Let me make one thing perfectly clear: I don't "do" podcasts. The reasons are many, but chiefly it's because if I wanted to listen to the directionless ramblings of stoners talking about popular culture, I would hide out in the basement when my wife and her pot smoking pals get together. If I wanted to listen to the self-important ramblings of some self-appointed expert, I'd read his or her book ...

Given that Dawnbringer's Nucleus landed high up on our Top 40 list of 2010, we've been stoked ever since we heard that the band would be releasing its fifth full-length this year. We were even more pumped when we found out that it would be a concept album, one that "follows the story of a naïve assassin and his bizarre journey that inevitably leads to its tragic end." And as Adrien Begrand ...

Mike IX Williams, Eyehategod's multitalented vocalist, is no stranger to extracurricular activities (and we're talking the purely legal ones here, folks). He's a published author and poet (check out his book Cancer As A Social Activity if you get a chance); sings with a side outfit Arson Anthem and also released a spoken word seven-inch titled “That’s What The Obituary Said.” Clearly, ...

Not much is known about Liverpool's Conan. No, this isn't the same Conan you see on late night TV or the same fictional king(s) Conan/Kalidor who bedded Sandahl Bergman and Brigitte Nielsen in the early '80s, but rather this Conan is a UK-based doom metal trio who've kept their mouths shut by employing Internet stealth mode---the difficulty level for this is unreal---for the past six years. That ...

So, for the record we don't in any way endorse actual drinking and driving. That's just stupid. However, the geniuses at Dream Arcades have invented a machine that we heartily endorse getting wrecked while using. It has been our experience that the addition of beer to most things makes them better. Except driving. Did we mention that? Drinking beer does not make driving or operating heavy ...

After a fourteen year hiatus from writing and recording new music -- not to mention the permanent break with longtime vocalist Udo Dirkschneider -- fans had some cause to be skeptical of Accept's 2010 return. Blood of the Nations, however, proved to be a shockingly impressive comeback record -- not just a resurrection but a true return to fighting fit form. And the follow-up, Stalingrad -- an ...

Welcome to The Lazarus Pit, a biweekly look at should-be classic metal records that don’t get nearly enough love; stuff that’s essential listening that you’ve probably never heard of; stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall Of Fame for.  This week, we contract a severe case of deiphobia with Fear of God and their classic Within the Veil (Warner ...

Once Second Wave titans Emperor were done scorching the earth with black metal, Ihsahn wasn't slow in scaling the genre's perimeter fence, and high-tailing it in search of a fresh sound that rested far from the genre's weirdly orthodox iconoclasm. Progressive metal was a neat fit, a suitably abstract direction to define his sound as a solo artist. His first three albums were a trilogy (The ...

I've never been on tour, but I'd imagine that being couped up in a car/van/bus with the same people for hours on end necessitates certain accoutrements. One of the most basic and relevant for our purposes, of course, is the car stereo. The AUX jack may put your entire library at your fingertips, but just throwing your iPod on shuffle may get you left at the next rest stop. Needless to say, the ...

Any time we receive a note promising music that "marries traditional coal mining songs with harsh, expansive black metal" we're intrigued. And Panopticon's "Kentucky" is sort of the metal equivalent of a William Faulkner novel: dense, multifacted but also soulful. The album, due in June from Handmade Birds/Pagan Flames, touches on the difficulty and despair of American Appalachia, as well as the ...