
Y'ever watch True Blood or read the Sookie Stackhouse novels? You say you're a heterosexual male... so no? Let me re-phrase. Have a girlfriend/wife? Y'ever passively listen while True Blood plays in the same room as the couch you're sitting on, while waiting for Anna Paquin to get naked again? That's what I thought, you coy motherfucker. In said world, "V" (vampire blood) is used as the ultimate psychedelic/ opiate/ steroid/ stimulant drug. Impetuous Ritual and their full length, Relentless Execution of Ceremonial Excrescence, is like [...]
By Andrew Wilhelm (Denver) and Van Damned (SATX)The most amazing thing about last weekend's Rites of Darkness III festival in San Antonio was that it actually happened. The venue opened its doors, people showed up and bands played. "No shit, y'all, bands are supposed to show up and people are supposed to come." You're right, but the prognosis wasn't looking healthy for Rites of Darkness. Shrouded
We North American metallers are used to getting boned when it comes to metal festivals. Yeah, we've got a handful of great fests, but the events are almost always pretty small and localized (barring the mighty Maryland Death Fest, which routinely attracts diehards from all over the world). The North American idea of a "metal [...]

by BBG DOWNLOAD: Arckanum - "Þursvitnir" (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Impetuous Ritual - "Ceremonial Disembowelment" (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Amenra - "Wear My Crown" (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Fistula - "Bi-Polar Bear" (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Fight Amp - "Be Safe" (MP3) DOWNLOAD: KEN Mode - Holiday Sampler (Zipped MP3s) [...]
Australia, for those of us in the US, is pretty much literally on the other side of the world, and, like good Americans, we pick and choose what we want to know about it. The continent conjures up images of free range marsupials, shrimps and barbies with some throwing somewhere in there, Paul Hogan, and [...]
Profound Lore has two upcoming releases worth checking out. The first is Dimensional Bleedthrough , out November 10 from Krallice . Thanks to a formidable live reputation, the band's profile has jumped. It often gets tagged as black metal, but evidently it does not really consider itself as such. I'd agree. While its mechanics (blastbeats, tremolo picking, raspy vocals) are black metal, its thrust isn't. Instead of Satan or misanthropy, it peddles abstraction and counterpoint. Judging from the title track, Dimensional Bleedthrough should be cerebral yet serrated. [...]