In a better universe, Lemmy Kilmister lives. In that universe, Motorhead goes about twenty percent more Punk for their most recent album.
Because we live in our universe, we got lucky. Kicked In The Teeth gave us Watling Street Chambers (Rare Vitamin Records), which my ears tell me might as well be the same thing.
Sweden’s Wolfbrigade occupies a very specific place in hard-core. The band’s 11th album Life Knife Death might be their first for Metal Blade Records, but it does not venture far from the sonic ground they covered on the previous ten albums. This aligns them closely to Motorhead in a few ways, the first being they are steadfast in their dedication to burly hardcore champs. It charges at you with all the Punk and rocking fury you might expect from this band who infuses Entombed’s dense guitar tone with Motorhead’s reckless energy. The raw-throated vocals are more Lemmy-influenced than metal. There is a scant trace of the stomping sections you might expect from hardcore, though this is way heavier than punk, thus making it hardcore. Ten albums in they know what they are doing.Continue reading
Eight years on from You Will Never Be One of Us, Californian Powerviolence four-piece Nails return with their fourth full-length, Every Bridge Burning (Nuclear Blast Records), evidently intent on doing some damage.
Exploding out of some cyberpunk world, Bangor, Maine Hard Rock three-piece Manic Abraxas have got their engines firing at full throttle, and on fourth album, Skinformation (Self-released), a petrol-fueled cloud of dirty Rock n’ Roll and skuzzy, mind-warped Metal sees the trio blasting a hole through the fabric of this universe into dimensions unknown.Continue reading
Nothing makes me feel more proud than when a local band from the Boston scene makes it. I’ve been a big fan of Fuming Mouth over the years of their growth and was pleased to find their sophomore full-length, Last Day of Sun (Nuclear Blast Records), in my bin.
London-based three-piece Urne announced themselves with the stylish Serpent & Spirit, one of the standout Metal debuts of 2021, and a gloriously dismal collection of songs that unashamedly paid homage to an influence of classic eighties Thrash Metal, mixed with an intriguing blend of traditional rock and melodic death metal.
Hold on, let me clear my throat. Let me attempt my best Jonathan Frakes Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction voice. Do you remember Trap Them? Seminal Northeast Metallic Hardcore/Grind band? Oh, many good times were had. Crowd surfing as far as the eye could see in those glory days. Well, those days are unfortunately no more as that New Hampshire collective closed shop in 2017.
In a time like the last few years, we all are looking for that good piece of news, that sense of accomplishment, that fix of dopamine, to keep us going. Sometimes the positivity, the harmony, the peace is just deafening and some gloom is needed. This is where Black Void resides with their debut release, Antithesis (Nuclear Blast). Born from the group’s other persona, White Void, of hard rock classification, is that good feeling inverse of what Black Void has put together. What that equates to is, crust punk competing with black metal to make a nihilistic ride through darkness.Continue reading
Recorded in July 2021 at The Crypt South, Psychic Contortions (I, Voidhanger) is the fourth studio album from Minnesota duo Feral Light, aka Andy Schoengrund (vocals, guitars, bass) and Andrew Reesen (drums), who have previously been involved with bands such as Wolvhammer and Empires and features seven tracks of obscure and experimental crust-infused black metal, with a distinct originality that sets them apart from the pack.
2019 see’s the third installment of what’s becoming an important event in the calendar for the discerning Heavy Metal connoisseur, BadgerFest. The brainchild of the undeniably hardest working man in the Manchester metal scene John Badger, If any qualification of that were needed, aside from it being reiterated by every band of the weekend, as well as their gratitude as to the smooth running, he’s also running the Drumming up Change in November whereby he’ll be playing the drums for the full sets of all ten bands. There’s hard-working and then there’s John Badger. Continue reading