The worst that can happen by pairing two contrasting ideas is it doesn’t sound or feel pleasing or appropriate.Continue reading
Tag Archives: album reviews
ALBUM REVIEW: Kingcrow – Hopium
Hailing from Rome and with a name inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s poem Raven is Kingcrow, after a six-year gap between albums they are back with Hopium (Season of Mist). Theirs is an emotive brand of Prog Rock but the Metal of the previous album The Persistence, has been dialled down with atmospheric, ambient, Electronic, and Alt Rock elements playing a larger part. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Alleviate – DMNS
The two (not entirely insignificant) selling points for Alleviate and their new album, DMNS (Arising Empire) are that the musicians all have credits from other bands and the music is Metalcore, but it’s also technical, has Deathcore influences, and is able to blend all of this together into a forceful display.Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Hatchend – Summer of ‘69
A new group, known simply as Hatchend, has forcibly hatched its way into existence with members from differing death metal and grindcore bands. The debut album, Summer of ‘69 (Selfmadegod Records) dropped and it goes full throttle for thirty-three minutes. Bringing in their previous influences and dumping them on top of crossover foundations sets up quite the demolition derby of sound.Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Melt-Banana – 3+5
If Noise-Rock, and Punk were musical movements built on no more destructive behaviour than a gigantic excess of sugar, and were intrinsically aligned with computer game soundtracks, the world might have many a Melt-Banana. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Nile – The Underworld Awaits Us All
In his thirty-one years as frontman of Egypt-obsessed extreme death metal act Nile, founder member Karl Sanders has remained completely true to his original vision. An unrelenting desire to create the most brutal technical death metal riffs known to man. A quest for modern musical perfection using ancient history as the central inspiration. And a steadfast refusal to wear any kind of leg covering that goes more than six inches past the knee. With all of these things, Sanders knows absolutely no compromise.Continue reading
EP REVIEW: Horns and Hooves – Spectral Voyeurism
The two renowned Extreme Metal labels Stygian Black Hand and Invictus Productions are collaborating this time to release the anticipated mini-album coming from the ever-gnarly unholy trinity Horns & Hooves, entitled Spectral Voyeurism. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Aivvass – Spiritual Archives
The occult has a questionable history in Rock music, as it is typically used for window dressing with little substance behind it. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Dark Tranquillity – Endtime Signals
Swedish Melodic Death Metal starts and stops with Dark Tranquillity.
Their thirteenth full-length, Endtime Signals (Century Media Records), captures how and why the band has had such staying power for two decades. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Solemn Ceremony – Chapter III
Initially started in 2017 as a solo side project to Lucifer’s Fall by Phil Howlett and later helped out by longtime collaborator Kieran Provis (also of Lucifer’s Fall fame), the Adelaide-bound Solemn Ceremony has been crafting the purest form of barbaric, raw, and obscure old school Doom ever since. Moreover, they have been doing it in the style of the 80s. Equipped with past experiences in songwriting for Rote Mare and Lucifer’s Fall, the ever-talented Phil Howlett brings his listeners a distinctive style of aggression-laden vocals that appear fiendish and savage.