Mark Z.

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Éohum – Revelations, Aurora of an Epoch Review

By Mark Z. on April 2, 2015 in 2015, Avante Garde, Canadian Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Mycelium Networks, Reviews, Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Progressive Metal, 6 comments

“As an employee in a soul-sucking government bureaucracy, I’ve heard plenty of hollow buzzwords over the years. But amidst the ‘paradigm shifts’ and ‘synergy’ is a phrase I’ve always thought had actual merit: ‘disciplined initiative.’ Meaning: don’t be afraid to dream and try new things – but maintain quality control. Keep a grip on reality. Don’t fling a bunch of shit around in the name of innovation. It applies as much to the workplace as it does to music. Case in point: Canada’s Éohum.” Prepare to expand your bandwidth with this piece of educational mindshare.

Terra – Untitled Review

By Mark Z. on March 20, 2015 in 2015, Black Metal, English Metal, Hibernacula Records, Reviews, Black Metal, 4 comments

“I loved the Cascadian/post-black metal craze, but let’s be honest: that bubble burst at least two years ago. After the umpteenth Wolves worshipper appeared (Addaura, Alda, Ash Borer – need I move past the ‘A’s?’), the mystique wore off and the music turned predictable.” Spring has sprung, and in case the snow hansn’t cooled your outlook, here’s some black metal to further harsh your mellow.

Frosthelm – The Endless Winter Review

By Mark Z. on March 14, 2015 in 2015, American Metal, Black Metal, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Black Metal, Thrash Metal, 12 comments

“I fucking love black-thrash, and if you don’t then I’m sorry about your inferior taste. My latest sample of the genre comes from Frosthelm, hailing from Minot, North Dakota of all places (coincidentally the same town as Ghost Bath – in case anyone still thought they were Chinese). Frosthelm are a quartet of self-confessed Dungeons & Dragons nerds who claim influences as broad as Metallica, Naglfar, and Dissection.” Put some Dakota in your dungeon and see how that suits ya!

Heavydeath – Eternal Sleepwalker Review

By Mark Z. on March 2, 2015 in 2015, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Reviews, Svart Records, Swedish Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, 11 comments

“Today’s metal underground is more complex than ever. The Internet has opened up every time period and obscure scene for both exploration and exploitation, resulting in genres and subgenres spliced apart, hybridized, fused with non-metal elements, and shat out in an accelerating vortex of name-your-price Bandcamp zip files and ostensibly enthusiastic blog posts that seem to proclaim every half-assed side project as the best thing since Black Sabbath.” Why, we’d never!

Feed Her to the Sharks – Fortitude Review

By Mark Z. on February 19, 2015 in 2015, Australian Metal, Hardcore, Metalcore, Reviews, Victory Records, Hardcore, Metalcore, 15 comments

“Sharks leapt right into the cultural zeitgeist recently, with Katy Perry’s cartilaginous companions helping turn the Superbowl halftime show into something out of Dorah the Explorer’s Beachside Acid Trip. It’s perfect timing for Australia’s Feed Her to the Sharks to release third album (and Victory Records debut) Fortitude.” You know the thing about a shark, he’s got… lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eye. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be livin’. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. Metalcore is kinda like that too.

Zombies Ate My Girlfriend – Retrocide Review

By Mark Z. on February 15, 2015 in 2015, Burning Tone Records, Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore, Reviews, South African Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore, 7 comments

“I never got into the modern zombie craze. Maybe I just had too much of it when I was younger: in high school I played the Gamecube Resident Evil reboots with religious fervor and watched more George A. Romero movies than was probably healthy…thus, you can imagine my sentiments when assigned a promo from a South African band called Zombies Ate My Girlfriend. Not only is that moniker absolutely terrible, it blatantly panders to a trend that was stale two years ago – a trend that I never gave a shit about in the first place. However, as I learned with Calm Hatchery, a bad moniker doesn’t always equate to bad music.” Terrible name, terrible cover, but it’s the music that counts, you elitist snobs!

Callisto – Secret Youth Review

By Mark Z. on February 1, 2015 in 2015, Finnish Metal, Post-metal, Post-Rock, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Svart Records, Post-Metal, Progressive Rock, 5 comments

“Post-metal had something of a heyday in the last decade, with seemingly everyone on the Internet gushing over Isis’ Panopticon, Neurosis’ Given to the Rising, and whatever Cult of Luna and Pelican were up to. While there’s still quality post-metal coming out today (The Ocean’s Pelagial in 2013, Beak’s debut last year), I think it’s safe to say the genre is no longer as in vogue as it once was.” And if you don’t have vogue, what do you have?

Things You Might Have Missed 2014: Idylls – Prayer for Terrene

By Mark Z. on January 31, 2015 in 2014, Australian Metal, Grind, Hardcore, Things You Might Have Missed 2014, Hardcore, 7 comments

“I once had a roommate who assured me Converge was “really just noise.” At one point in his life he had played guitar for a metal band, so my naïve young self believed him. My surprise when I finally listened to Jane Doe and was blown away by the sheer emotion inherent in the spastic, ballistic dissonance. Idylls have much the same thing going on – traditional melody is eschewed, and at times, it does sound like four guys trapped in a room trying to make as much commotion as possible.” Bring forth the noise room!

Winds of Genocide – Usurping the Throne of Disease Review

By Mark Z. on January 24, 2015 in 2015, Black Metal, Crust Punk, Death Metal, English Metal, Grind, Hardcore, Pulverised Records, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, Hardcore, 5 comments

“Usurping the Throne of Disease gave me two things: one, a delightfully rotten piece of blackened death-crust (which, typing it out now, actually sounds more like a spicy appetizer than a genre); and two, a reason to move past my failed no-jerking-off New Year’s resolution and slave away at a review that will, inevitably, be given the ‘Quilted Northern’ treatment by my Great Overlord.” I like my crust blackened and radioactive with a side order of cold saw.

Things You Might Have Missed 2014: Black Anvil – Hail Death

By Mark Z. on December 24, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, Relapse, Things You Might Have Missed 2014, Thrash Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, Thrash Metal, 4 comments

“Three years ago at a Krallice show in New York, a band named Black Anvil took stage, struck an immense wall-shaking chord, and immediately captivated my unsuspecting ears with their hefty, head-crushing riffs. Unlike the post-progressive-neo-sludge-blueberry muffin-whatever I expected to accompany Krallice, Black Anvil was firmly grounded in the primal forms of extreme metal, somehow combining black, death, thrash, and doom without sounding like they’d spent the last decade huffing rubber cement and playing Celtic Frost records backwards.” Holidays go better with rubber cement huffing.