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Kansas’ Phil Ehart on His New Book’s Doors + Jerry Garcia Stories
The book includes fascinating stories about the Kansas star's early encounters with Jim Morrison, Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin. Continue reading… -
Maladie – The Dance of Tragedies Review
I initially stumbled across Germany’s Maladie last year with the fifth installment of their Symptoms EP series and immediately fell for their sax-forward, avant-garde black metal. A quick glimpse through Maladie’s back catalog revealed how late I was to the game. Formed in 2009, the band has already released seven full-lengths and five EPs since 2012. Now, eighth LP The Dance of Tragedies is upon us, continuing Maladie’s magnificently nutty approach to black metal by braiding strands of diverse aural fabrics into a singular tapestry that’s far-reaching, fascinating, and fancifully fun. Yet we mustn’t take for granted that just because a band does many things well, they’ve avoided pitfalls along the way. Does Maladie juke major missteps during The Dance of Tragedies?My first time through The Dance of Tragedies was both exactly what I anticipated from Maladie and an abrupt detonation of my expectations. The outfit’s signature sound persists, finding Hauke Peters slinging the sax with soulful swagger while the rest of the band skitters between full-on black metal fury (the end of “Vortex of Monotony”), AOR tunefulness (“Behind All Suns”), and brief flashes of electronica (“Embrace Our Curse”). The brooding intensity rife throughout Symptoms V subsides on The Dance of Tragedies, dispensing understated moments of levity that delightfully buoy the music in sharp contrast with Maladie’s typically self-serious style.1 This direction surprised me, and though it took several listens to fully digest the album, the result is beautifully refreshing.
As usual, performances across The Dance of Tragedies captivate with titillating zeal. The multi-pronged vocal attack cuts with a serrated edge via emotive cleans, dry barks, and some of the phlegmiest rasps I’ve heard this side of Stenched (“Vortex of Monotony”). Shared by Alexander Wenz and Déhà, the primary vocals inhabit unconventional stylings alongside traditional ones. “Vortex of Monotony” features several variants, including a hip-hop flavored spoken word in the latter half, while “The Dance of Tragedies” runs a marathon of deliveries that keeps The Dance of Tragedies handsomely off-kilter. Björn Köppler plays jack-of-all-trades, supplying chameleonic drums alongside sundry keys and strings, while Déhà contributes even more keys in addition to singing.2 Köppler and Alex Spalvieri share guitar duties, mostly strumming in tasteful restraint while sporadically unfettering a few bars of unbridled shredding (“Too Old to Die”) before yielding the spotlight to other instruments. In totality, The Dance of Tragedies enthralls with an assortment of performances that pulse with intrigue and vivacity, transporting listeners to a vibrant world all Maladie’s own.
Not uncommon for Maladie, The Dance of Tragedies clears the seventy-minute mark without feeling overlong. Sections of lengthier tracks, particularly “The Unknowable” and “On Inaccessible Paths, Pt. II,” dabble in passages that extend to the brink of their charm, yet never run out of gas. I credit this to Maladie’s exploration of atmosphere as they allow rippling riffs and melodies to play out like a stone cast into the middle of a lake, where the ensuing furrows stretch across the smooth horizon until they run their course. Bolstering the momentum of The Dance of Tragedies is the vast array of sounds the band conjures. The refrain played midway through “The Unknowable” reminds me of Mossgiver’s “The Cleansing Waters,” “Behind All Suns” summons comparisons to Hail Spirit Noir, and “Embrace Our Curse” and “On Inaccessible Paths, Pt. I” recall Pensées Nocturnes and Arcturus. Through it all, Maladie never ceases to sound like themselves, grazing other bands as reference points while never jeopardizing their own unmistakable identity.
There’s something about The Dance of Tragedies that ineffably connects with me on an emotional level. Despite the gravity Maladie typically instills in their compositions, The Dance frolics in the face of Tragedies and injects a dimension of playfulness and hope that leaves me spellbound each and every spin. This is an album that works best when absorbed in a single session, and though time is precious, Maladie rewards listeners with utter diversity, meticulously crafting a vibrant musical experience. Swelling strings, electrifying sax, dynamic pacing, and stirring songwriting unite for an absolute blast of avant-garde metal. While it might be weird enough not to appeal to everyone, when it hits, The Dance of Tragedies shakes the room with thunderous abandon. So break out your dancing shoes and get ready to boogie—Maladie has the cure for what ails you.
