Pacific Northwest dark metal legends Agalloch follow up their magnificent 2010 LP, Marrow Of The Spirit, with an EP, Faustian Echoes, which will feature one song, in two parts, and is (according to…   Read Story »

Come March every year, the same questions are asked, retreaded thought pieces get pitched: What does it mean to have a music industry festival in the decrepit climate of 2011? Does anyone actually…   Read Story »

Clichés be damned -- this really was a good year for metal. I had a harder time organizing a Top 10 in 2010 than ever before. Ditto the Top 20. It was such a good year that I went overboard and…   Read Story »

This has been a long time coming. Four years ago I gave Agalloch's Ashes Against the Grain an 8.0 on Pitchfork, though it deserved a higher score. The Portland band's fourth album Marrow Of The…   Read Story »

In March, longstanding crusty, female-fronted San Francisco black metal quintet Ludicra are releasing The Tenant, the excellent followup to 2007's Fex Urbis Lex Orbus. I was a fan of the last one,…   Read Story »

Every year I'm tempted to -- and sometimes do -- say "this has been a great year for metal." It's a toss-away idea: If you consume the genre obsessively, every year seems sort of great, the chaff…   Read Story »