Don’t you just love it when an album comes out of the blue with an almighty wallop that forces the listener to just hit pause for a second and take it in. You’re only on the first track but it’s laid down a colossal gauntlet to start and Brighton’s Anacondas do this with Sub Contra Blues (Prosthetic Records).Continue reading
Tag Archives: Jonathan Keane
Katatonia – Dethroned And Uncrowned
Re-recording albums are generally hit and miss and often acoustic reworking of songs can be a little off the mark. What’s quite puzzling about Katatonia’s Dethroned And Uncrowned is that they have entirely re-recorded their latest album, Dead End Kings from 2012, in mostly acoustic form.Continue reading
Battlecross – War Of Will
Let’s give it up for Battlecross. The Michigan band has managed to take a weary template, one that has been overused in recent years, and done something quite interesting with it. Their catchy melody infused hail of battlefield themed metal can sound pastiche from time and time, even cheesy, but Battlecross have cut out a lot of the nonsense with this new album War Of Will (Metal Blade) and simply made a good metal record.Continue reading
Palehorse – Harm Starts Here
Palehorse don’t appear to take themselves too seriously, with a few tongue-in-cheek promo shots that include corpsepaint, cups of tea and the morning papers. What is serious though is the cruelty and severity of the cacophony that is their music held within this new album Harm Starts Here and it’s the clashing of these two opposing views that makes the album something worth exploring, if only once.Continue reading
The Amenta – Flesh Is Heir
It’s coming up on five years since Australian death metallers The Amenta’s last album. Flesh Is Heir is the follow-up to 2008’s n0n and since then, more than half of the line-up has changed, with a new vocalist, drummer and bassist in tow. A slew of EP’s releases in the interim has been the Australians’ attempt at ensuring everyone that they are strong as ever but Flesh Is Heir is their real test now.Continue reading
Aborym – Dirty
Dirty is a pretty apt name for this record. Not in a sleazy glam rock sense or in the way of sloppy crust punk, ‘dirty’ remains a pretty open term, but with Aborym’s sixth album, it accurately captures the clustered malaise at play here.Continue reading