After a quiet beginning to this year’s metal concert-attending, things started to happen with a hastened pace on my part. The month of March - well, not only March but the whole spring - quickly turned out to be a very busy one for me, with multiple booked events on the plate and several bands I’d never seen live before: Cryptopsy, Atheist, Decapitated, Incantation, Taake, etc.

We here at Metal Storm pride ourselves in the metal that we live and breathe, and most importantly, write about. But there's a whole world out there aside from Satan-worshiping black metal and dragon-slaying power metal. Here's what we checked out this month.

Gather around ye! This is how Roadburn Festival went down this year.

It was by sheer accident that I stumbled on Gangar's gig on the ticket marketplace searching for something else entirely. What caught my eye initially was the advertised mix of folk, jazz, metal, and prog. What sealed the deal, however, was the description, which quoted, of all things, Metal Storm's Non-Metals review of the band's début EP Tre Danser and reminded me that I probably had a still-open Bandcamp tab somewhere as a reminder from way back when.

Clandestine Cuts are the best demos and EPs from the metal underground. This issue features music from Druidess, Deeproot, Dungeon Shaker, Aastarah, Rotten Cavern, and D’Archipelago.