“In the name of the Code, and of the Sacred Disk, and the Holy System. Our Core, which art in Data, Hallowed be Thy Code.” These words adorn the lavish brochure you were handed as you stepped into the Keygen Church. There, behind the altar, stands the robopastor/technosorcerer Victor Love. You recognize him; our IT prophet Sentynel has lauded Love’s work in Master Boot Record (MBR) twice, but now the doors to Love’s liturgical side project Keygen Church have swung open. Today’s sermon: Nel Nome Del Codice. You find your seat at the pew, and the service begins; harmonizing choirs set the stage ..read more

One thing I really admire about The Administration here at AMG is their willingness to allow us writers to explore what exists on the fringes of metal. Some of my most memorable finds over the years—before the onset of my indentured servitude—have carried tags like not-metal, folk, or synth wave. Norwegian musical collective Cloud People claim to draw inspiration from jazz, electronica, and metal, and have decided to submit their album Simulacra to these hallowed halls for mild praise or summary execution. I generally approve of genre-bending in my music, but the danger lies in making sure tha ..read more

“Shards of Silver Fade is a journey … and it must be taken as a whole to absorb its mood and atmosphere. With that, it’s difficult at times to remember the beginning once you’ve reached the end … Shards has moments of beauty, moments of captivation, and moments of splendor; however, it’s so long it becomes a chore to come back to.” Shards of Silver Fade, 142 minutes, 2.5/5.0, Grier. “For all its grandeur and the skill with which its components are stitched together, Biolume I has a couple issues, the main one still being length … This is an inherent risk with one-man projects. On the one hand ..read more

Where to start with Nuclear Dudes? The brainchild of Jon Weisnewski—of Sandrider—the project spans a collection of kooky and noisy genres from powerviolence to synthwave. Even the artist Bandcamp page refers to it tongue-in-cheekily as ‘”music”‘ (scare quotes included). Each release—of which Boss Blades is the third in about a year—features a charming fluorescent figure scrawled upon a white background, courtesy of a Cooper Weisnewski I presume is Jon’s brother. This kind of consistency in self-branding certainly makes them stand out, and it’s fun. Fun too are the nonsensical album a ..read more

Nu metal was never cool. As the unholy offshoot of metalhead undesirables of the time—hardcore, groove, hip hop/rock mashups, funky alt-rock, post-grunge—it represented an aggressive future for a wanting youth that aimed to undo the olde. And, as many industry trends go, nu metal went the way of the buffalo as the target audience aged out and hopped on other trends. Some, like this Dolph, latched on to the inspirations and metal history of olde to become music nerds of a different kind.1 So why do we find ourselves in the midst of a nu renaissance where bands like The Offering throw down like ..read more

In hindsight, 2018 stood me at an imperceptible crossroads: the intersection of my growing disenchantment with metal and a void-filling infatuation with the electronic. The latter was encouraged, if not inspired, by a Frankensteinian atmoblack/synthwave monster released at the improbably right space-time to capitalize on the trends I loved and tired of. Abstract Void’s Back to Reality would ride that wave of serendipity to become my most listened-to album of the next few years. At least until Wishdream came along. Yes, there is novelty in the uncanny valley of synthetic instrumentation and syn ..read more

Something different. In two words, that’s how I can best describe Final Light, the eponymous debut full-length from Cult of Luna’s Johannes Persson and James Kent, better known as Perturbator. From the duo’s names alone, there’s expectation—both have been a part of some powerful releases lately, in the form of The Long Road North and Lustful Sacraments respectively, but their respective styles—post-metal and synthwave—don’t exactly lend themselves to being blended together, and, for my part, I’m not a huge fan of either one. But there’s the odd exception to every rule where opin ..read more

It is an interesting phenomenon how French synthwave musician Perturbator became a common household name among today’s metalhead community. Several years ago, I had an opportunity to see Perturbator live at Seattle’s vegan metal bar The Highline, the same venue where I previously saw Alcest, Oathbreaker, and Khemmis. Though it slipped my mind why I ultimately was unable to attend the Perturbator show, the point is that Perturbator has somehow become more aligned with the underground metal scene even though it would make far more sense for the band’s music to circulate most ..read more

Wyoming, famously, hosts some of the United States’ most beautiful nature preserves—also famously it lacks urban comforts and is one of the two rectangular states. This expansive, rural landscape shapes an existence and mindset that’s decidedly different from the metropolitan portrait of tap-to-pay cafes, melting pot crowds, and city-speed sprawl. For better or worse, Mike McClatchey has called Buffalo, Wyoming temporarily home—a home that has fueled his boiled-over frustrations into this more solo edition of Lament Cityscape, A Darker Discharge. Using only drum programming, (many) simulated i ..read more

For the three of you who haven’t yet encountered me gushing about Master Boot Record, here’s the summary. Decreasingly anonymous Italian musician Victor Love, inspired by classic 16-bit video game soundtracks and the harsh sound of a floppy drive stepper motor1, synthesizes heavy metal. Despite sounding like a one-album novelty, Personal Computer is MBR’s eighth full-length in seven years and they’re signed to Metal Blade. Their endurance, and popularity, follows from one simple fact: behind the novelty, MBR just writes really, really good music. Still, a reasonable person might wonder what mo ..read more