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FlightofIcarus is a father, licensed counselor, and full time metalhead. When he is not working and spending time with family, he is writing furiously to promote underground bands on his own site, Metal Trenches. He believes staunchly in writing only constructive reviews, and his favorite bands include Dark Tranquillity, Enslaved, Poison the Well, and Deftones. You can also buy his ebook, The ABC’s of Black Metal.
Grab a drink and strap yourselves in, because this is a long one. Rather than do a big masturbatory introduction, I’m going to keep it simple. The following is an online correspondence with Val Dorr of Ævangelist over the course of a few weeks. We connected initially over the fact that we grew up in […]
My background is in psychology and counseling, and it has become an inextricable part of how I see the world. This is no different when it comes to my passion for music and interaction with others in the metal scene. So here’s my sub topic for today: hero worship and its effect on the musical […]
Cancelled was conceived as a side project for Marc Bourgon of Fuck the Facts and Greber. It was a pleasant surprise in my rotation given just how different it is from the pack. Given these variations from the norm, I was happy to accept the opportunity to pick Marc’s brain on the new music, his influences, […]
It’s a new year, so no time to waste. Lets get the ball rolling on some new metalcore for your collection. AS A CONCEIT As A Conceit is an Italian metalcore/post-harcore quintet very much in the vein of Architects. Melodic leads mixed with djenty, off-kilter blasts of distortion lead to some righteous riffing. The resulting hooks are […]
It’s that time of year again. Lists, lists, lists. I had a difficult time compiling my more general lists, but choosing my top 5 metalcore releases this year was fairly easy. Mind you once more that I excluded things like mathcore and therefore obvious choices in Dillinger Escape Plan or Zao. This list is focused […]
There are certain smaller groups out there that I just connect with for one reason or another. It usually has a lot to do with a perfect storm of quality music, clear passion, and personability of the musicians involved. The Hudson Horror undoubtedly meet these criteria. I was initially drawn in during the promotion of […]
THE VENUE Welcome to another typically rainy Portland evening. The Hawthorne theater is a popular all-ages venue located at 1507 SE 39th Ave in Portland, OR. It’s in a hip part of town that draws a diverse audience. As you can see below, the décor was fitting of a metal show, especially that glorious poster (RIP […]
It boggles my mind that I can bring up Bandcamp anywhere and still get the response “band what now?” And yet it persists. Despite platforms that criminally underpay the musicians like Spotify and Apple Music becoming the norm, there are SO many reasons I can cite for making Bandcamp your new first stop for music […]
We don’t have to agree on everything. Finding common ground has led to a lot of great things. Let’s put our differences aside and explore some more underground metalcore, shall we? BURN DOWN EDEN This quintet is yet another metalcore act to come to us from Germany. Seems to be a thriving scene growing over […]
