May 052026
 

(April was a sorry month in many ways for many people, but it still yielded a lot of good heavy albums, and in his latest monthly roundup of reviews our friend Gonzo picks out four of them.)

These days, it feels like I’m behind on everything: Behind on new heavy music, behind on listening to it, and most certainly behind on writing about it.

I guess there’s a reason for that. Not to delve too far into a sob story, but this is mostly because my day job decided to callously and haphazardly lay me off last week. Having this happen so abruptly is one thing, but the fact that this unceremonious ending was the third layoff in a row for me is another. Screaming into the void is therapeutic, and by that measure, my yearly pilgrimage to Roadburn a few weeks ago turned out to be more necessary than ever.

So, fuck the corporate grind. My venom for capitalism knows no bounds. Being forced to repeat the Sisyphean and futile exercise of finding another job in this hellscape has only tempered said venom in something even more vitriolic. For these reasons, I’m sad to say I’ll be missing this year’s Northwest Terror Fest in the coming days. That bums me out more than anything else.

In the meantime, here’s some new music to keep your ears busy. Continue reading »

Apr 012026
 

Recommended for fans of: Nine Inch Nails, Deftones, Death Grips, Godflesh, clipping.

The thing about blending genres is – just like mixing together too many shades of paint – what you often end up with is just… beige.

But when you get it right, not just sloppily blending together all the most generic and familiar aspects of different styles but relying on the clashing, kaleidoscopic contrasts between them to create something weird and provocative that smashes through all the established boundaries… that’s when you get Doodseskader.

And with their third album set for release on Friday, now seemed like the perfect time to shine some light on the duo’s unique amalgam of Electro-Industrial-Hip-Hop and Nu-Punk-Sludge-Metal.

Continue reading »

Apr 032024
 

(Andy Synn presents four more handpicked morsels of metallic goodness from the last month)

I don’t think anyone is going to disagree with the following assertion, but… March was absolutely packed with new releases, any number of which could (and perhaps) should have been featured here.

Sadly, between the three of us (and our various (ir)regular contributors) we only have a limited number of hours in the day which we can dedicate to writing and reviewing… especially when you consider that we’d rather, wherever possible, provide some proper insight and analysis instead of just churning out a bunch of superficial – and largely interchangeable – puff-pieces just to get our numbers up.

With that in mind, here’s a short-list (ok, not that short) of artists I wish I’d written about… Apparition, Clarion Void, Convulsing, Horresque, Kollapse, Merrimack, Sacrificial Vein (absolutely love that one), Schattenfall, the flawed but fascinatingly ambitious debut from Waidelotte, Wounds… and which I hope you’ll still find time to check out.

Still, best not to focus on our regrets, eh? Especially since the four artists/albums I’ve selected for this edition of “Things You May Have Missed” – all of whom err on the more esoteric and/or unorthodox side, to a greater or lesser extent – represent some of the best that March had to offer.

Continue reading »