Lists

Like his bandmates in Boston death-thrash champs REVOCATION, Dan Gargiulo should have been getting ready for Summer Slaughter 2013. Y’know, there are important duties to be done before hurtling across the country in a van: like filling said vehicle full of diesel, packing a bag, loading his guitar into the van, stockpiling Cheetos and cancelling…

By Jon Leon (White Wizzard) 5. Watchtower’s Control and Resistance (1989) Possibly the most over-the-top falsetto vocals of all time…Mixed with some of the most technically proficient playing I have ever heard. Everyone talks about Voivod, who are great, but I think this album is superior to anything any technical metal band did in the…

To continue our celebration of the recent release of Construct, we asked Dark Tranquillity vocalist Mikael Stanne–that’s him in front–to a pick a non-DT record that related in some way to each of his band’s ten full-length records (plus one hand-picked EP). Last week, Mikael’s entries took us from 1992′s A Moonclad Reflection EP up…

The new Locrian record Return to Annihilation is out today and — perhaps predictably — it’s fucking awesome and epic and enthralling and, yeah, maybe a little nutty. Go hear for yourself here, buy it here, and check out the band’s exclusive track-by-track listening guide below. 1. Eternal Return We wanted to start out the…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Dean Swinford is very likely the first and almost certainly the last author in the history of Western literature to pen an epigraph comprised of equal parts Shakespeare (“Is not lead a metal…

If you’ve followed our print mag over the years, you’ll know that we have quite an affinity for Dark Tranquillity, a love affair that extends from old (The Gallery was inducted into our HOF in 2010) and new (Chris Dick gave newest album, Construct, a glowing review…not to mention you may want to check out…

If memory serves me right, I have Kevin Stewart-Panko to thank for my introduction to Mouth of the Architect via his review of the band’s debut, Time and Withering, way back in one of our first issues. Since I’ve been keeping up with the Ohioans ever since, it was a no brainer to ask keyboardist/vocalist…

Last September the frenetic Ventura, California quartet P.O.O.R. — i.e., Point of Our Resistance — released Extinction of Trust, which just so happens to be one of the great grindcore records of the last several years. Yet despite featuring members/ex-members of Fatalist, Dirty Dead, Decrypt, Stump, and Burning at the Stake, and a slew of…

While bands seem to really like doing these playlists, there is one theme that has become prevalent over the last 18 months: what gets listened to in the van while on tour. We’ve had the likes of Ufomammut, Intronaut, BATILLUS, Anciients and Kowloon Walled City (Side A of their list being my personal favorite) tell…

As someone who takes the subway every day, I’m disappointed in myself for never having thought to pair albums with various lines. So I give loads of credit to Kings Destroy vocalist Steve Murphy for not only coming up with the idea (not to mention his preference for express trains and disdain for the L),…

Iceage may be young bucks creating some of the most intriguing/enlivening post-punk noise rock out there these days, but spinning the excellent You’re Nothing we had a hunch the much-lauded Copenhagen quartet might have ingested some metal along the way, too — and wound up getting this uber-sophisticated list of five extremely extreme favorites from…

Adam McGrath plays by his own rules, nobody else’s, not even his own. So when he sent over a list that simply included five “sweet” songs, who were we to argue? Not only does his time in Zozobra (guitarist/vocalist) and Cave In (guitarist) give him more than enough cred, judging by his selections (the first…

Shredding in metal dates directly back to Tony Iommi, who is inexplicably still writing riffs and will be a big part of the new Black Sabbath album due next month. So, we figured it was a good time to invite a new generation of doom shredder into the studio this week. Mark Thomas Baker of…

Today marks the final installment of Old School hardcore Thrusdays with the members Umea throwback punks, AC4. Check out parts one and two, if you should so desire. This week, I asked bassist Christoffer Jonsson and guitarist Karl Backman to list off the albums they spent as much time longingly staring at back in the…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a new twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Blood Bound Books first came to the Metalnomicon’s attention via Rock ‘N’ Roll is Dead: Dark Tales Inspired by Music — an exquisitely depraved, cleverly devised anthology which is not only dedicated…

When Call of the Void is not on the road (most recently in support of recently released Dragged Down A Dead End Path), guitarist Patrick Alberts returns to work and, as he describes it, deals with PTSD (“Post Tour Super Depression”). Having never been on tour, I can’t identify other than to say that his…

