There’s something oddly comforting about finding yourself completely caught off guard. I’ve heard about how awesome Castle Rat were through the grapevines. I heard the buzz, caught a few hypnotic snippets online, enough to know there were cloaks and swords…
There’s a certain comfort that comes with a long, happy marriage. You come home to the same house, the same smell of your favorite meal permeating the rooms, the same dog wagging its tail in anticipation of a scratching session.…
There’s a moment in every long-standing band’s career when the audience collectively holds its breath. Halford quitting Judas Priest. Metallica cutting their hair. Nightwish writing Tarja a letter to let her know she’s out. When Primal Fear co-founder Mat Sinner…
It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a decade since I stood in line at the bank, sweating through an unusually hot November day, when the kind of news you never expect dropped into my feed. Helloween are reuniting, with…
There’s a moment halfway through “WATCH OUT!” where everything starts spinning. Not metaphorically, not musically, but viscerally. The chorus swirls in psychedelic loops around your head, mirroring the “spinning in a circle” lyric so literally, so perfectly, it’s as if…
There’s something magnetic about a band that makes you sweat and swing fists before you even know their discography. That was my introduction to Malevolence at Brutal Assault 2023, a relentless, sun-scorched set that carved out one of the weekend’s…
There was a time when discovering Volbeat felt like stumbling onto something oddly perfect. Music that bridged two seemingly distant worlds: the bruising gallop of thrash and the dusty soul of Americana. The band’s early records wore this duality proudly,…
There are few heavier crowns to wear in extreme metal than the one Behemoth forged for themselves with The Satanist. Released in 2014, it was more than just a comeback after frontman Nergal’s battle with leukemia. It was an artistic…
It begins, as all hauntings do, with a false sense of safety. A soft shimmer, a haunting children’s choir, and then Peacefield rolls in – an 80s-inspired opener that plays tricks on your memory, as though you’ve heard it somewhere…
Being the gateway into the genre that will remain my favorite to this day, Tobias Sammet and his merry ensemble called Avantasia have always held a special place in my heart. Therefore, being objective while drooling over their every new release…