Tag Archives: hardcore metal

CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISISTED: Life Of Agony’s “River Runs Red” Turns 30

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Life Of Agony’s classic debut album River Runs Red was released 30 years ago today, on October 12th, 1993 via Roadrunner Records. Coming out of Brooklyn, New York and produced by Josh Silver (Type O Negative), the album shook the Hardcore and Metal world to its core with its heavy, catchy riff-heavy songs, impassioned vocals, and frank lyrics about suicide, drug addiction, ptsd, and family trauma. The band continues to tour and perform these songs around the globe, and made a sequel album, 2018’s acclaimed The Sound of Scars. Read retrospective we created for the 25th anniversary below, and jam out to some LOA today.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Creak – Depth Perception

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Depth Perception is the debut full-length album from recent Prosthetic Records signees Creak, a heavy new metallic Hardcore band hailing from Newcastle UK.

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CONCERT REVIEW: The Halo Effect – Unearth – High Command Live at The Worcester Palladium

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Upstairs at the Worcester Palladium, a venue that most closely resembles a bougie studio apartment, was the host of one of the most anticipated tours of the early summer. Let’s take a journey through the March to Milwaukee Tour, featuring supergroup The Halo Effect, Unearth, and High Command. First up for the night on this world premiere tour was Worcester Massachusetts’ own High Command. Bringing old-school heavy metal, a chain-link microphone stand, a guitarist wearing an executioner’s mask, and an 8-foot-long, broadsword on the stage… these folks sure as hell know how to open up a show. Pummeling riffs, teeth-grinding vocals, and grooves are so infectious. you may want to call a doctor afterward. If you close your eyes you would think that UFO and Goatwhore made a band together. Brandishing a long sword out on stage, I straight up thought they were going to break a pipe in the ceiling… remember, we’re upstairs at the Palladium. You got 8.5-foot ceilings, MAX. Awesome band, I had no idea that they were a local band until after the show. But that only makes the next band of the show even more hype moment for the crowd.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Drain – Living Proof

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I was familiar with Drain thanks to them being name-dropped by fellow Santa Cruz Hardcore outfit Scowl, whose Psychic Dance Routine EP I had the good fortune of reviewing recently. Therefore when the promo list came round and I spotted Living Proof (Epitaph Records) on there, it was simply too good an opportunity to pass up.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Venomous Concept – The Good Ship Lollipop

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Napalm Death’s Shane Embury is a musician who seemingly never rests! After spending the best part of four decades playing the earth-shattering bass in the world’s premiere Death / Grindcore band, he has also dabbled in a seemingly endless succession of side projects and guest appearances. In 2021 he created one of the albums of the year by returning to Blood From The Soul and bringing in Converge vocalist Jacob Bannon for the journey, and in 2022 he provided music of a more obscure and experimental electronic persuasion, with Dark Sky Burial.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Stormo – Endocannibalismo

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“Understanding death as transformation could probably lead us to a better world, ecologically and socially speaking” says Stormo frontman; Luca Rocca. Over the previous year, Stormo have been causing chaos in their live shows in Europe, culminating with the band signing to Prosthetic Records at the end of 2022. With an album name like Endocannibalismo (The tribal act of eating relatives as a form of mourning), there’s only really one type of music that would be expected of the four-piece: chaotic & heavy. Stormo delivers on that in all areas.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Lionheart – Welcome To The West Coast III

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LHHC, baby.

 

Singer Rob Watson is one of the most adept frontmen in hardcore when it comes to being able to both hype up a crowd and tell grim, streetwise lyrical tales over bouncy grooves. Nothing has changed with their latest release, Welcome To The West Coast III (Arising Empire). While the series of ‘Welcome…’ releases started with an EP, it is now halfway to keeping pace with Lil Wayne‘s Tha Carter albums. “Welcome” implies an introduction, but ironically the band no longer need one. Think of the title as more akin to an ongoing episodic documentary at this point.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Senses Fail – Hell Is In Your Head

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Music is routinely used as an avenue to either express one’s feelings or to make sense of them. Oftentimes used as a crutch in our darkest of hours, it’s safe to say music has helped countless people crawl out of their lowest of lows, both through listening and writingContinue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Vatican – Ultra

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While Georgian five-piece Vatican may name-check Meshuggah and Dillinger Escape Plan, their roots are firmly planted in (the original type of) metalcore, owing as much to Earth Crisis and Vision of Disorder (et al) as the latter-day spearheads of discordant “popular” heavy music. Ultra (UNFD) may be the band’s second full-length overall, however with a focus on the sound and style, and with the smooth integration of new vocalist Mike Sugars, it feels like a milestone moment in the definition of what Vatican is as a band, and who they are as an artist.

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CONCERT REVIEW: Carcass – Immolation – Creeping Death Live at The Vogue

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Carcass is closing the books on their Spring tour with Immolation and Creeping Death this week. Starting out in Austin, Texas and culminating at what might be the final Maryland Deathfest, I caught up to them at The Vogue in Indianapolis.

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