Review - Hessian Firm

Mercyful Fate – A Brief Retrospective/Introduction

Mercyful Fate are rightly regarded as one of heavy metal’s most influential and beloved icons. A recognized influence on bands like Metallica and Slayer, the danish group picked up on…

By Raphael Alecto July 30, 2023Review

Review

Crifotoure Satanarda – Demo/Untitled (2000)

Many bands purposefully try to sound "quirky" and "unhinged" and these attempts rarely lead to worthwhile music as they come across as dishonest and attention seeking as they tend to…

By Nicholas Mkhl July 30, 2023Review

Review

Cemetary – An Evil Shade of Grey (1992)

What draws listeners into Swedish death metal tends to be the focus on stripped back punk riffs, a reliance on the D-beat, gruff shouts, hard rock inspired breakdowns and the…

By Nicholas Mkhl July 29, 2023Review

Review

Tiamat – Wildhoney (1994)

Tiamat have always been at the forefront of the Swedish scene, whether it was under the name Treblinka where they played the still nascent death/black metal of the time that…

By Nicholas Mkhl July 28, 2023Review

Review

Laibach – Sketches from the Red Districts (2023)

Armed with transgressive audacity that got them into actual trouble in the final days of the former Yugoslavia and a seemingly boundless capacity for provocative irony unfolding on many different…

By Raphael Alecto July 18, 2023Review

Analysis Review

The Music of “Tetsuo: The Iron Man”

With the Japanese cyberpunk classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man, director Shinya Tsukamoto created not only a noteworthy film work on its own but also inaugurated a world of his devising…

By Raphael Alecto July 11, 2023Analysis, Review

Review

Mortify – Fragments at the Edge of Sorrow (2022)

Chilean band Mortify presents an effort of notable poise and maturity on just their second full-length album. The main strength on full display in this release lies in the confident…

By Raphael Alecto July 11, 2023Review

Review

Thantifaxath – Hive Mind Narcosis (2023)

The stylistic lineage that Canadian band Thantifaxath seems to adhere to for this album is one that attempts to use dissonance not as a tool but as a starting point…

By Raphael Alecto June 16, 2023Review

Review

Godflesh – Purge (2023)

The latest offering by iconic and adventurous band Godflesh sees the english duo step back from the experiments of “Post Self” in order to deliver what can be uncontroversially labeled…

By Raphael Alecto June 13, 2023Review

Review

Babylon Whores – King Fear (1999)

The relationship between rock and metal has always been one sided, with metal taking from rock and slowly discarding the influences until any relationship between the two ceased to exist.…

By Nicholas Mkhl May 14, 2023Review