The direction Tribulation heads on Sub Rosa In Æternum (Century Media Records) has been a long time coming. You can’t call a band goth without them eventually turning to the dark side. The Swedes started as a Death Metal band that flirted with the shadowy atmosphere, but never bore the Sisters of Mercy Halloween trappings they were credited with. Until this album. The sung vocals that open the first song solidify this; this may be the final step over this threshold for them. Johannes Andersson has sung on their previous albums in smaller doses, but this album finds him committed to it. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Wil Cifer
ALBUM REVIEW: Nachtmystium – Blight Privilege
The problem with American Black Metal bands, is they are often comprised of Punk Rock kids from Brooklyn or any other hipster city, who appropriate the sonic aesthetics that work for their indie-rock sensibility lacking any sense of darkness. There are a few bands who have proved an exception Tombs, Weakling, and Nachtmystium. Blake Judd’s struggles with addiction are responsible for giving Nachtmystium its legitimacy his harrowing accounts of inner torment are far more intense than faux Satanism. After all, exorcising one’s demons can not be faked. Blight Privilege (Lupus Lounge) is Judd clawing his way back up from the abyss to make music again. This album might not be as experimental as his past work but it feels more honest.Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Dirty Shades – Stuck in Motion
Hailing from France the Dirty Shades upholds the country’s legacy of birthing powerful atmospheric rock. Their new album Stuck in Motion (Modulor Music) offers a post-Hardcore punch to the dynamics as their sound swirls around you. They step on the gas at a few points in the opening track “Cannon Fodder” to keep the dynamics varied. Lead singer Anouk Degrande is backed by shouted accents where she allows her voice to wander off the swells of the guitar. The bass line anchors the second track “Mine,” as the ambiance thickens to a palm-muted groove buried in the layers. They build the song up into a heavier punch not unlike how Tool once commanded dynamics during the nineties. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Dead Posey – Are You In A Cult
With Halloween upon us, and Instagram beginning to fill with girls sporting a Vampira look for their selfies, it begs the question what is Goth? The answer might not be revealed in Dead Posey’s new album Are You In a Cult (Self-Released), but this duo is banging out some fun-filled arena rock that has more in common with The Pretty Reckless than it does Siouxsie and the Banshees. The album is full of catchy choruses and frontwoman Danyell Souza sings about creepy things, but it packs the kind of punch that would be more at home at the Welcome to Rockville fest than, opening for The Cure. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Touché Amoré – Spiral In A Straight Line
Spiral In A Straight Line (Rise Records) is Touché Amoré’s sixth album. They are not only more confident in who they are as a band, but continuing the journey fussy they are not capable of explosive emotional outbursts as heard in the song. This is handled in a more Punk way, with less overt emoting. The more polished production compliments the progression of their creative path, with the guitars being where growth is most evident. On a song like “Hal Ashby” they embrace the late nineties all over again thanks to the jangle of the guitars. This feels the most like what we once called Emo with a punk drive that thankfully owes more to Hot Water Music than Blink-182.Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Chat Pile – Cool World
Cool World (The Flenser) might not be the album that is going to make Chat Pile a household name, but is does exceed the expectations set by 2022’s God’s Country. This album exudes anger. It’s become a cliche for bands to say their new album is going to be their heaviest yet, Chat Pile let the music do the talking in this regard. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: The Barbarians of California – And Now I’m Just Gnashing My Teeth
The sound of what was once considered West Coast Hard Core is changing. The Barbarians of California‘s new album And Now I’m Just Gnashing My Teeth (oneRPM) carries more of a metallic stomp aligned with modern Hardcore. Right from the first song you can hear the band’s more experimental edge. Once into the meat of the album, they bridge hardcore with a Nu-Metal sound, which is not unlike what System of a Down does. They attack with a more spastic jerk. It’s hard not to appreciate the sense of adventure that runs through these songs. The new generation of nu-metal kids who attend festivals like Sick New World will dig it. Hardcore purists might have some questions. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Swamp Coffin – Drowning Glory
An entire anthropological study could be done on how the region a band comes from affects the sound of any given genre. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Wolfbrigade – Life Knife Death
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
ALBUM REVIEW: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Wild God
It can not be said that Nick Cave’s career has not aged gracefully. Sure, The Birthday Party feels like another life, but with each album released in the past two decades, Cave has successfully moved towards filling the gap Leonard Cohen’s death would leave. Wild God (Play it Again Sam) continues to uphold his legacy while carrying the hopeful shimmer of a life not met with the kind of tragedy Cave has known. After the death of his son, he is moving past the kind of grief that haunted some of his more recent work. Even at 66 years old, Nick’s vocals have held up, even if the title track is more spoken than sung.Continue reading