Album Review: Sólstafir’s Endless Twilight of Codependent Love

Iceland’s Sólstafir have for the past 25 years straddled genres including black metal, post-rock, and shoegaze. Singer and guitarist Aðalbjörn Tryggvason says he feels “privileged being able to mix all my favorite genres and get away with it.” With Endless Twilight of Codependent Love, the band’s seventh album, they don’t merely “get away” with incorporating… Continue reading Album Review: Sólstafir’s Endless Twilight of Codependent Love

Album Review: The Call of The Iron Peak by The Devil’s Trade

I have heard a lot of artists talk about the idea of channeling negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, pain, and sorrow into their art. This process can often be cathartic and even healing for both artist and witness. Perhaps the process of facing these difficult topics and feelings via the medium of art allows… Continue reading Album Review: The Call of The Iron Peak by The Devil’s Trade

Album Review: Leaves of Yesteryear by Green Carnation

Leaves of Yesteryear provides everything one could hope for in the first new release in 14 years from Norwegian prog-doom-psych-metal titans Green Carnation. Within the first minute of the opening title track we have spoken word samples about loneliness, all-encompassing doom riffs, mournfully longing melodies and necro-prog Floydisms replete with brooding synths. Did I mention… Continue reading Album Review: Leaves of Yesteryear by Green Carnation

Album Review: Phylogenesis by ABYSMAL DAWN (Season of Mist)

Death metal often walks a narrow tightrope. The lyrical themes can sometimes be too didactically political or, on the other hand, too cartoonish to take seriously. Musically, there is also a balancing act. Some bands who try so hard to sound relentlessly punishing can at times end up sounding monotonous and uninteresting. Phylogenesis, the latest… Continue reading Album Review: Phylogenesis by ABYSMAL DAWN (Season of Mist)