Nicholas Franco, Author at Cryptic Rock

Interview – Hváll of Vreid Talks Lifehunger

Nicholas FrancoNicholas FrancoMarch 27, 2019

Hailing from the remote Sogndal region of Norway, the band Vreid has established itself as one of the most solid, unyielding forces in Extreme Metal. Hot on the heels of their latest studio album, Lifehunger, the band returns to North America for the first time ... Read More

Rotting Christ – The Heretics (Album Review)

Nicholas FrancoNicholas FrancoFebruary 11, 2019

For an Extreme Metal band, surviving from the 1980s is not the easiest thing to do, yet that is precisely what Greece’s most popular such export has managed to accomplish. Rotting Christ return to heat up winter’s chill with their thirteenth full-length album, entitled The ... Read More

Hecate Enthroned – Embrace of the Godless Aeon (Album Review)

Nicholas FrancoNicholas FrancoJanuary 21, 2019

Maintaining a career spanning more than twenty years in the underground, England’s powerful Hecate Enthroned return in the winter of 2019 with Embrace of the Godless Aeon, their sixth studio album and first in five years. Newly signed to US based record label M-Theory Audio, ... Read More

In The Woods… – Cease The Day (Album Review)

Nicholas FrancoNicholas FrancoNovember 19, 2018

Amid the sprawl of Heavy Metal grandeur, there are some bands who cannot be restricted into one genre. In The Woods… from Kristiansand, Norway, is back to pushing boundaries with their second album following a 14 year absence. Titled Cease The Day, the album is ... Read More

Behemoth – I Loved You At Your Darkest (Album Review)

Nicholas FrancoNicholas FrancoOctober 1, 2018

The advent of a Behemoth album is becoming more and more of a major occasion, so when I Loved You At Your Darkest drops on October 5th, 2018, via Metal Blade Records, it will certainly cause quite a ripple in the underground and beyond. The ... Read More

Helrunar – Vanitas Vanitatvm (Album Review)

Nicholas FrancoNicholas FrancoSeptember 24, 2018

Coming from the Westphalia region of Germany, Helrunar play a strain of Black Metal concerned with paganistic themes outside the realm of Satanism. Having morphed into existence back in 2001, the band has maintained both an intellectual and a stylistically doom-tinged approach to their songwriting. ... Read More

Nicholas Franco

Interview – Hváll of Vreid Talks Lifehunger

Rotting Christ – The Heretics (Album Review)

Hecate Enthroned – Embrace of the Godless Aeon (Album Review)

In The Woods… – Cease The Day (Album Review)

Behemoth – I Loved You At Your Darkest (Album Review)

Helrunar – Vanitas Vanitatvm (Album Review)

Interview – Hváll of Vreid Talks Lifehunger

Rotting Christ – The Heretics (Album Review)

Hecate Enthroned – Embrace of the Godless Aeon (Album Review)

In The Woods… – Cease The Day (Album Review)

Behemoth – I Loved You At Your Darkest (Album Review)

Helrunar – Vanitas Vanitatvm (Album Review)

This Week in Horror Movie History – 1408 (2007)

This Week in Horror Movie History – The Believers (1987)

The Week In Horror Movie History – Hostel: Part II (2007)

Interview – Clémentine Delauney of Exit Eden & Visions of Atlantis

Interview – Nag of Tsjuder

Interview – Øystein Brun of Borknagar Talks New Music + More

Burn, Witch, Burn (Special Edition Blu-ray Review)

Powerflo – Gorilla Warfare (Album Review)

Diana Ross and the Supremes – Love Child (Limited Edition Vinyl Review)