J.J. Anselmi Last year, the Minneapolis metal community lost one of its most talented members, Aziza guitarist-vocalist Sean Michael Tobin. He was only 31. Since Tobin’s passing, his band has kept writing searing metal that defies easy categorization, which is exactly what he would have wanted. “There was a moment

Rock Springs and the Legend of Dax Riggs “Dax used to live here,” people said; or, “My older brother knew him.” I grew up in a small coal mining town in Southwestern Wyoming called Rock Springs. Kids at my junior high used to wear Acid Bath t-shirts and hoodies—the ones

Earlier this year, Wyoming’s Reproacher unleashed its third full-length, Nature’s Bastard. The LP finds bleakness from multiple angles—gratingly metallic hardcore, abrasive changes, whirlwinds of grind, and hopeless sludge. This is Wyoming in aural form. I grew up in the sparsely populated state, which has one of the highest suicide rates

Excerpt from the final chapter of HEAVY: A Memoir of Wyoming, BMX, Drugs, and Heavy Fucking Music by JJ Anselmi   Excision   The surgeon draws an ellipse on my forearm with black marker, injecting anesthetic at several different points. When my skin is numb, she delicately traces the marker

Morality Crisis is one of the weirdest groups around, and the Minneapolis trio’s latest, MASH, only solidifies that status. But, unlike many bands that strive for the bizarre, Morality Crisis’ music never feels contrived. MASH is also American in the best possible sense, deftly interweaving an array of sounds that

Recitation’s debut LP, Carrion, is quite possibly the heaviest album of 2015. Since releasing a self-titled EP last year, the Danish trio has taken a more nihilistic turn, progressing from psychedelic doom into hopeless sludge. Consisting of one 27-minute song, Carrion is damn close to perfect. The track begins with