The Asteroid Bullet Belt

The North will never forget this one.  Day two of one of the busiest weekends of the year so far, and let me tell you, it was something else. Thessaloniki doesn’t often get metal festivals, only shows that have what could be perceived as having too many acts for a single evening, but Up the Hammers – Call of the North was anything but that. Six bands, and a thoroughly reasonable starting time of 17:00, what else could one possibly ask for? I haven’t been to a proper festival since the first iteration of the Release Festival back in 2019, and although I have always been of the opinion that I’d rather attend a show with 3 bands than a full-fledged festival, passing up the opportunity to see some of the bands who appeared here was inconceivable to me. What are the odds I’d be able to see Eternal Champion, Liege Lord, and Solitude Aeturnus on the same bill in my life? Sure, the lineup is nowhere near as stacked as the one that appeared over the course of 4 days down in Athens, but this...

Double the Geddon and double the danger. (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on February 7th 2024)   Metal fans don’t really want to admit it, but the genre is tacky at its core. Whether it’s death metal’s comical obsession with viscera and murder, or the fantasy escapades commonly found in power metal, it’s all steeped in an air of -oft unintentional- comedy, Not to mention the visual aesthetics that each genre is defined by. I’ll admit that for a long while I was a little pretentious regarding how seriously I took metal music, but then I learned how to have fun. Which leads us to Doublegeddon’s debut, Geddon Dangerous , whose cover art alone reeks of 80s B-grade sci-fi, further emboldened by the tagline “heavy metal program™”. Had I seen this album a few years back I’d dismiss it as garbage that only perpetuates a stereotype about metal being for nerds. A few years back I was a moron basically. Geddon Dangerous , for how silly and cheesy it is on an aesth...