5. Saint Vitus. Crosses galore on the second Vitus logo. Three of them. For the Trinity perhaps. The original SVS logo only had one. Three’s a crowd, we say. But this logo is boss. Looks a bit cheap and overdone at first blush, but the barbed letters? Could be heavy metal cliché. Nope. Crown of…

We got semi-retired punk/metal atavist Stevo do Caixão, currently of Tombstones and formerly of the legendary Impetigo, as well as Axeslasher guitarist/vocalist Professor Pizza, and metal scribe Andy O’Connor — sadly, that’s his real name — currently of Pitchfork, Metalsucks, and Noisey, among other publications, to break down the upcoming Maryland Deathfest, debunk old myths…

If you live anywhere near NYC and love extreme music, hopefully you’ve had a chance to check out Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn. Once you find and step through the black doored entrance, not only does the front bar offer a wide variety of drafts and specials, but the back room hosts some of the…

In case you haven’t heard, the new Coliseum record—which was one of our Top 20 Most Anticipated Records of 2013—comes out on Tuesday. Our May issue not only has Shane Mehling’s review of Sister Faith (spoiler alert: he likes it), but Adrien Begrand’s profile of the Louisville trio. In fact, said interview with Ryan Patterson…

Swedish retro thrashers F.K.Ü. — i.e., Freddy Krueger’s Underwear — cite “80’s horror flicks and old copies of Metal Forces magazine” as the band’s primary inspiration, and the band has spent over a decade now backing up that claim, encapsulating odes to Maniac Cop, Hellraiser, C.H.U.D., Motel Hell, and a bevy of other seminal horror…

One of my favorite albums so far this year, Woe‘s Withdrawal, drops on Tuesday. To mark the occasion, guitarist Ben Brand sent along the following playlist that I’m pretty sure only he could adequately describe: “In honor of the transition into Spring, I want you all to start thinking about getting that garden growing. Inch…

We’re less than a month out now from the release of Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats’ sublime psychedelic doom n’ roll tour de force Mind Control, and, lord, does the tranquil-yet-oddly-sinister old school VHS clamshell-esque cover artwork suit the album’s messianic death cult lyrical theme and transcendentalist sonic vibe. “The whole album reeks of VHS…

The dudes in Anciients will release their debut album, Heart Of Oak, on Tuesday. Just in case Jeff Treppel’s lead review in our April issue or Kevin Stewart-Panko’s profile the following month weren’t enough to convince you of the Vancouver quartet’s awesomeness, guitarist/vocalists Chris Dyck and Kenny Cook passed along some of the records they’ll…

Decibel‘s coverage of the debut LP from Richmond, Virginia dark thrash stalwarts Iron Reagan has been fairly comprehensive — last month Chris premiered a stand-out track off Worse Than Dead in this space and there is a short profile of the band in the print issue on stands now — but one aspect of the…

5. Carcass – Carcass has had a few logos over their storied and infamous career, but none of them evinces the manic, electric quality of the group’s music quite like this iteration. Its angular, slightly italicized letters, the long stems of the two “c”s and “r,” and the near interlocking of the double “s” imparts…

Last week, as part of what became an unofficial Soilwork week around these parts, the Swedish sextet’s drummer Dirk Verbeuren gave us a glimpse into his diverse listening habits. As promised, we now present five more tracks from frontman and founder Björn “Speed” Strid, each of which helped meld his musical tastes during his more…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Tales first encountered the infernally enchanting work of James Newman when the stalwart badasses over at Shock Totem re-released his uber-excellent “ode to 1980s horror” The Wicked last year, and subsequent forays into…

Given that Soilwork unleashed its first double album (and ninth overall), The Living Infinite, earlier this month, it’s only appropriate that the long-running Swedish outfit passed along a double playlist. Up first: a collection of tracks from drummer Dirk Verbeuren, each offering an insight into his diverse tastes (Prince is becoming quite a fixture in…

There’s a lot of business and entertaining reading for y’all to get down to this week. You don’t need me gumming up the gears with my special brand of bullshit. Los Angeles-based servants of evil/slaves of Satan, Seven Sisters of Sleep have a new album at the ready. It’s called Opium Morals and it sounds…