Andy O'Connor
Pitchfork
Austin, TX, United States
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Past articles by Andy:
Slipknot: We Are Not Your Kind Album Review
The sixth album from the Iowa metal mainstays has more to offer than expected and is still sometimes frustratingly short-sighted. → Read More
An Isolated Mind: I'm Losing Myself Album Review
Kameron Bogges makes one-man black metal that charts the hellish exhilarations and debilitating lows of bipolar disorder. → Read More
Nocturnus AD: Paradox Album Review
The cult death metal act returns with a fresh blast of hellish air, full of joyously absurd keyboards, hyper-technical guitars, and apocalyptic sci-fi visions. → Read More
Spirit Adrift: Divided by Darkness Album Review
Led by young oracle Nate Garrett, the second album from the Arizona heavy metal band carries the torch of their forebears and revives the genre with impressive songwriting and ambition. → Read More
A Definitive Ranking of Almost Every Flavor of Mountain Dew
I did the Dew in 24 different incarnations to bring you this comprehensive guide to its many nuances. → Read More
USA/Mexico: Matamoros Album Review
USA/Mexico are sludgy, nasty, and unclassifiable, meaning they fit perfectly into Austin's coterie of noise-rock misfits. → Read More
Oozing Wound: High Anxiety Album Review
The Chicago noise-rock/thrash/punk/metal/etc. trio continue to hate you, your band, and most other things. → Read More
Power Trip: Opening Fire: 2008-2014 Album Review
This collection of early recordings from the Texas thrash powerhouse makes it clear that their influences and focus set them apart from the thrash revival they followed. → Read More
Iron Maiden: Iron Maiden / Killers / The Number of the Beast / Piece Of Mind Album Review
Though at least two of Maiden’s first four albums are metal masterpieces, they showcase a band eagerly evolving while building a classic lineup in a breathless four-year span. → Read More
High on Fire: Electric Messiah Album Review
The recent success of Matt Pike’s rebooted Sleep sounds like it’s rubbing off on his long-running High on Fire, whose 8th album leans on the heavier half of their habitual doom-meets-thrash mixture. → Read More
Jesus Piece: Only Self Album Review
The full-length debut from the Philadelphia metalcore band folds in industrial and ambient textures into a brutal sound that’s still, thankfully, based around big, slamming breakdowns. → Read More
Uniform: The Long Walk Album Review
The Brooklyn industrial act trades its signature drum machine for Guardian Alien/Liturgy drummer Greg Fox, harnessing his intensity to fuel their most unified—and most deranged—record to date. → Read More
Innumerable Forms: Punishment in Flesh Album Review
Abetted by a handful of fellow musicians from the hardcore scene, Boston’s Justin DeTore makes thick, impenetrable death metal that’s desolate and filled with tension. → Read More
Rebel Wizard: Voluptuous Worship of Rapture and Response Album Review
Australia’s Rob Nekrasov fuses black metal’s gravelly aesthetic with heavy riffs and gloriously over-the-top imagery; it’s a celebration of the very contradictions that make metal so thrilling. → Read More
Vein: Errorzone Album Review
Yesterday’s Active Rock playlist gets ransacked and reconfigured on the debut full-length from a Boston hardcore quintet whose influences range from Converge to Korn. → Read More
Charlie Looker: Simple Answers Album Review
The Psalm Zero frontman and Zs alum reckons with the rise of fascism—and his internal struggle against its insidious appeal—on a debut solo album of unusually confrontational modern classical music. → Read More
At the Gates: To Drink From the Night Itself Album Review
The Swedish melodic death metal innovators crib from a career highlight, 1994’s Terminal Spirit Disease, on their first reunion album that does justice to their legacy. → Read More
The 25 Greatest Debut Metal Albums of All Time
From death-metal masterworks to stoner-doom monuments and Big Four thrashterpieces. → Read More
The 25 Greatest Debut Metal Albums of All Time
From death-metal masterworks to stoner-doom monuments and Big Four thrashterpieces. → Read More
Zeke: Hellbender Album Review
One of the most underappreciated bands in American rock’n’roll returns after 14 years, still playing as raw, fast, and loud as ever. → Read More