Nicholas Franco, Author at Cryptic Rock

Interview – Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved

Nicholas FrancoNicholas FrancoMarch 5, 2015

Metal fans would be hard pressed to find a band running more smoothly these days than Enslaved. The Norwegian extreme metal band has been melting speakers since the early 1990s, picking up steam amid the infamous second wave of Norwegian black metal and evolving into ... Read More

Blind Guardian – Beyond the Red Mirror (Album Review)

Nicholas FrancoNicholas FrancoFebruary 24, 2015

If one considers the career paths of bands who break the thirty year barrier, there is often a general pattern to which these productive, fortunate few tend to adhere. They forge their legacy during their ‘glory years,’ the exact boundaries of which can be hotly ... Read More

Interview – Hansi Kürsch of Blind Guardian

Nicholas FrancoNicholas FrancoFebruary 13, 2015

He is the voice behind one of the most influential acts in the entire vibrant spectrum of heavy metal music. Blind Guardian, a larger than life juggernaut of epic, mind-expanding power metal, emerged in the mid-1980s amid a slew of like-minded contemporaries, but soon catapulted into ... Read More

Devin Townsend Project – Z² (Album Review)

Nicholas FrancoNicholas FrancoFebruary 4, 2015

Often in musical publications, you will hear journalists saying, “There’s nobody quite like _____” when describing certain musicians. Very often, if listeners dig deep enough, they will find that such a statement is often invariably untrue. When it comes to Canadian colossus Devin Townsend, however, ... Read More

Marduk – Frontschwein (Album Review)

Nicholas FrancoNicholas FrancoFebruary 4, 2015

History has given a band like Marduk plenty to write about. Over a career spanning the last twenty-five years, one of Sweden’s longest running pure Black Metal bands has explored only the darkest of subject matter. Among myriad lyrical excursions into anti-Christian biblical tales, the ... Read More

Dark Tranquillity & Insomnium Melodic Metal bliss in NYC 1-4-15

Nicholas FrancoNicholas FrancoJanuary 12, 2015

Nothing spices up a Sunday night like some vintage Melodic Death Metal, and only four days into 2015, that is just what fans had in store for them at the Gramercy Theater, one of Manhattan’s finer concert destinations. The marquee at the corner of E ... Read More

Nicholas Franco

Interview – Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved

Blind Guardian – Beyond the Red Mirror (Album Review)

Interview – Hansi Kürsch of Blind Guardian

Devin Townsend Project – Z² (Album Review)

Marduk – Frontschwein (Album Review)

Dark Tranquillity & Insomnium Melodic Metal bliss in NYC 1-4-15

Interview – Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved

Blind Guardian – Beyond the Red Mirror (Album Review)

Interview – Hansi Kürsch of Blind Guardian

Devin Townsend Project – Z² (Album Review)

Marduk – Frontschwein (Album Review)

Dark Tranquillity & Insomnium Melodic Metal bliss in NYC 1-4-15

This Week in Horror Movie History – My Bloody Valentine (1981)

This Week in Horror Movie History – The Fog (1980)

This Week in Horror Movie History – Blood Beach (1981)

Interview – Joanna Cassidy

Interview – Vesa Ranta of The Abbey

Interview – Nadia White

Bishop Briggs – Tell My Therapist I’m Fine (Album Review)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (50th Anniversary Chainsaw Edition Review)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (4K UHD Review)