If you believe Hardcore has little to offer outside of the fairly narrow musical alleyway it usually occupies then today might just be the perfect time to take a listen to SpiritWorld. Combining Country Music and bedazzled outfits with Punk aggression and Thrash Metal riffs, the Las Vegas act are a sight to behold and they return with a vengeance on third full-length album Helldorado (Century Media Records).
Tag Archives: Thrash Metal
ALBUM REVIEW: Warbringer – Wrath and Ruin
Spring is coming to the Northern Hemisphere as the temperatures start to rise. The bar for the coveted Album of the Year continues to rise as more music is released weekly. Thrash stalwarts, Warbringer, take their shot at the crown with their seventh full-length, Wrath and Ruin (Napalm Records). Each album the California-based group releases builds upon their last release, continuously pushing the boundaries of their brand of thrash metal. For forty minutes, John Kevill and company command your attention as their riff-powered tank tramples the mangled corpses of the fallen.Continue reading
CONCERT REVIEW: Cavalera – Necrot – Dead Heat Live at Great American Music Hall
We checked into the Great American Music Hall on a Monday Night in San Francisco, and it really hit me how much this town lives for Metal shows. Granted the show was basically sold out and already full of people. Doors were supposed to be 7 and the show at 8 pm, but Dead Heat went on early and were crushing it when we got in the place. All good. I got into the venue early enough to enjoy the gig. I have seen the band a few times and they got a huge reaction from the crowd. I popped by the merch table to say hi to Richie Cavalera, slinging shirts and merch for his father and uncle in Cavalera, like a champ. Always good to see him and he let me know about some new Incite news coming soon, so I was Jazzed!Continue reading
CONCERT REVIEW: Unleash the Archers – Striker – Seven Kingdoms Live at Islington Assembly Hall
It’s been a while since we’ve taken the long journey down to the Big Smoke and what better reason to make the trip than to catch the mighty Unleash the Archers as they set out to conquer the capital city. The show has been greatly anticipated, bringing fans from far and wide as this sole UK outing has managed to sell out not just once but twice after its upgrade from London’s iconic venue space Underworld. Trading some of the intimacy of Underworld for the grand ceilings of the historic Islington Assembly Hall doesn’t seem like such a bad trade-off, giving ample room to really showcase the epic nature of tonight’s lineup.Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Destruction – Birth Of Malice
As if the past forty years hadn’t flown by quickly enough for German thrash titans Destruction, it’s already time to move forward from the anniversary celebrations of 2023 and get back to the bread and butter of studio recordings. On their sixteenth full-length release (fifteenth if you ignore 1988’s anomalous The Least Successful Human Cannonball), Birth of Malice (Napalm Records), the band’s founder member Marcel “Schmier” Schirmer looks to the past, present, and future for inspiration, reminiscing over old times as well delivering warnings and observations of a more contemporary nature.Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Scour – Gold
Trading Louisiana sludge for a more European soundscape, black metal act Scour is the latest project from Phillip H. Anselmo, the former frontman of Texan bruisers Pantera and New Orleans supergroup Down. Although quite some distance away from his usual musical stamping ground, this isn’t the first time Anselmo has turned his hand towards black metal, but where the likes of Eibon and Viking Crown merely laid the groundwork, it’s with Scour where all the pieces have finally come together.Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Hirax – Faster Than Death
ALBUM REVIEW: Stress Test – Stress Test
The more uncertain the times, the more violent the reaction. A point proven in the eighties with the explosion of Hardcore and Thrash, and this self-titled debut by Oregon act Stress Test is like taking a step back into that time. A time when everyday existence meant the fear of war, disease and hate; a time when religion and politics were even more corrupt and depraved than certain types of criminals. The sad thing is though, you only have to spend thirty seconds watching the TV or doomscrolling through your news feed to see history repeating itself, only worse and often in more insidious ways.Continue reading
CONCERT REVIEW: Kerry King – Municipal Waste – Alien Weaponry Live at The Royale
It was a blistering cold night in New England as Slayer guitarist and co-founder Kerry King unleashed a hellish sonic assault upon the small Boston nightclub, The Royale for his first North American Headline Tour. King’s band is made up of metal legends that include Mark Osegueda of Death Angel on vocals, former Vio-lence and Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel, Hellyeah bassist Kyle Sanders, and Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph.
ALBUM REVIEW: Dream Theater – Parasomnia
A record called Parasomnia (InsideOut Music) which explores many of the unusual behaviours and emotions experienced during sleep, written by a band called Dream Theater (a spelling which, due to my almost painful levels of Englishness, never fails to make me shudder) seems the most obvious pairing in the world. The question of why it’s taken until their sixteenth full-length studio release for this to happen is something for the band to explain but it’s here now, and in true Dream Theater tradition, you’re going to need time to absorb it fully.Continue reading