Rod Smith

Ain-Soph Aur
Denver doom/sludge duo wax ecstatic, cowboy-style
dB rating: 8/10

Baroness‘ John Baizley recounts the accident that almost kept him from returning to the stage.

Stillicide
Natural-born explorers get transcending genre just right
dB rating: 8/10

The Veil of Control
Dust never sleeps
dB rating: 8/10

Black metal avant-garde-ists Crowhurst are back for round II. Stream the new album here in full.

Scale
Rejoice, potential lovers of proper Gothic psychedelic shoegaze lounge metal
dB rating: 8/10

Stream Defeated Sanity‘s new split EP with… Defeated Sanity!

Hole Below
Knuckle-dragging workout anthems for people who walk on ceilings
dB Rating: 8/10

Crowhurst
Noise’s loss, metal’s gain
dB Rating: 8/10

Mephedrone (bath salts), mushrooms, a new kind of acid—and in the case of Miami face-eater Rudy Eugene at one point—weed? So far, pretty much every official explanation for the wave of bizarre crimes slowly blanketing the planet has hinged on drugs with histories that make their purported roles unlikely. No wonder people are holding on…

“Justify Your Shitty Scene” came to me one morning just as I was starting to drag my ass out of bed: a simple play on “Justify Your Shitty Taste.” A few minutes of consideration led me to email Andrew with a pitch based on the premise that hundreds of towns–Peoria, Kiev, Abu Dabi, wherever–have extreme…