Southern Rock inspired punk/metal, 80’s Thrash Metal, a band comeback after twenty-three years, Trump decapitations, crack busts, and semen canons?! You, my friend, either just walked into your new neighbor’s apartment… OR a GWAR concert. Let’s pray for the latter and jump into the fray! The Paradise Rock Club. Legendary venue, tiny floor space, and a sold-out show. All the makings for a Sunday night show to share with everyone at the office on Monday morning.Continue reading
Let’s face the facts, folks, the music industry has changed drastically in the last 30 years. I firmly believe that change is inevitable and most of the time I embrace change with open arms. The recording process has been completely revolutionized to the point that musicians can produce their own albums right from home on their computers. The problem with having the ability to record and release music so easily is the plethora of music that is flooding the market that just does not stand the test of time. Think of some of the current songs you hear on Fm radio stations, most of them will spin themselves out of rotation and vanish to the isle of forgotten songs within 6 months of their release. Career longevity has become an elusive beast in the music industry, so when an artist who released his first album over thirty years ago is touring and selling out venues, a Skullgurl must pay attention. Of course, I am talking about the original untamed mane rock star, Sebastian Bach.Continue reading
Enter Shikari just completed a brief run of USA tour dates, for their “Stop The Clocks Tour”. The band is still touring the world behind their 2017 album The Spark (Ambush Reality), lighting up stages with their back catalog and new songs! They were joined for this USA tour by up and coming rockers Can’t Swim, who clearly have big things in front of them.
A three-day music festival in the woods with rock, punk, metal, copious amount of drinking, and an undying sense of community… throw that all in a blender with some camping and yard games and you get RPM Fest. The “Heaviest Party of the Summer” and the unofficial end to the summer in the New England metal scene. This was my 2nd year at RPM Fest so I knew what to expect, but at the same time, I didn’t know what to expect. As it is never a repeat of the year prior at this loud and dirty circus.Continue reading
Arriving at Le Poisson Rouge early in the for the combined Soulfly / Unearth / Evergrey team up tour date, we were pumped to see such an intimate venue host such a diverse night of music. We hung out early, interviewed a bunch of bands on the bill and generally got psyched for a night of different kinds of metal under one banner.
With a lengthy and excitable queue having already formed well before the 7 pm opening time, you can already tell heading to Birmingham on a typically drizzly September evening is going to be well worth the effort. After disappearing for a few words with Rivers of Nihil drummer Jared Klein, I arrive back into the previously empty venue to find it heaving with activity. The bar area is already packed, beer flows freely and merchandise is being handed over at an impressive rate.Continue reading
A Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony review was written by a band kid.
Full disclosure: I’ve known about Metallica since they were a four-line advert in the back pages of physical rock magazines. My first year of high school Kie C. gave me a mixtape of No Life Til Leather and Kill ‘Em All in the band room. I. Was. Hooked. Master of Puppets was released and I played it non stop. I learned to play the entire album on my flute, by ear. My first Metallica show was in 1986 when they opened for Ozzy. I was front row. That was my place for the next thirty-three years and nine countries consisting of 60 shows. It’s a lifelong love affair. Continue reading
Now in its nineteenth year, the annual metal pilgrimage to Bloodstock Open Air at Catton Hall in Derbyshire was joined this year by a very special, but highly unstable, guest.
The weather.
Yes, I know it’s England in August, and we should be more than accustomed to inconsistent weather conditions, but this really was something else. Tents too hot to be inside one moment were waterlogged the next. People soaked to the skin by sudden, torrential downpours were suffering sunburn minutes later. Grass turned to mud, mud became rivers, and the unprecedented winds would go on to cause problems all of their own.Continue reading
