The Linus Pauling Quartet – Bag of Hammers
Basically, if you like a little SRV sizzle with your thick Texas steak, and some hash brownies for desert before wandering in the desert… yeah, you’d probably dig this.
Reviews
Bad Religion – True North
while the albums that Bad Religion has released since returning to Epitaph in 2002 have been consistently improving, True North marks the high point of a decade’s worth of work. This album is a true classic which marks a pinnacle of powers in Bad Religion and upholds everything that is best about the band.
Barge To Hell Cruise Recap Part 4
In early December the inaugural BARGE TO HELL cruise sailed from Miami, FL to Nassau, Bahamas and back and featured live performances by forty-two metal bands. Hellbound.ca was lucky enough to have been able to send some of its contributors on the cruise and here is what they had to say about the performances that took place on the fourth and final day of the cruise.
Live reviews by Adrien Begrand and Sean Palmerston. All photography by Albert Mansour unless listed otherwise.
Iron Maple Vol 1: Abriosis, Anciients, Chariots Of The Gods and Adrenechrome
Jason Wellwood kicks off his new Iron Maple column, focusing on Canadian independent metal bands, with reviews of new releases by Abriosis, Anciients and Chariots Of The Gods, plus an audio interview with Chris Friesen of Adrenechrome
Rotten Sound – Species At War
Species At War is an incendiary and blindingly ferocious blitzkrieg of power. In full gear, the album flays the ears like a sandstorm of razorblades.
Dark Descent Double Shot: Vorum and Paroxsihzem
“Dark Descent has a characteristic signature that lends confidence to, and underscores, the veracity of its releases. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily imply that you’re going to enjoy every album with Dark Descent’s sigil attached, but all its releases are imprinted with a strong sense of integrity bound to the label’s trustworthy aesthetic.”
Craig Haze reviews two new Dark Descent releases by Finland’s Vorum and Canada’s Paroxsihzem for your reading pleasure.
Doro – Raise Your Fist
Raise Your Fist can keep a venue or party going all night. The record doesn’t show Doro in a new light, but depicts her self-respect through some seriously fetching tracks. At 48 years old, Doro is still hot in leather, strikes chords and bakes like a boss. Horns to her.
Baptists: Bushcraft
The songs are the thing, riffs and hooks left and right that snatch your breath, but it’s the squeezed-fist-grip-on-your-heart attack that makes Baptists your better-than-average d-beat plus metal guitars unit.
Clamfight – I Vs. the Glacier
Overall, this is a pretty solid sludge record. Nothing that I haven’t really heard before, but these guys do it fairly well.
Judas Priest – Screaming For Vengeance (30th Anniversary Edition)
In listening to the reissue of Screaming For Vengeance, it suddenly becomes clear that, as “of its time” the production applied to the record was (the effects on “Electric Eye” – all the clanking reverb and robotic imagery – and the glammy metal sheen of “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” are good examples), the record is the “step up” made by a band who knew they had the world’s attention, and continues to command respect thirty years later both for that and for its song craft.