Something a little deeper than "brutal, dude."?

October 21, 2009 9:51 AM

Where can I find intelligent writing about (current) heavy metal, preferably online?

As my love for heavy metal blossoms, I'm finding that there's lots of places to find reviews of new albums, but the vast majority of the reviews are ... um ... crap. Ideally, I'd like to find a single go-to site or (better yet) single critic whose opinion I trust and whose writing is strong and thought-provoking. (I'm mostly into the sludgy doom stuff like Electric Wizard, but I'm open to other stuff as well, so that's secondary). Just to be clear, I'm having no problem finding reviews ... it's well-written reviews that I'm looking for.

Thanks!

posted by Bookhouse to media & arts (14 comments total)

Music writing in general is a wasteland, well-written or not. The only intelligent, non-dickish writer that writes reviews about metal that I can think of is Glenn McDonald. I've read a decent article or two on Lamentations of the Flame Princess, too.
posted by ignignokt at 10:13 AM on October 21

You'll have to dig around a bit, but The Quietus does quite a lot of decent writing on heavy metal.
posted by hnnrs at 10:28 AM on October 21

I think Last Plane to Jakarta has a lot of metal reviews.
posted by the dief at 10:36 AM on October 21

It's not really a one-stop shop, but did you know that Mountain Goats Singer John Darnielle is a big metal fan and writes about his finds on his blog, Last Plane to Jakarta?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:38 AM on October 21

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but as a general good writer about metal I'd recommend John Darnielle. As well as being the core member of the inimitable Mountain Goats, he also writes fairly frequently and very well about metal on his website, Last Plane to Jakarta. I've found him to be a good writer on various types of popular music but it seems like he's got a particular love for metal. (See also, the Mountain Goats song The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out Of Denton for a further demonstration.)

His website/blog isn't a place to go for systematic reviews, but has some really awesome moments and reviews.
posted by somergames at 10:40 AM on October 21

CURSE MY SLOW TYPING FINGERS
posted by somergames at 10:40 AM on October 21

Washington Post Magazine article about the state of extreme metal
posted by rumsey monument at 10:58 AM on October 21

I thought this NYT article on Sunn O))) and Boris was really good: Heady Metal
posted by bradbane at 12:30 PM on October 21

I enjoy reading reviews at the Metal Crypt, where I favor the reviews of Sargon the Terrible. They added some more reviewers recently that I don't care for as much, but it's a good resource.

For comprehensive information, the Encyclopedia Metallum has a ton of links and user-submitted reviews. Alternatively, my roomies and I have made a contest out of finding the most illegible logo, most embarrassing band photo, and silliest names among the bands listed there.
posted by Lifeson at 1:45 PM on October 21

The Onion's AV Club has a monthly column called Metal Box that is OK.
posted by Cookiebastard at 2:08 PM on October 21

This is a question better asked over at ILX, which coincidentally has both John Darnielle (did you know he has a blog called Last Plane to Jakarta?) and one of my other favorite metal writers, Scott Seward, posting their regularly, along with Chuck Eddy (who likes metal, but everything he likes about metal was set by '81) and a bunch others.
posted by klangklangston at 3:09 PM on October 21

Allmusic.com provides fairly comprehensive reviews of pretty much any genre IMHO
posted by fizzzzzzzzzzzy at 8:12 PM on October 21

It's not so much "heavy" metal ... but Chuck Klosterman's "Fargo Rock City" is smart and insightful and generally wonderful.
posted by timdicator at 9:56 AM on October 22

So, to make up for my mortifying misuse of homophone "their," I went ahead and asked on ILX.
posted by klangklangston at 5:27 PM on October 25