music production, then the internet allowed individuals to promote themselves. Many at the time wondered if this would be the death of record labels, which previously were the only way for bands to get known.
38 CommentsTags: bitcoin, home production, podcasting, rss, self-publishing, sir libre
Founding member of Greek cult black metal band Necromantia The Magus, formerly known as Magus Wampyr Daoloth, who recently cowrote a book that might be the most interesting assessment of metal in recent years, took the time to answer some of our questions and provide fresh mysteries for those who want to understand this cryptic and mythological subgenre.
9 CommentsTags: Black Metal, interview, necromantia, the magus
Gaming took a central role in the culture war against the culture war. At some point, gamers simply wanted to be free of outside manipulations, a point that became especially touchy since video games often involve the scary stuff like war, conspiracy, pandemic, and violence.
72 CommentsTags: dissident right, kvltgames, trollsk, video games
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
