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Frayle Deliver Anthems for the Persecuted Via '1692' (album stream) (premiere)

Living dark may be the best revenge as Cleveland's Frayle suggest on their debut LP. Fans of gothic and black metal will rejoice as will those who love Portishead and Cocteau Twins.

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Music

Post-Metal Outfit Pelican Returns with More Dark Moods and Inventive Instrumentals

On Nighttime Stories, instrumental quartet Pelican make the most out of working without a singer, proving that some narratives are best built without words.

Music

Sabbath Assembly Delivers Mysterious, Beautiful New Track, "A Welcome Below" (premiere)

Sabbath Assembly's "A Welcome Below" is a gorgeous and cathartic exploration into the journey of self-discovery and leaving behind that which oppresses us.

Music

Black 'n' Roll Purveyors, Thonian Horde Meditate on These Troubled Times with "The Narcissist" (premiere)

A doomy concoction with black and thrash metal undercurrents, Thonian Horde throws extreme metal some groove on this blast from the upcoming LP, Downfall.

Music

Florida Metal Trio Thunderclap Makes Auspicious Debut With 'Inebriocean' (album stream) (premiere)

Have you lost control? Are you nearly drowning? Or are you able to survive? Thunderclap asks these questions and more with heavy hooks and DNA-altering riffs on their new album Inebriocean.

Jedd Beaudoin
Music

MetalMatters: March 2019 – Beware the Ides of Metal

From Drastus' monumental second LP to Mystifier's righteous comeback, to Venom Prison's evolution towards death metal infamy, and enthralling debut full-lengths from Devil Master, VLTIMAS, Heaume Mortal, and more, March's MetalMatters highlights a bounty of subversive brilliance.

Music

Yob and Near-death Metal Experiences

Yob's Our Raw Heart topped PopMatters Best of Metal 2018 list. Here, Yob's Mike Scheidt meets with neurophilosopher Christopher James Stevens to discuss music and mystical experiences.

Music

Vouna Introduce Their Blend of Extreme Atmospheric Music

In her debut record with Vouna, Yianna Bekris combines the ferocity of black metal and the weight of doom/death with traditional Greek folk influences to produce an intriguing release.

Music

A Storm of Light Examines Crumbling Lives, Crumbling World In "Prime Time" (premiere + interview)

Experimental heavy rock outfit a Storm of Light returns with a new video, "Prime Time", ahead of first album in five years, Anthroscene.

Music

Yob Highlight Their Conceptual Vision on 'Our Raw Heart'

To characterize Our Raw Heart as consistent is not to damn the record with faint praise as Yob's music is as powerful and beautiful as ever.

Music

Black Salvation Balances Hard Rock and Psychedelia

Black Salvation is a band that works the psychedelia into the hard rock with skill, and it makes for a very listenable album in Uncertainty Is Bliss.

Music

Khemmis Joins the Heavy Metal Elite with 'Desolation'

Confidence oozes from Khemmis' Desolation . It's a six-song, 41-minute battle cry of triumph—and that's exactly what you want from doom-brandishing heavy metal.

Music

Ghost's 'Prequelle' Subverts Metal Clichés and It Has a Strong Sense of History

Underneath the catchy melodies and snazzy artwork, Ghost have created one of the cleverest heavy metal records in recent memory.

Music

King Witch Head in a Progressive Metal Direction with 'Under the Mountain'

King Witch arrive at something like genuine progressive doom metal - atmospheric, heaving, dynamic doom riffs powered by strikingly sonorous vocals.

Music

Hooded Menace Stake Their Claim Atop the Death Metal Pantheon with 'Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed'

Finnish doom/death overlords Hooded Menace return with Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed which reaffirms their position in today's metal pantheon.

Music

The 20 Best Metal Albums of 2017

There's common ground between all 20 metal albums despite musical differences: the ability to provide a cathartic release for the creator and the consumer alike, right when we need it most.

Music

From Recession to Progression: An Interview with Process of Guilt

Process of Guilt's dogged DIY survival during harsh economic times in a country not particularly well-known on a global level for its metal is proof that if you continue to stubbornly follow your passion good things can happen.

Music

Bell Witch: Mirror Reaper

Bell Witch moves the listener with a deathly journey that is often poetic and at times philosophically rich.

Music

Melvins Man Talks 'A Walk with Love & Death', New Solo Venture

Dale Crover discusses the Melvins' willingness to break their own mold and what he and Charlie Watts have in common.

Music

Chelsea Wolfe: Hiss Spun

Wolfe's fifth studio album continues to aggressively pursue metal and industrial music, making for an enrapturing listen all the way through.

Music

Pallbearer: Heartless

Pallbearer’s third album Heartless exists outside of easy genre signifiers. This band is in a league all their own.

Music

Unearthly Trance: Stalking the Ghost

One of the best and heaviest bands to come out of NYC in the past several decades returns with a vengeance to stake their claim.

Music

Lesbian: Hallucinogenesis

New singer, new concept: Lesbian gets higher and higher with latest release.

Music

Earthless + Harsh Toke: Acid Crusher / Mount Swan

This is psychoactive music for psychoactive times, and neither Earthless nor Harsh Toke falter in their mission to sing the words of the muse.

Music

All Them Witches: Dying Surfer Meets His Maker

For all its variety, this is a damn fine rock album, plain and simple.

Music

Sweat Lodge: Talismana

The Sword aren't the only Austin band capable of kicking up a little 4:20-friendly riffology

Music

Ghoulgotha: The Deathmass Cloak

This metal album is the sound of a few people just entertaining themselves without regard to what it takes to satisfy an audience.

Music

Culted: Oblique to All Paths

The perfect melding of blackened doom metal, enhanced by gloomy and melancholy undertones.

Music

Seidr: Ginnungagap

Ginnungagap, the latest album from doom and death merchant Seidr, is an utterly beautiful and brutal flight through the stars.

Music

Kongh: Sole Creation

If album number three from Kongh doesn't bring increased attention, nothing will. Sole Creation is an absolute colossus.

Music

The Album Remains the Same: Led Zeppelin - "No Quarter"

The proto-doom metal masterpiece "No Quarter" is a classic case of a brilliant track that becomes even more enormous in its live incarnations.

Music

My Dying Bride: A Map of All Our Failures

Over the course of 10 previous full-lengths, My Dying Bride's requiems have brought the group much success in Europe, and the band's latest down-tuned release, A Map of All Our Failures, is set, once again, to find favor with fans of the funereally poetic.

Reviews

'Last Days Here' Leaves Us Sadder but Not Wiser

Another documentary about the ever popular tortured artist effect will break your heart and may cause you to wonder aloud why you're watching such a nightmare unfold.

Music

Sleep: Dopesmoker

In the smoke-filled longhouses of metal, no song is as shrouded in legend or reeks as much of burning ambition than Sleep's "Dopesmoker".

Music

Mike Scheidt: Stay Awake

Frontman for doom band YOB hauls out the acoustic guitars and matters of profound spiritual and emotional import on his solo debut. The acoustic guitar part goes well, at least.

Music

Worm Ouroboros: Come the Thaw

The success of Come the Thaw, the sophomore album from ethereal doom outfit Worm Ouroboros, comes down to its gravity. Specifically, its emotional weight, that which presses heavily upon your heart.

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