Rating: Great
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Apostasy Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: May 29th, 2026The post Maladie – The Dance of Tragedies Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.
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To Write Love On Her Arms releases milestone documentary, ‘TO WRITE LOVE’
To Write Love On Her Arms releases milestone documentary, ‘TO WRITE LOVE’ was originally published on HM Magazine by Nao Glover.
Two decades ago, a single act of compassion for one person in crisis quietly ignited a global movement. Today, the life-changing, mental health non-profit To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) celebrates its 20th anniversary with the release of the powerful new documentary TO WRITE LOVE. The film commemorates the many artists, advocates, and partners who have helped to […]
To Write Love On Her Arms releases milestone documentary, ‘TO WRITE LOVE’ was originally published on HM Magazine by Nao Glover.
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Listening Now : Jonatan Seara – Cafe del Mar – Last Mix
Jonatan Seara’s Cafe del Mar Last Mix offers a respectful and well-crafted reinterpretation of a true electronic music classic. Blending deep house, progressive house, and Afro House influences, the track preserves the emotional essence that made the original so enduring while introducing contemporary production techniques and a fresh sonic perspective. Rich textures, melodic development, and carefully structured dynamics give the piece a cinematic quality that unfolds naturally from beginning to end. Rather than relying solely on nostalgia, Seara reimagines the iconic theme with creativity and technical precision. Cafe del Mar Last Mix stands as a polished tribute that honors the legacy of a classic track while confidently bringing it into a modern electronic context.
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Live Gallery: Venom Inc – Sheffield
Live Gallery: Venom Inc – Corporation, Sheffield
5th June 2025
Support: Devastator, Imperium
Photos: Martin HingleyWe look back at the epic Venom Inc show through the eyes of our photographer Martin Hingley!
Venom Inc
Devastator
Imperium
Photo credits: Martin Hingley
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The post Live Gallery: Venom Inc – Sheffield appeared first on The Razor's Edge.
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How Poe Invented the Unreliable Narrator
How Poe Invented the Unreliable Narrator
Long before psychological thrillers, noir cinema, and modern horror began exploring fractured consciousness, Edgar Allan Poe transformed narration itself into a form of psychological instability. His characters do not simply tell stories; they distort reality, manipulate memory, justify violence, and expose their own madness without fully recognizing it.
Through these narrators, Poe fundamentally changed how fiction could represent the human mind.
Edgar Allan Poe and the birth of the unreliable narrator in Gothic literature and psychological horror.
Before Poe, most literary narration functioned as a stable guide for the reader. Even when characters behaved irrationally, the storytelling voice itself usually remained trustworthy. Poe shattered that structure by allowing narration to become psychologically compromised. Readers could no longer fully trust perception, memory, or interpretation because the storyteller himself became unstable.
This shift transformed Gothic literature from external horror into internal psychological tension. Haunted castles and supernatural monsters became less important than obsession, paranoia, guilt, repression, and distorted consciousness. Poe understood that the most terrifying place in fiction was not the graveyard or the dungeon, but the human mind attempting to justify itself.
The Tell-Tale Heart and Self-Destructive Logic
Perhaps the clearest example appears in The Tell-Tale Heart, where the narrator insists repeatedly that he is sane while simultaneously revealing overwhelming psychological instability.
The opening lines immediately establish contradiction:
“Why will you say that I am mad?”
The narrator attempts to prove rationality through obsessive detail, careful planning, and heightened sensory perception. However, every attempt at self-defense only exposes deeper instability. His fixation on the old man’s “vulture eye” lacks logical coherence, yet he presents the murder as methodical and justified.
Poe creates tension by allowing the narrator to unknowingly destroy his own credibility. The more confidently he explains himself, the more psychologically disturbed he appears. Even the famous heartbeat becomes ambiguous. Readers never know whether the sound is supernatural, imagined guilt, or complete mental collapse.
Rather than presenting madness from an external perspective, Poe traps readers inside unstable consciousness itself.
The Black Cat and Moral Fragmentation
Inside The Black Cat, Poe deepens the unreliable narrator technique by exploring moral self-justification and psychological denial.
