Memoriam - For The Fallen

Few bands have the clout in the death metal community that Bolt Thrower did; their name was synonymous with crushing riffs and war themed death metal. But when the band decided to call it quits after the death of drummer Martin "Kiddie" Kearns, many a tear was shed on the battlefield. Enter Memoriam and their debut For The Fallen, the first new material of a Bolt Thrower collective since 2005's Those Once Loyal. Will For The Fallen be the great tribute to a friend with a classic sound?

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Mastodon is a band that needs no introduction; they are on the shortlist of bands that have influenced and defined the genre thus far in the 21st Century.  Since their crushing debut Remission in 2002, the quartet has released five more albums, including back-to-back-to-back classics in Leviathan, Blood Mountain, and Crack the Skye, before falling back to earth and releasing two intermittently enjoyable, but really only ok to good albums in The Hunter and Once More 'Round the Sun.  Mastodon's rapid ascent to the top of Critical Reception Mountain early in their career has only made their two-album slide all the more questioned: Were they trying to be more accessible and get a radio hit?  Were they burnt out?  Does Brent Hinds really hate playing in a metal band?  Did they really just fluke their way into three All-Time albums?  Fair or not, their seventh album, Emperor of Sand, feels like a make or break album for the band, one that will either return them to metal prominence as a great band, or seal their fate as a good band that had a transcendent six years once.  So, you know, no pressure.

Pillorian - Obsidian Arc

By now, all metal fans know the story: Agalloch broke up last year, due to a schism between singer/guitarist John Haughm and the rest of the band.  Don Anderson, Jason Walton, and Aesop Dekker joined up with Aaron John Gregory (of the late, great Giant Squid) to form Khôrada.  Jon Haughm teamed with drummer Trevor Matthews and guitarist Stephen Parker to create Pillorian - an adjective defined as "of, or relating to, scorn and condemnation."  Good thing there's nothing to read too deeply into there.  It isn't - well, shouldn't be - a competition between the two bands, but it's naive to think that if one band succeeds while the other flounders, the successful band will be hailed as the victors of the Agalloch break up.  While that is a silly way to look at it, we can finally start the actual conversation: Pillorian's debut album Obsidian Arc was released last Friday.  Is it a worthy follow up to one of the most acclaimed American black metal bands of the 21st Century?  Or is it merely a celestial effigy of what once was?

Fen - Winter

"Winter" is a word that holds a lot of meaning to me.  Living in Chicago, I associate it with feet of snow, driving winds, sub-zero temperatures, whiskey for warmth, and the resilience needed to go outside while it's still dark and wait for a bus, hoping it gets there before you freeze to death like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.

Ranking Scott Kelly's Mastodon Songs

You may have heard there's a new Mastodon album coming soon.  Emperor of Sand will be released March 31, and the three advance tracks have me excited for a 'Don album for the first time in what feels like forever.  In anticipation of the new record, I've been listening to a lot of Mastodon, which inevitably means I'm hearing some Scott Kelly.  The Neurosis co-frontman and guitarist has appeared on every Mastodon album since Leviathan (and has confirmed an appearance on Emperor of Sand), and his presence typically results in his track being one of the stand out songs on the album.  So I decided to rank Kelly's Mastodon collaborations and ruminate on each one, if only because March 31 seems like too long to wait to write anything about Mastodon.

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- Mick