John McLaughlin
I was visiting my grandparents one weekend in 2003 when a friend of mine came over and started bragging about the new guitar he bought and how badass it was that he could play the guitar solo from “Like a Stone†by Audioslave. He then looked at me and said “Hey, you should get a bass and we can start a band.†A few months later, I owned a bass. And so I became a musician.
We never actually started that band, and he eventually stopped playing, but I kept with it and gradually music took over my life, as my tastes evolved from radio hard rock/nu-metal to commercial metalcore, to Gothenburg melodeath and Opeth, to old-school death metal and classic prog, to stoner doom and psychedelic rock. It’s been an incredible journey, and I have no plans to stop or slow down.
I got my start as a music writer in early 2013 with Iron Hops, a now-defunct craft beer/heavy metal blog (oh yeah, I’m a beer nerd too). Phil Johnston messaged me about joining the Ech(((o)))es and Dust team shortly before Iron Hops shut down, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to keep writing about the thing I love most.
You can follow me on Twitter, where I tweet about a variety of things relating to music, beer, the Red Sox, UMass Basketball, marching band, and some other stuff.
Articles by John McLaughlin
If the sonic goal of Sabbath Assembly is to invoke a mystical, religious atmosphere, then Quaternity succeeds marvelously. – By John McLaughlin
While at times derivative, Palefeather deliver a moving, atmospheric work that gets it right in all the right ways. – By John McLaughlin
On Sweven, the band has gone completely insane, injecting a (presumably unhealthy) dose of proggy psychedelia to their bizarre brand of death metal, with the old-school Swedeath of the band’s past only barely being present. The riffs have become weirder, the song structures have become more complex, and the entire thing is disturbingly unsettling. – By John McLaughlin
Despite its name, Towards Divine Death is full of life and energy, and for an album as dark as it is, it’s a lot of fun to listen to. – By John McLaughlin
Fun, energetic, and catchier than a heroin addiction, Sammal’s No 2 is full of warm, organic vintage tones and simple-but-awesome songwriting. This is feel-good music at its purest. – By John McLaughlin
Bog of the Infidel play their music very well and there is some enjoyable black riffage to be heard. However, the lack of real new ideas keeps this EP from being truly remarkable. – By John McLaughlin
If you know the kind of death metal Dark Descent Records likes to release, then you know what you’re getting. The only question is whether Corpsessed execute it well, and happily, they do. – By John McLaughlin
Israel’s Promiscuity impressed John McLaughlin with their blackened-thrashy-speed metal sound when he reviewed their EP Basic Instinct. John wanted to find out more and spoke to bassist Werewolf.
Black Death Horizon, the highly-anticipated follow-up to 2009’s Nekropsalms, is just dripping with raw, demonic riffs and horrific atmosphere. Wimps need not apply, because the hordes of hell will merely devour them without mercy. – By John McLaughlin
Basic Instinct, Promiscuity’s newest EP, is short and to-the-point, with no frills and absolutely no new contributions to a style that needs no reinvention. This is just raw, angry, hedonistic black/speed metal, and damn is it satisfying. – By John McLaughlin
There are many split releases which are just comprised of haphazardly thrown-together tracks from bands that are (usually) stylistically related, and Dziwki Dwie is ahead of the pack because it feels like these six songs belong together. – By John McLaughlin
These are still Inquisition riffs, black and twisted and dripping with Varathron, Mayhem, and Sarcofago as they were on Magnificent Glorification of Lucifer and Inquisition’s other classics. However, they are a slightly weirder, more dissonant version of the Inquisition riffs we’ve come to know and love, and the result is very, very refreshing. – By John McLaughlin
If anyone could top Mirror Queen’s incredible set, it was Blaak Heat Shujaa, whose newest album The Edge of an Era is one of my favorites of the year. They did not disappoint, as their entrancing take on psychedelic desert rock proved to be just as impressive live as on record, if not more so. Blaak Heat Shujaa certainly left an impression on the people who saw them there that night, but the crowd they deserved was not the crowd they got; this was a show that more people should have seen. By John McLaughlin
Both of Second Grave’s EPs are full of rock-solid riffs and should please doom metal fans. But Antithesis in particular shows the difference that mastering can make in the sound of a recording, with a level of clarity that is rarely heard on professional heavy metal recordings in this day and age. – By John McLaughlin
When the style of music your band plays has already been explored as thoroughly as the second wave black metal sound has, then you really need to dig deep to find something new and interesting to contribute. Unfortunately, Murrum don’t deliver. – By John McLaughlin
The absolute worst thing Katatonia can do for their career right now is to leave this album as a one-off thing and never explore this sound again. – By John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin went to Great Scott near Boston to see Elder, Second Grave and Rozamov put on a great show.
Battalions of Hell is, at its core, a decent little piece of punky black/thrash with some solid riffs, but at the end of the day it’s just not that exciting. – By John McLaughlin
Listeners need only have an appreciation for trad metal riffs in order to really appreciate Mark of the Beast, because after all, metal is about riffs first and foremost, and Sign of the Jackal has them. – By John McLaughlin
Live: Howl, Lord Dying, Vattnet Viskar & Vaporizer – JJ’s Tavern, Florence, MA, USA. July 21st 2013.
John McLaughlin went to JJ’s Tavern in Massachusetts to see Howl, Lord Dying, Vattnet Viskar and Vaporizer put on a great show.
I can’t recall the last time I heard a death/black metal band be this overtly melodic without descending into cheesy Gothenburg-isms, never mind pull it off this effectively. The Western Front is gloriously catchy from start to finish, and example of melody in extreme metal done right. – By John McLaughlin