The narrator repeatedly attempts to minimize his own violence while blaming alcohol, emotional agitation, fate, or supernatural influence for his actions. He presents himself as temporarily corrupted rather than fundamentally cruel, even while describing escalating brutality toward both animals and human beings.
One of the most disturbing moments occurs when the narrator hangs Pluto, the cat he once loved. Before committing the act, he insists that he understood the horror of what he was doing:
“I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin.”
The confession matters because the narrator fully recognizes the moral weight of the act yet proceeds anyway. Rather than acting from uncontrollable madness alone, he describes violence as a conscious surrender to what he calls the “spirit of perverseness.” Poe transforms evil into psychological contradiction: the narrator destroys what he loves precisely because he knows he should not.
As the story continues, the narrator’s language becomes increasingly defensive and unstable. He insists on his rationality while unconsciously exposing guilt through emotional volatility, contradictory explanations, and obsessive attempts to control the narrative itself.
Poe forces readers into a disturbing psychological position because the narration remains persuasive enough to sound momentarily credible while simultaneously revealing its own dishonesty.
The Fall of the House of Usher and Psychological Atmosphere
In The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe approaches unreliable perception differently. The narrator initially appears rational and composed, yet the atmosphere surrounding the Usher mansion slowly contaminates his interpretation of reality.
The story never fully confirms whether supernatural forces truly exist inside the house. Instead, Poe creates ambiguity through psychological immersion. As Roderick Usher descends into terror and nervous collapse, the narrator gradually absorbs the same emotional instability.
Descriptions become increasingly subjective, dreamlike, and claustrophobic. Architecture appears alive. Sound becomes unbearable. The environment itself seems infected by emotional decay. By the final scenes, readers cannot easily separate external reality from psychological projection.
Poe understood that fear often emerges when perception itself loses stability. Rather than clearly explaining horror, he allowed uncertainty to dominate the reader’s experience.
Why Poe Changed Modern Storytelling
Poe’s narrators influenced nearly every major psychological writer who followed him. Dostoevsky, Baudelaire, Kafka, Henry James, Lovecraft, Faulkner, Patricia Highsmith, and countless noir filmmakers inherited elements of Poe’s fractured narrative psychology.
Modern psychological horror, crime fiction, Gothic literature, and unreliable first-person cinema all depend heavily on techniques Poe helped establish. Films centered around unstable perception, distorted memory, obsessive narration, or psychological collapse continue operating inside the narrative territory Poe opened during the nineteenth century.
What made Poe revolutionary was not simply his fascination with darkness, but his understanding that consciousness itself could become the central source of horror. Instead of asking readers to fear monsters, Poe asked them to fear perception, guilt, obsession, and the unstable logic people use to protect themselves from truth.
Wear the Darkness
Explore Edgar Allan Poe apparel, Gothic aesthetics, noir-inspired fashion, and psychological darkness inside the official Edgar Allan Poets Noir Store.
Enter the Noir Atmosphere
Explore Gothic music, cinematic tension, psychological darkness, and immersive noir atmosphere through the official Edgar Allan Poets playlist.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an unreliable narrator?
An unreliable narrator is a storyteller whose perception, memory, emotional state, or honesty prevents readers from fully trusting the accuracy of the narrative.
Did Edgar Allan Poe invent the unreliable narrator?
Although earlier literature occasionally contained deceptive narrators, Edgar Allan Poe helped formalize and popularize the unreliable narrator as a psychological literary technique inside modern fiction.
Why is The Tell-Tale Heart important?
The Tell-Tale Heart is important because Poe uses narration itself to expose psychological collapse, forcing readers to experience guilt, instability, and distorted perception directly through the narrator’s consciousness.
How did Poe influence psychological horror?
Poe influenced psychological horror by shifting fear away from external monsters and toward unstable consciousness, obsession, guilt, emotional fragmentation, and distorted perception.
The post How Poe Invented the Unreliable Narrator appeared first on Edgar Allan Poets – Noir Rock Band.
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Video Premiere: Total Meltdown – “The Spell”
Check out the new song from Total Meltdown, “The Spell,” premiering along with a cool animated video.
