Gilead Media

Wailin Storms – The Silver Snake Unfolds Review

By Cherd on July 29, 2022 in Reviews, Noise, Noise Rock, Post-Hardcore, 22 comments

“I liked a lot about Wailin Storms’ 2020 album Rattle. Reading back over my review, I mention doom metal, post-hardcore, the High Lonesome Sound, haunted hollers and swamps and David Eugene Edwards. I called it “fire-and-brimstone snake-handling speaking in tongues nightmare music,” and friends, that’s practically my erogenous zone. The major issue with Rattle was a dearth of compositional ideas. Still, they’re one of the few gothic Americana acts out there with a metal heart, so I had high hopes for any potential follow up.” No steppy on snake.

Inexorum – Equinox Vigil Review

By Holdeneye on June 16, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 90 comments

“Most people don’t come to metal music in search of traditional “beauty” per se, but I’m always surprised and bewitched when I run into an album that is simultaneously heavy and gorgeous. Equinox Vigil, the third full-length from Minneapolis project Inexorum, is just such an album.” Beauty in the depths.

Pyrithe – Monuments to Impermanence Review

By Thus Spoke on April 30, 2022 in Reviews, Experimental Metal, Noise Rock, Sludge Metal, 14 comments

“Cover art can be misleading, but here it’s a clue. Reflecting that twisted marine merging of human and coral, Pyrithe’s sound is chaos, artfully displayed. To their sludgy post-metal concoction, they add the use of coconuts, egg-shakers, kantele, and literal trash as musical elements. They also favor a disjointed, dissonant approach to songwriting, taking a leaf out of the more experimental edges of death metal, and beyond. In fact, they’ve even roped in Doug Moore of Pyrrhon and Seputus, the influence of which acts is quite evident. It’s heavy, it’s multifaceted, it’s a tiny bit mad, but is it any good?” Permanence and impetuousness.

Falls of Rauros – Key to a Vanishing Future Review

By Dr. A.N. Grier on March 24, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 54 comments

“This multi-instrument outfit continues to work with its traditional format of six tracks over forty-five minutes. But, while this new record doesn’t have anything you haven’t already heard, the band has a knack for execution. Somehow, they continue to breathe uniqueness into each effort and supply just enough originality to make each new record different from the last.” Vanishing returns?

Mizmor – Wit’s End Review

By Carcharodon on January 11, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, 48 comments

“My last encounter with Portland, Oregon’s Mizmor (מזמור) was not what I expected. I knew Mizmor from the bleak, blackened doom of Yodh and the crushing fusion of black metal, doom, sludge and drone on Cairn. On Dialetheia, A.L.N.’s project with Andrew Black, all metal was abandoned, however, in favor of ambient drone to explore the concept of obsolescence, both of traditions and, indeed, our whole way of life, on an imagined tour through a museum of collected nostalgia and past times. I struggled a bit with Dialetheia, missing the massive weight and oppressiveness of Mizmor’s earlier work, and also the catharsis that came with that. Which incarnation of Mizmor are we presented with on Wit’s End?” Mizmor or Mizless?

The Silver – Ward of Roses Review

By Saunders on October 14, 2021 in 2021, Reviews, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Post-Metal, Progressive Metal, 72 comments

“For better and worse, I am a persistent bastard, so I best stay out of Phil Anselmo’s way. When I laid ears on advance track “Fallow,” from The Silver’s debut album Ward of Roses, I knew I had to have it. It took some extra badgering to snare promo, which the band thankfully provided. Boasting a line-up of Horrendous brothers Jamie and Matt Knox, along with Crypt Sermon’s Enrique Sagarnaga, and vocalist Nick Duchemin, The Silver is a side project destined to carve their own path.” Silver and gore.

Mehenet – Ng’ambu Review

By Cherd on September 18, 2021 in Reviews, Black Metal, 10 comments

“When one thinks of New Orleans and music, there are many touchstones, but black metal ain’t one of them. Dixieland jazz pours from every crevice of the city, from bars to funeral processions, while zydeco and Delta blues echo through the French Quarter. When it comes to metal, NOLA is renowned for the sludge that slithered from the swamps surrounding Lake Pontchartrain. But black metal? In this heat and humidity? Mehenet, a five-piece active since 2014, is happy to be the black fly in the jazzy New Orleans ointment.” Godless gumbo.

Heretical Sect – Rapturous Flesh Consumed Review

By Dear Hollow on December 12, 2020 in Reviews, Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, 16 comments

“As I close out the year with reviews, what better way than to go back to my roots? Is that vague? Maybe. Mysterious? Definitely. What on earth would I have in common with Heretical Sect? Am I a skeleton with a snake in my skull? Maybe. I’ll bring that up with the doctor later. I suppose you could ask: what do chile, Breaking Bad, Ancestral Puebloans, hot air balloons, and the worst pedestrian safety rating in the US have in common? Secting crew.

Mizmor & Andrew Black – Dialetheia Review

By Carcharodon on November 19, 2020 in Reviews, Drone, 21 comments

“Gaze upon that stark, haunting, monochrome cover photo – shot by Emma Ruth Rundle by the way – and ask yourself, how likely is it that this is going to be like the Lewandowski-adorned Cairn, Mizmor’s last outing? How much difference is it going to make pairing Mizmor mainman A.L.N. with experimental ambient specialist Andrew Black? Will Black soften a few of Mizmor’s crushing edges, provide a few ambient interludes or should we expect a complete change of direction from this collaboration? These were my thoughts approaching Dialetheia.” Evolution or mutation?

Wailin Storms – Rattle Review

By Cherd on May 19, 2020 in Reviews, 16 comments

“Five years ago, Madam X found Wailin Storms’ debut full-length One Foot in the Flesh Grave to be a tasty treat, accurately calling it a mix between Danzig and 16 Horsepower. Their sound, which has changed little in the interim, is what you’d get if you conducted an experiment on band composition. Tell the bassist he’s playing in a doom outfit, tell the guitarist it’s psychobilly, tell the drummer to play post-hardcore, and let vocalist Justin Storms do exactly what it says on the tin. For an album that falls somewhere outside the usual bounds of metal, Rattle is all hot-blooded heaviness.” Weather the Storm.