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Adrien Begrand
PopMatters Contributing Editor

Adrien Begrand has been writing for PopMatters since 2002, and has been writing his monthly metal column Blood & Thunder since 2005. His writing has also appeared in Metal Edge, Sick Sounds, Metallian, graphic novelist Joel Orff’s Strum and Drang: Great Moments in Rock ‘n’ RollKnoxville Voice, The Kerouac Quarterly, JackMagazine.com, StylusMagazine.com, and StaticMultimedia.com. A contributing writer for Decibel, Terrorizer, and Dominion magazines and senior writer for Hellbound, he resides, blogs, and does the Twitter thing in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.


Features

Monday, May 17 2010

A Light in the Black: Ronnie James Dio, 1942-2010

In a genre that loves its iconic figures, Ronnie James Dio was one of the biggest. Sadly, one of metal's ageless wonders proved to be mortal after all.


Wednesday, December 17 2008

The Best Metal Albums of 2008

It was a stellar year for metal, and an eclectic year, too: Norweigian prog-metal, goth-infused death metal, Swedish thrash, black metal, and stoner rock all make the list.


Thursday, August 28 2008

To Hell and Back: Black Sabbath's Dio Years

Ronnie James Dio's original three-year sojourn with Black Sabbath was mercurial, but it completely transformed and re-energized the band.


Thursday, May 1 2008

Fun & Games: Killing Joke in the mid-'80s

Though lumped in with post-punk acts, Killing Joke were considerably less edgy than their peers, their blunt, pulverizing music echoing the rage and cynicism expressed in the songs making them somewhat of an anomaly.


Monday, March 3 2008

By:Larm 2008: Pining For the Fjords

PopMatters surveys the smorgasbord of Scandinavian pop, metal and everything in between at the by:Larm Festival in Oslo, Norway. Great music, splendid weather, $12 beers and lots of hot dogs later, we emerge already looking forward to next year.


Columns

Tuesday, August 2 2011

Born Again, Again

Critically panned 28 years ago, Black Sabbath's bizarre 11th album, Born Again, has gone on to earn a cult following of its own.


Monday, June 13 2011

To Hell and Back: An Interview With Andy Sneap of Hell

Obscure New Wave of British Heavy Metal band Hell has made the unlikeliest of comebacks thanks to its biggest fan, who just so happens to be one of the most famous metal producers in the world.


Thursday, May 5 2011

Once More Unto the Breach: What Do People See in Sabaton?

Sabaton's strange combination of metal style (power), subject matter (depictions of real war events), image (everyone clad in snow camouflage), and stage presence (goofily jumping around like they're Kiss without make-up), was just too much to bear.


Wednesday, March 23 2011

Ruling the Ruins: Doro Pesch and Warlock Revisited

Warlock was never a musically innovative band, but thanks to legendary singer Doro Pesch, their impact on metal history is indelible.


Monday, February 28 2011

Something 2 Grind 2: An Interview with Graf Orlock

Constructed around loads of ingeniously-timed movie samples, Graf Orlock's music is some of the most fun grindcore you'll ever hear, psychotic and chaotic yet insidiously catchy, but the first impression is always unforgettable, thanks to their artwork.


Doggamn! [25.Aug.10]
Def and Twisted [29.Jul.09]
Compelled to Slay [11.Feb.09]
Workingman's Death [16.Sep.08]
Many Happy Returns [11.Sep.07]
Postmortem [15.Aug.06]
Complex Simplicity [13.Jul.06]
Sweet Relief [27.Jan.06]
Forever Undying [28.Nov.05]
Regeneration [14.Oct.05]

Reviews

Tuesday, August 2 2011

Graveyard: Hisingen Blues

The Swedish retro-rockers return with a an assured, surprisingly nuanced second album.


Friday, July 29 2011

Megadeth: Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? (25th Anniversary Edition)

Megadeth's breakthrough second album has been given the reissue treatment, and the results are surprisingly mixed.


Wednesday, June 29 2011

The Melvins: Sugar Daddy Live

The latest of many live Melvins albums will go down as one of the best.


Tuesday, June 28 2011

Korn: The Essential Korn

Korn certainly had its moments of greatness, but stretching a best-of compilation over two CDs is asking a lot.


Tuesday, June 21 2011

Altar of Plagues: Mammal

The second full-length by the Irish band heads in a direction few of us could have foreseen.


