Features

Feature: Lost Doom Recovered

Being a doom metal fanatic my taste for the heavy and doomy but definitely metallic has significant elasticity. I enjoy doom metal that more discerning ears might not have the time nor inclination for. I’ll leave the lower end of my listening spectrum out of my writing but over the years the shear amount of doom I’ve leant an ear to is significant. Amidst the boulders, forests, and rubble of that mountain of doom there are some quality bands that seem to have gotten lost and left off the radar of most doom fans. These are not the very top shelf, the legends of the genre, but they are really good and considerably enjoyable. It is this article’s intent to get a few more doom fans to discover them.

Features

Follow the Wheel: The Story of Sword (Featuring an Interview with Rick Hughes)

When someone exchanges musical opinions within the heavy metal circle, it is not uncommon to hear expressions like “too rough” or “too melodic”, and more recently “very old school” or with a positive spin “very refreshing”. So if an album had exactly the correct ratio of melodic and rough riffs and sounds refreshing even it was released in 1986, that would mean that it will top the charts and everyone would speak about it right?

Demo Dungeon

Demo Dungeon: Candle Opera – Dream Theatre Review

Not long ago I was having dinner with a very good friend of mine discussing about all those demos that we wished to be reissued but we both knew that was only wishful thinking. And then he mentioned Candle Opera, an extremely obscure heavy/ power band from Canada that somehow he managed to get one track from their long lost 1992 demo to upload in his Youtube Channel. Little we both knew then that at the same time Cult Metal Classics was working on a release of their long lost demo titled Dream Theatre.

Interviews

Smoulder Feature: Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring Album Review and Interview with Vocalist Sarah Ann

Smoulder took the metal underground by storm with 2018’s The Sword Woman demo, so much so that it landed them a well deserved spot on our women in traditional metal feature. This epic doom metal band is poised to make a big splash with their debut album next month titled Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring. In this feature, we’ll walk you through the themes that make this album so compelling. We’ve also included an interview with vocalist, lyricist, and professional sword woman – Sarah Ann.