Swedish metalcore band Leach bring forward their fourth album, New Model Of Disbelief. Leach is a band with an evolving sound. In their earlier work, you might hear a melodic form of death metal, passing on to thrash and then perhaps metalcore, which is what I have labeled them. Any particular category is a bit simplistic for their sound, which has its own groove and is quite variegated across any album, most especially the new one. The band is Markus Wikander (vocals, guitar), Robert Karlsson (guitar), Anders Nordlander (bass), and Joachim Dahlström (drums). The set begins on the charge with ..read more

Doom fans in Chicago celebrated the coming of spring with a rare concert by the legendary doom band Candlemass at Reggies Rock Club. Candlemass It was the Vernal Equinox, and during a Leap Year, no less, that created the perfect alignment of elements, known and unknown, in the universe necessary for Candlemass to perform in the US. They are not here very often. It seems they have crossed the Atlantic primarily for the Hell’s Heroes festival in Texas, and they are doing a couple of other dates while they are here. According to the band’s website, apart from the festival, Candlemass is only play ..read more

Photos by Wayne Edwards. © Wayne Edwards Main article on the concert at FFMB, https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2024/03/23/candlemass-at-reggies-in-chicago-on-the-vernal-equinox-2024 ..read more

Classic Silver Mountain albums get a fresh re-issue: Shakin’ Brains and Universe. Silver Mountain is a heavy metal band from Sweden that formed in 1979. The band’s name is an apparent reference to Rainbow (and therefore Ritchie Blackmore), and you do not have to listen very hard to hear the influence. I came across Silver Mountain by accident in 1983 when I caught sight of their album Shakin’ Brains in my beloved Stonehenge Records shop. At the time, Stonehenge was really the only place I could find music imports, and I therefore relied on them exclusively. I bought the album because the cove ..read more

Black metal icons Marduk unfurl their fifteenth album, Memento Mori. From the tranquil hamlet of Norrköping in Östergötland, Marduk rose and set about conquering the black metal world. For more than thirty years, they have published album after album, challenging and extending the known environments of the form. According Marduk, “Memento Mori is, all at once, a bold leap forward, a calculated sidestep, and a wistful backward glance. Meaning, we have broken new ground without forgetting our legacy or the journey that brought us to this point.” The band is Daniel Rostén (vocals), Morgan Hakans ..read more

The center of the vortex held last week when Meshuggah, In Flames, and Whitechapel came to the casino and spun the wheel. Meshuggah It was an edgy Tuesday at Hard Rock Live in northern Indiana. The three bands playing were purveyors of latter-day metal, ranging from metalcore to deathcore to djent. If we think of an umbrella term for the music played, we might try to call it melodic progressive technical death groove metal. I like that – hope it catches on Whitechapel Whitechapel kicked off the show. The band started out in 2006, playing deathcore in Knoxville, and waking the younger crowd fro ..read more

Photos by Wayne Edwards. © Wayne Edwards Main article at FFMB, https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2023/12/10/meshuggah-with-in-flames-and-whitechapel-at-hard-rock-live-gary-indiana-december-5-2023 ..read more

Death metal band Farsoth return with their sophomore long-player, Morbid Symphonies. Farsoth came together a few years ago in Sweden. They play a straight-ahead, aggressive form of death metal that appeals to fans both in and outside of the subgenre. Following up on their 2022 debut album, The Plague, the new record cranks up the power even more than did its predecessor. The band is Jari Kuusisto (guitar), Joakim Mikiver (vocals), Jonas Magnusson (bass), Florian Rehn (drums), and Johnny Nymark (guitar). “Hate” is a continual blast of overwhelming aggression from the first note to the last. It ..read more

Black metal reincarnates Third Storm blast out their second album, The Locust Mantra. The earliest version of Third Storm formed in Sweden in the 1980s. That episode was short lived, but it did produce a couple of demos. Nearly two decades on, in a reformation, Third Storm released the brief EP, Tarîtîya Me (2015), signaling that the fire was still burning, needing only to be fanned. Their debut long-player, Grand Manifestation, followed in 2018, and now we have confirmation with their sophomore full-length album that Third Storm is a going concern. The band is Heval Bozarslan (vocals), Hasse ..read more

Graveyard return after five years with a new, numerically titled, album, their sixth. Everyone got interrupted by the worldwide pestilence, and Graveyard was no exception. Speaking about the new album, the band remarks, “We had plans to start recording or writing an album before the pandemic started, but then everything shut down. Maybe we shut down too, you know? We couldn’t make any money from playing anymore, so everybody started getting jobs and stuff like that, and everything took a lot longer than was expected. During the recording we had a Covid scare and we had to cancel things for a ..read more