Obscura: Omnivium [18.Apr.11]
TesseracT: One [29.Mar.11]
Salome: Terminal [16.Nov.10]
Zoroaster: Matador [17.Aug.10]
Soulfly: Omen [4.Jun.10]
Ratt: Infestation [23.Apr.10]
Eloy: Visionary [18.Feb.10]
Meshuggah: Alive [12.Feb.10]
AC/DC: Backtracks [20.Nov.09]
Megadeth: Endgame [15.Sep.09]
Voivod: Infini [9.Jul.09]
Cobalt: Gin [17.Mar.09]
Lamb of God: Wrath [24.Feb.09]
Guapo: Elixirs [27.Oct.08]
Soulfly: Conquer [26.Aug.08]
Opeth: Watershed [5.Jun.08]
Jesu: Lifeline [14.Jan.08]
Portal: Outré [26.Oct.07]
Plastiscines: LP1 [26.Sep.07]
Waking Up Dead [30.Aug.07]
Turbonegro: Retox [14.Aug.07]
Caïna: Mourner [24.Jul.07]
The Best of Atreyu [26.Jun.07]
Dungen: Tio Bitar [16.May.07]
Jesu: Conqueror [15.Mar.07]
Meshuggah: Nothing [23.Feb.07]
Totimoshi: Ladrón [12.Jan.07]
Danava: Danava [4.Dec.06]
OSI: Free [28.Sep.06]
Godsmack: IV [8.Aug.06]
Korn: Live & Rare [19.Jul.06]
Enslaved: Ruun [6.Jul.06]
Yakuza: Samsara [19.May.06]
Rammer: Cancer [4.May.06]
Faktion: Faktion [27.Apr.06]
Edguy: Rocket Ride [18.Apr.06]
Amorphis: Eclipse [31.Mar.06]
The Ocean: Aeolian [24.Mar.06]
Burst: Origo [22.Feb.06]
Can: Can DVD [15.Feb.06]
Stryper: Reborn [29.Sep.05]
Torche: Torche [13.Jul.05]
Xiu Xiu: La Foret [11.Jul.05]
Coldplay: X & Y [6.Jun.05]
Guapo: Black Oni [28.Apr.05]
Athlete: Tourist [19.Apr.05]
Ash: Meltdown [10.Mar.05]
M.I.A.: Arular [18.Feb.05]
Behemoth: Demigod [15.Feb.05]
Cursed: Two [8.Feb.05]
Dälek: Absence [8.Feb.05]
Meshuggah: I [29.Oct.04]
Garage Days (2004) [23.Aug.04]
Björk: Post Live [13.Jul.04]
Atreyu: The Curse [12.Jul.04]
The Pixies [21.Apr.04]
Soulfly: Prophecy [29.Mar.04]
Grandaddy: Sumday [27.Jun.03]
Lamb: What Sound [20.Jun.03]
Four Tet: Rounds [3.Jun.03]
Echoboy: Giraffe [27.Mar.03]
The D4: 6Twenty [25.Mar.03]
Fischerspooner: #1 [14.Mar.03]
Doro: Fight [27.Jan.03]
Pulp: Hits [13.Jan.03]
Cribabi: Volume [18.Dec.02]
Rubyhorse: Rise [22.Oct.02]
Halford: Crucible [13.Sep.02]
Soulfly: 3 [21.Aug.02]

Blogs

Tuesday, December 13 2011

Bubbling Under the 75 Best Albums of 2011: Opeth

This week we presented our Best 75 Albums of 2011. Here are several more just bubbling under the top 75...


Friday, October 8 2010

The Top 100 Canadian Singles, by Bob Mersereau

Mersereau's likeable follow-up to The Top 100 Canadian Albums is another portrait of Canadian pop culture that's as eccentric as it is argument-instigating.


Wednesday, December 9 2009

The Best Singles of 2009: Delorean - "Seasun"

We've unveiled our 50 best singles of the year, but that's not really a lot of songs. So, here are others bubbling just under that 50 mark.


Tuesday, November 24 2009

AC/DC - Backtracks

AC/DC - Backtracks (Deluxe Collector's Edition) - Legacy [$239.00]


Learn to Speak Music, by John Crossingham (Sound Affects) [27.Oct.09]
"Ignorant bliss, impending doom..." (Sound Affects) [11.Jun.09]
Top 5 Videos of 2008: Adrien Begrand (Mixed Media) [25.Nov.08]
Sure, it's fun and all, but dude...male dancers? (Notes from the Road) [23.Feb.08]
12 bucks for beer?! Are you nuts? (Notes from the Road) [22.Feb.08]
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The 10 Greatest Shakespeare Film Adaptations of All Time (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 7:50 am]
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  18. “Don’t Let Me Fall”: Hip-Hop in the Age of Austerity (Features)
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  20. Paul McCartney: Kisses on the Bottom (Reviews)
  21. Counterbalance No. 67: John Coltrane’s 'A Love Supreme' (Sound Affects)
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  23. A Tale of How Great Journalism Became Revisionist History: Grambling State U Football (Columns)
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