GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, NOVEMBER 2025

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Dec 022025
 

(Here’s Gonzo’s latest monthly collection of reviews, this time focusing on three albums released during November 2025.)

Historically, November has a distinct way of fucking up my yearly Listmania plans, and this year is probably no different. It hardly makes sense to even start the hilariously brain-melting exercise of compiling my yearly list before December 1 anymore, because some band will be inevitably lurking just out of sight until the sun starts setting before 5 p.m. every day, waiting to skull-fuck my carefully concocted assemblage of heavy hierarchy into oblivion.

How does this always happen? Am I asleep for 11 of 12 months of the year? Is everything a joke? Well, yes, but that’s another topic entirely. It’s a good thing heavy music even exists at all, otherwise I’d probably intentionally maroon myself on some remote island and hunt billionaires with a crudely assembled spear.

Right. I think we got off topic here. My day job is rapidly approaching “let’s revisit this after the holidays” territory, leaving me with more time to scream into these hallowed pages about death metal. At least two of the records I included this month have a nonzero chance of showing up in the vaunted list of lists next month, and we’ll get to that rotten task soon enough. For now, allow me to regale you with three albums that are all but guaranteed to leave an impression on unsuspecting family members if played loud enough at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, OCTOBER 2025

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Nov 032025
 

(October 2025 is done and dusted, Gonzo has survived another month, and so he surfaces here to present reviews of four recommended albums released in the year’s 10th month.)

At the risk of sounding cliched, it’s always a depressing reality when Halloween comes to an end. It’s even worse when daylight savings time kicks in on the same weekend, reminding us that the Big Dark is already upon us, signaling the months of snow and rain and subzero temperatures that lurk around the corner.

Choose your coping mechanism as you wish, but whatever they are, I recommend you add these four new releases to distract you from the horrors. Continue reading »

UMULAMAHRI AND SUFFERING HOUR: A TALE OF TWO EXTREMELY EXTREME EPs

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 272025
 

(Gonzo is busily thinking about what to cover in his next monthly review roundup for NCS, but in the meantime he’s pulled together some thoughts about a pair of EPs released in the early days of October by two U.S. bands.)

When you spend a significant amount of time bulldozing your way through new music discoveries, a lot can happen. For one, it eventually becomes a hell of a lot harder to be impressed at anything. Your brain starts to tune out anything formulaic or unimaginative. Quality will always triumph over quantity, you start to tell yourself, and surely you’ll find yourself immersed in the throes of a dopamine hit that can only be generated by the nastiest, vilest, and more extreme foray into sonic depravity the human mind can possibly conjure. Just keep searching.

Then, at long last, when your quest for heavy music fulfillment reaches a zenith, it leads you to the very edge of the abyss you were once so intent on finding… and you suddenly find yourself afraid to look down, fearing what lies below.

In the case of these two EPs, the abyss stares back. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, SEPTEMBER 2025

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Oct 032025
 

(September 2025 is in the books, and so Gonzo is back with us to share his recommendations of five albums released in that month.)

It’s probably a pretty clear indicator of the world we’re living in when not one, not two, but three albums released in the same month are some of the most intense emotional experiences I’ve had all year. And friends, let me tell you—it’s been a year.

It’s with albums like the newest from Sundrowned and Heretoir that provide comfort in the darkest of times. Whether or not these are a direct result or response to world events is anyone’s guess, but music in 2025 has hit decisively differently than years previous.

All this being said, if you’re looking for coping mechanisms, emotional catharsis, or just a goddamn wild-ass ride you won’t forget, I can’t recommend my picks for September highly enough. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, END-OF-SUMMER EDITION, 2025

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Sep 122025
 

(Denver-based NCS scribe Gonzo wrote the following album-review roundup, covering four albums released in July or August and one released a week ago.)

As per usual with every summer, I’ve spent about 75% of it in places that don’t include being in front of my computer. And when I am seated here in this vaunted throne, I’m staring at work. The kind that pays the bills. Sigh.

But really, who am I to complain? After a three-year wait, this summer’s resurgence of Fire in the Mountainswas everything it ever could’ve been and more, highlighting a July that was filled with all kinds of uplifting moments. And while I was out galivanting in the woods for undetermined lengths, tons of new releases came gurgling out of the ether that I have yet to write about.

Let’s fix that. Continue reading »

FIRE IN THE MOUNTAINS 2025: THE DAWN OF A NEW AGE OF HEAVY CEREMONY

 Concert Reviews  12 Responses »
Aug 072025
 

(Denver-based NCS writer Gonzo prepared the following extensive report on this year’s edition of the Fire in the Mountains festival. All photos except where noted by Jacob Juno.)

