You would expect a song called "Exhausted" on an album titled Withdrawal to be slow or somehow diminished, a dirge maybe, somebody moaning over a drop-tempo heartbeat. You would expect something…   Read Story »

Welcome to the Black Market, a new space at Stereogum dedicated to talking about and listening to heavy music. By "heavy music" I mean metal, mostly, although that word is vague and meaningless…   Read Story »

If you have any interest in underground metal, black or otherwise, you're aware of the uproar created by Brooklyn quartet Liturgy. Much of the disdain's focused on frontman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, and…   Read Story »

The official date of this weekend's Haunting The Chapel/BrooklynVegan Krieg/woe show was Saturday, 10/30, but we started the Mischief Night/Halloween event after midnight to make sure the East Coast…   Read Story »

A couple of months ago I "tweeted" about woe's excellent Quietly, Undramatically "sound[ing] like what black metal from Philly should sound like," i.e. rough, dirty, dangerous, ballsy, no-bullshit.…   Read Story »

In March 2009, as part of my now defunct Show No Mercy series, I put on a show with Krieg, woe, Liturgy, and Malkuth at Public Assembly in Brooklyn. And it fucking snowed. A lot. Krieg doesn't play…   Read Story »

The lineup shifts, but Alcest is basically Stéphane Paut, aka Neige, by his lonesome. Live, the project expands to a lush quartet. Last night at the Studio @ Webster Hall -- a show presented by…   Read Story »

Varg Vikernes -- who I spoke with a couple of weeks ago -- gets the bulk of the Norwegian-related black metal press, but for my kroner, Gylve Fenris Nagell, Darkthrone vocalist/lyricist/drummer/etc…   Read Story »