At what point does a band stop striving and just settles into a never-ending victory lap? Take L.A.’s finest Doom Metal group, Saint Vitus, who’ve been at it since the late seventies, and pretty much defined the genre in the eighties. And yet, here we are, in 2019, and a new self-titled album (Season of Mist) from the band is due out soon. It also sees the return of the band’s first lead singer, Scott Reagers, after a twenty-four-year break.Continue reading
Before we proceed with this review of Weeping Choir (Relapse), the latest in a long series of attempts at deafness by Full of Hell, I’d like to make a statement: more saxophones in metal. Buried in the cacophony of notes that is the latter half of ‘Ygramul the Many’ is what I perceive to be sax fighting its way through the mix and I am all in for those wonderful sounds. Between Rivers of Nihil masterfully incorporating it into last year’s Where Owls Know My Name and now this, I need more sax in my life. Continue reading
I can’t think of a more perfect way for reunited/reformed Death Metal legends Entombed to return than a live version of one of their most revered albums. Yeah sure Wolverine Blues and Left Hand Path a classics, but I think Clandestine Live (Threeman Recordings) is even better and serves as a timely reminder of just how influential this band is.Continue reading
Although they were only formed in 2007, it feels like London’s Savage Messiah have been around for a lot longer than just over a decade. Regular album releases and frequent appearances on the touring circuit give the impression the band are old hands when they’re actually still relative newcomers. And with only eighteen months or so having passed since their last studio outing, the band are already preparing to unleash their fifth album, Demons (Century Media) into your lovely listening orifices. Continue reading
In further proof of Metal’s worldwide appeal, dropped-out troupe Age Of The Wolf hail from Costa Rica. There’s pedigree in the ranks too, with ex-Corpse Garden six-stringer Christopher de Haan at the forefront of their sound, and the Extreme Metal experience of the quartet lends a seriously hard edge to Stoner-flavoured debut Ouroboric Trances (Aural Music).Continue reading
A thunderous crack of guitars explode outwards above a deluge of dextrous percussion. It all swirls around the listener before reaching a fever pitch and bursting into its main atonal, bending riff. This is just the mere beginning of ‘When You Stare’ from Blackened post-Hardcore outfit, Glassing, a band clearly out to not just pique interest, but demand attention. The vocals have an ominous amount of reverb to them, giving the same halfway-down-a-corridor feel of the likes of early Emperor or any Black Metal luminaries for that matter. The actual screaming itself, however, has far more in common with contemporaries like Tripsitter and We Never Learned To Live, with its strained and passionate delivery evoking repressed tender emotions rather than scathing the eardrums with rhapsodies of hellfire.Continue reading
Turin visionaries Rama are often described as Desert Rock, but right from their self-titled 2015 EP (Self-Released) there was evidence of a deeper, simmering destiny. Debut album Everything Is One (Today/Brigante Records) furthers this cause, with elements of earthen fire and melodic sweetness enlivening that Stoner background.Continue reading
Get ready to subvert your opinions of what modern metal is and toss out your genre tags. Spirit Adrift is back to bash your eardrums in with riffs, melodies, beats, and deep thoughts. Like the perfect concoction of heavy, catchy and progressive music, the band has delivered a new album in Divided By Darkness (20 Buck Spin) that is just heads and shoulders above its peers. A few bands have danced on this wire before from Baroness, Mastodon, Elder, Kylesa, and others. Ambitious bands that initially got lumped in with the masses, but eventually set themselves apart with fearlessness and writing skills. Now we must add Spirit Adrift to that list of those who could pull off such a daunting amalgam of styles and do it so well. Continue reading
Gobsmacking. That’s the first word that came to mind and I wasn’t even a minute into Winter Eternal (Metal Blade Records). Arch / Matheos deliver everything people like about heavy metal. The music is imbued with headbanging fury. The guitar riffage is sublime. Winter Eternal is that perfect storm of a heavy metal album. It’s a wicked mixture of classically awesome Iron Maiden, heady powerful Dream Theatre, and has the story-telling prowess of Queensryche. Listening to the album makes you go, “Grrrrrrrrrr!”Continue reading
Borders is a foursome from Lincoln, England that are here to unapologetic provide much needed heavy music to your playlist. Thriving on pure heavy metal, their upcoming album Purify (Long Branch Records) embarks on a ten-track journey with elements from Djent to Post-hardcore. Continue reading