Like more than a few who will read this, the experience of the 2022 Fire in the Mountains festival left an indelible mark on me. That July weekend in the Tetons, now over three years in the rearview mirror, gave more than just a weekend of music in the wilderness to everyone in attendance. It took what easily could’ve been a risky one-off experiment and turned it into something decidedly different. Its success can be measured entirely by the community it built over those three unforgettable days.

Some of it was the incredible lineup, which included Enslaved, YOB, Wolves in the Throne Room, Wayfarer, and many others. Still more of it was the beautiful setting just outside Grand Teton National Park. But so much beyond that felt intangible, as if any human tongue lacked the words necessary to describe how it felt to be there.

I thought about all of this as I finished packing up my Subaru to the brim with camping gear two weeks ago. The wait was over. After three long years of uncertainty, the Fire in the Mountains festival would finally be making its triumphant return in a new place, rife with the potential for new beginnings.

And even though I didn’t know it at the time, the 2025 edition of this festival would not only obliterate every expectation I had for it, but it would signal the dawn of a new kind of heavy ceremony, paving the way for yet another weekend for which I’d struggle to find the words to describe.

The following recap is me trying anyway. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, JUNE 2025

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Jun 272025
 

(In the following piece, NCS writer Gonzo reviews five recent albums he caught up to in June.)

It’s been way too fucking long since I’ve been able to crank one of these out.

Without going into too much detail, life has most decisively gotten in the way of me being able to post much. It’s been long enough, and I’ve done a great job of giving myself a pretty serious case of FOMO since the last time I posted a column that wasn’t a gigantic write-up of a festival. I live for that shit, but it’s also an exhausting endeavor.

Besides, there’s simply been too many good releases in the past few months for them not to be mentioned within these pages. Here’s five of them you should check out. Continue reading »

NORTHWEST TERROR FEST 2025: THE FULL REPORT

 Concert Reviews  15 Responses »
May 302025
 

(We are most grateful to Denver-based NCS writer Gonzo for this amazingly comprehensive and vivid report on the 2025 edition of Northwest Terror Fest. Except where noted, the photos are credited to PNW photographer extraordinaire J. Donovan Malley and NWTF staff.)

This won’t be true for everyone, but for me, there are perhaps no other words in the English language that have sparked more friendships than “hey man, nice shirt.”

I remembered this as I was standing on the corner of 10th Ave & Pike St. at just before 4 p.m. on a clear Thursday afternoon in Seattle. The 2025 Northwest Terror Fest was less than an hour from officially kicking off. I was in front of Neumos and Barboza clad in my long-sleeved Blood Incantation shirt amid a small crowd of similarly clad festival diehards. As usual, I was looking for Islander – both to say hi and to grab my festival pass for the weekend – and before I could even find the man himself, I got sucked into my first conversation with a stranger about our mutual love for Blood Incantation.

This interaction set the stage perfectly for the next three days of music, friends, community, and probably more beer than one man’s liver should ever be tasked with handling. It was once again time for me to dive headfirst into Northwest Terror Fest. Continue reading »

GONZO GOES TO ROADBURN 2025

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
May 192025
 

(Our Denver-based writer Gonzo went to Roadburn 2025 in April. Here’s his extensive report on the experience.)

For almost as long as I can recall, I’ve wanted to make the pilgrimage to Roadburn. The 4-day affair in Tilburg, Netherlands, has been one of the most consistently raved-about experiences in heavy music on the planet for the better part of two decades, and I’d been dead-set on getting my ass there for at least half that time.

As it turns out, 2025 would be the year I’d finally get to see if Roadburn lives up to the hype.

The short answer?

Yes. Fuck yes. And then some. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, MARCH 2025

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Apr 042025
 


Forlorn

(Our Denver-based writer Gonzo is back with another monthly roundup of reviews and recommendations. Today’s varied collection includes four albums released in March and one from February.)

Well well, here we are again with a new month, and I’m writing this exactly a week later than I wanted to. Refused are officially fucking dead – at least, to everyone who saw them Tuesday night here in Denver – and I’m still getting my voice back after that show. “CAN I SCREAM” indeed.

It’s been quite the active week for heavy music around the Rockies. By the time this gets on our site, I’ll have likely already seen Meshuggah tear another hole in the space-time continuum, and I always look forward to that. I’m glad I managed to get this column out the door, though, as I’m headed to Roadburn in a couple of weeks for a much-needed break. Leaving the country, even if temporarily, seems to be the right move for now. There’s chaos and stupidity around every corner in the US, and I can only live in violent opposition to fascism for so long.

Since I don’t have high hopes for getting an April edition of this column out into the world, it’ll give you more time to dive into these 5 albums for March. You won’t be sorry. Continue reading »

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