Gatekeeping has become an ugly word, but perhaps we’ve become a little too entitled as a society, that we now think anything can be whatever we want it to be. When it comes to consuming a product, this can feel like false advertising. Thus making it my obligation as not only a music journalist but a fan of music to present things in the most honest context possible. As a kid in the eighties, I would often pick out albums based on the album covers alone since this was before the days of the interwebs, and I did not have access to any magazine outside of Hit Parader at the time. My worst waste of an allowance was buying Uriah Heap’s Abominog album. The monster on the cover made me think it would be at least as heavy as Iron Maiden, but it was sadly the band’s turn to commercial Pop Rock, so let me inform you that Colorblind’s Who Sold You This Truth – Was It Yours To Hold (Solid State Records) is not unlike what might happen if a modern male Pop vocalist sang for a Myspace-era “Metal” band.
Tag Archives: Myspace
ALBUM REVIEW: Poison The Well – Peace In Place
Poison The Well left their mark on Metalcore in the post-Victory Records era of the genre, as it spread to mainstream exposure thanks to Myspace. With their reunion album, Peace In Place (SharpTone Records), it’s not like 17 years have passed, but more like they are stepping alongside the Metalcore bands of today, complete with 2026 production stylings. They continue to blend clean singing with Hardcore, which is now much more commonplace than it was when they first started in 1999, and even then, bands like Boysetsfire and Overcast were already alive and kicking. Here, it is clear they have certainly perfected this dynamic. Continue reading
EP REVIEW: Lorna Shore – …And I Return to Nothingness
Say what you will about Deathcore, it is nothing if not persistent. Not that the idea of mixing Death Metal and Hardcore is a new one (i.e., Suffocation) but when the term deathcore is applied today it recalls the halcyon years between 2007 and 2012 when a young man’s worth was determined by his throat tattoo, the size of his gauges and his MySpace networking skills. If you had a pig squeal, a breakdown and a dream it seemed like you too could be handed an Earache Records deal. But when did that dream end? Well, according to Lorna Shore’s …And I Return to Nothingness (Century Media) it didn’t. Continue reading


