Monthly Archives: August 2019

Garroted – Of Damnation And Abyssal Terrors EP (2018)

Roiling, churning, riff-intense progressive death metal is what Garroted play on this their second recording. The band should be praised for overcoming the distractedly frenzied nature of debut demo In The Court Of Nyarlathotep; the new songs have an equally … Continue reading

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Ares Kingdom – By The Light Of Their Destruction (2019)

By The Light Of Their Destruction On their new album, Ares Kingdom have traded the anthemic qualities of their first three albums for a deliberately spacier and obscure sound. Appropriately, the band has mined its own past for inspiration; as … Continue reading

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Norman Mailer’s The Naked And The Dead

Published in 1948, Norman Mailer’s debut novel The Naked And The Dead remains an incisive depiction of the soldier’s state of mind. The book is set on an island in the Pacific theater, as the United States tried to roll … Continue reading

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Randy Rhoads and the Diary of a Madman

Ozzy Osbourne’s first four albums, and especially the two with Randy Rhoads, present a strange dilemma for metalheads. While they resuscitated Osbourne’s flagging career after being dumped from Black Sabbath, and though they are fondly remembered for Rhoads’ contributions to … Continue reading

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The obscurity sweepstakes

All metalheads want their favorite bands to be suitably obscure, hidden away from the mainstream. Deathspell Omega remain steadfastly aloof, giving a grand total of two interviews in fifteen years, both couched in arcane references; their music, as it is, … Continue reading

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Prosanctus Inferi – Pulpit Sycophants (Demo, 2019)

Prosanctus Inferi return after five years with a collection of demos in anticipation of a proper full length later in the year. No other contemporary band in death metal has quite managed to capture the idea of music as blasphemy … Continue reading

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