Tag Archives: breakdowns

Stone Sour – Hydrograd

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It’s not often that a side project from an acclaimed band can stand on par with said original group. After all, a lot of sidebands become the vacation parent to fans; as a stop-gap measure for artists to toss eager followers a bone in between releases. However, that is not true of Stone Sour, launched in the shadows of Slipknot, and for over fifteen years has slowly ascended to the hard rock pantheon on their own merits. In fact, on their new album Hydrograd (Roadrunner), the band has put out an album that actually surpasses a few Slipknot releases outright. Continue reading →


The Acacia Strain – Gravebloom

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While this year continues to be another great year for new heavy music, the Massachusetts scene has once again stood tall with The Acacia Strain dropping their latest, Gravebloom  (Rise). The Chicopee, MA group continues to produce stellar albums and still aiming to beat out their previous successes. TAC keeps true to the sound that they are best known for, while also experimenting just a bit more than previously. There may not be a twenty-minute long epic that takes up a second disk, but the eleven tracks that span nearly fifty minutes is just right. Continue reading →


Aversions Crown – Xenocide

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The subgenre known as deathcore has become quite crowded over the years with new bands by the boatload popping up all over the globe. Having said that, Australia’s own Aversions Crown are one of the middle-wave to sprout after the likes of Suicide Silence and Whitechapel laid the foundation in the mid-to-late 2000s. AC’s latest album, Xenocide (Nuclear Blast), comes out on Inauguration Day in the US, so it is befitting to have an album with such a title be released on such an occasion. Continue reading →