Based in both the Long Island and New York hardcore scenes, Total Meltdown will release their highly anticipated second EP on June 26 through the legendary New York hardcore label Wreck-Age Records.
Total Meltdown bring together four lifelong participants in underground culture, bonded through a shared passion for hardcore, punk, metal, hip-hop, graffiti, art, and DIY ethics. Their sound reflects the diverse influences and experiences that shaped them throughout their years in the New York underground.
At the center of the project is drummer and songwriter Chris Enriquez, whose extensive résumé includes work with On the Might of Princes, Spotlights, Julie Christmas, Orange 9mm, and Primitive Weapons. A native New Yorker, Enriquez was deeply influenced by the city’s vibrant hardcore scene from an early age.
In 1996, Enriquez met vocalist Ralph Torres outside a now-legendary show at CBGB featuring H2O, Crown of Thornz, Inside, and Floorpunch. The two quickly became fixtures in the local hardcore community, attending countless shows together throughout the years. Recognizing Torres’ passion for the culture and energy of hardcore, Enriquez spent years encouraging him to front a band. In 2020, he finally succeeded by writing and recording material specifically tailored to Torres’ influences and vocal style.
Their new EP’s first single, “The Spell,” channels the intensity of Merauder and Cro-Mags while maintaining the melodic aggression associated with Burn and Leeway. The follow-up single, “Syntax,” draws inspiration from Rorschach, Born Against, Deadguy, and Mind Over Matter. Additional tracks continue to showcase the band’s broad range of influences, with “The Ash” reflecting elements of Stillsuit and Quicksand, “Blame Me” incorporating shades of Quicksand, Die 116, and Helmet, and “Far Gone” recalling the spirit of Indecision and Milhouse.
“Inspired by Chuck Berrett’s original paintings created for the album artwork, the video for ‘The Spell’ expands those images into a surreal dreamscape of towering stone faces, flooded ruins, endless stairways, and decaying monuments,” the band say. “The story follows a single figure encountering different versions of himself throughout various stages of life as he moves through a world shaped by anxiety, obsession, self-doubt, and psychological struggle. Blurring the line between reality and nightmare, the video explores themes of mental health, isolation, and the fight to break free from destructive thought patterns and reclaim control. The video was directed, edited, and animated by Total Meltdown bassist Drew Kassl, using Berrett’s artwork as the foundation for the visual narrative.”
Tour Dates
- Sunday, June 28 @ Amityville Music Hall (Long Island, NY) w/ Spitbal, The Great Lie, Wing Walker and Firing Squad
- Sunday, July 12 @ Bowery Palace (Manhattan, NY): NYHC Chronicles presents: Fail You, Nailed to the Cross (members of 25 Ta Life), Ill Raised, Carlos the Chords and Hedzo
- Friday, August 14 @ Space Ballroom (Hamden, CT) w/ DMIZE, Overthrow, Neighborhood Shit and Act of War
The post Video Premiere: Total Meltdown – “The Spell” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.
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Finnish melodic death metal band NEMECIC released the first single from the upcoming mini-album
Based in Jyväskylä, Nemecic—representing the slightly rougher edge of the melodic death metal spectrum—is stirring from its slumber. The reason? The band is about to release its first new track since the 2021 full-length The Last Magic in Practice. “The Chalice of Rot” is the first single taken from an EP set to drop in late 2026. Guitarist Tuomo […] -
Olivia Rodrigo On Headlining Last Year’s ‘Lollapalooza’: “My Mom Skipped My Show To Go See Korn!”
“My mom likes so many crazy metal bands, which you would never guess just looking at her.”
The post Olivia Rodrigo On Headlining Last Year’s ‘Lollapalooza’: “My Mom Skipped My Show To Go See Korn!” appeared first on Theprp.com.
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AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRIPPLE BASTARDS — “LA TUA FOTO SUL MARMO”
(written by Islander) It’s not valid to summarize the attractions of extreme metal in a word or two. The experiences are too varied. At one end, it can feel like the oppressive pressure of the ocean in the deepest trenches. It can also be mysterious and mesmerizing, or profoundly spiritual. But perhaps the greatest attraction […]
The post AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRIPPLE BASTARDS — “LA TUA FOTO SUL MARMO” appeared first on NO CLEAN SINGING.