Informing me that a band features the talents of Fall Out Boy drummer Andy Hurley probably isn’t the best way to sell me on their album, but I’m glad I swallowed my ignorance. I mean, you should’ve told me that Hurley is super talented and that he’s flanked by members of Cursed, Catharsis and Earth Crisis in SECT. Combine those mega-powers with uber-producer Kurt Ballou and the fabled GodCity Studios and you’ve got a hell of a blast of Entombed-core in No Cure for Death (Southern Lord).
When frontman David Vincent returned to the Morbid Angel fold in 2004, there was much rejoicing. When the result of this reunion, the ill-fated Illud Divinium Insanus (Season of Mist) surfaced in 2011, there was considerably less rejoicing. All of a sudden, internet forums, and websites like Facebook and YouTube found themselves inundated with knee-jerk (over)reaction videos posted by inexplicably angry middle-aged men describing the new album as the worst thing since Hitler, cancer, or stepping on Lego.Continue reading
The Ghost Cult album roundup is back in town, for your vulgar delectation, though we’re taking a different approach this week and grouping together some of the less-“heavy” releases that are polluting our ears; it’s a walk on the lighter side of the Ghost Cult coin…
Continue reading
For too many years, Frankfurt alcohol aficionados Tankard had been unfairly excluded from the German Thrash Metal elite, the so-called “Teutonic Trio” of Kreator, Destruction, and Sodom. However, if you knock long enough, eventually you’ll be let in, and finally a few years ago the big boys club opened its doors to the drunken four-piece who had been impatiently waiting outside, pissing on the door handle and vomiting in the bushes.Continue reading
Seemingly coming out of nowhere in recent months, Liverpudlian Black Metallers Dawn Ray’d have already made a lasting impression in such a short space of time. After a well-received EP release in A Thorn, A Blight (Moment Of Collapse), that certainly escaped much wider attention, Dawn Ray’d have generated ripples in the knowing underground; not only with signing to Prosthetic for The Unlawful Assembly, their debut full length, but by showcasing both an intensity and an urgency in their lyrical content that many more established peers simply don’t match up to.Continue reading
The Von Hertzen Brothers have been much covered and much admired across the digital pages of our humble vehicle, in particular, the excellent New Day Rising (Spinefarm). Two years on, and they’re back with the very ambitious War Is Over (Music Theories/Mascot), which further evidences their classic and prog rock sensibilities, and ability to combine them into sumptuous whole pieces. Continue reading
Despite their transatlantic fusion of blues, soul and rock n roll, Broken Witt Rebels are a new guitar driven band hailing from Birmingham, England. Songs from their two previous EPs (Howlin and Georgia Pine) plus a smattering of brand new material makes up their debut album Broken Witt Rebels (Snakefarm). It is a soulful yet gritty blend of the new and the old, Kings of Leon-esque arena rock; an Alabama Shakes-like vintage feel with the boozy swagger of The Cadillac Three, who they toured with this month.Continue reading
UK Doom outfit Electric Wizard are rightly held in high regard. One of the few bands to proudly wear the influence of Black Sabbath long before it became cool again, Jus Oborn & co. were making dirty, but earth-rattling Doom like no one else at the time. These days, there’s no shortage of bands aping the band’s classic material. But based on the evidence of new album Wizard Bloody Wizard (Spinefarm), the imposters probably do it better than Electric Wizard themselves these days.Continue reading
I’m not one for subgenres. I mean, I understand why they exist and how they appear to explain why Exodus sounds differently from Sleep all while still operating under the Heavy Metal umbrella, but I think we’re too preoccupied with the minutiae of the subgenres; we’re too busy defending the merits of our style against the perceived weaknesses of the others. That’s why it very refreshing to attempt to make sense of the sounds on Calligram’s Askesis (Basick). Continue reading
The Venn diagram of people who like symphonic metal and people who like Christmas music is most certainly not a circle, but it is statistically probable that there is some kind of overlapping area in there. Is From Spirits and Ghosts (Score for a Dark Christmas) (earMUSIC) the perfect album for this niche crowd? NO.Continue reading