FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
Hellbound’s Justin Richardson took in Finland’s Tuska Open Air Festival this summer featuring bands such as Amorphis, Bolt Thrower, Ihsahn and King Diamond. Here is his review of the first day at this renowned metal festival.
“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.
Western Canadian metal owes a lot to Terese Fleming. As the organizer of the Noctis festival, she has put our region on the map as far as heavy metal culture goes. Incredibly supportive of her local and regional scene, Terese has been putting on shows, from tiny community halls to the now multi-day Noctis extravaganza for years. I spoke to her over the phone to find out some history of her involvement with Noctis, what bands she’s into, and whether us attendees will really be eating bowls of ball bearings at the Noctis Metal Breakfast.
Interview by Kyle Harcott
Catching up on some of the late 2011 releases that nearly went under the radar, Craig Haze reviews a triptych of death metal albums, including the latest from Horrendous, Ominous Crucifix and Vore.
Metalion is one of the greatest books about metal ever produced.
Installment #18 of our staff interviews is with transplanted Canadian Jay H. Gorania, who gave up Saskatchewan for Texas. Go figure!
Today’s interview in our ongoing staff interview profiles is with Northern California-based writer Justin M. Norton
Adam Wills previews this weekend’s Hellfest festival that is happening in France. He will be attending and covering it for Hellbound.
“Sabaton blend traditional metal with power metal and a bit of military pomp to create some truly catchy work. Naysayers will repeatedly bring up the fact that they are not Bolt Thrower so they shouldn’t try to do ‘military metal’ (something that the band started dabbling with on Primo Victoria, which quickly became their forte) however that’s a lot like telling As I Lay Dying that they shouldn’t do Christian Metal because they aren’t Stryper. I actually came to the Sabaton party a little late, I was introduced to the band with The Art of War (their 2008 release with Black Lodge) so these ‘Rearmed’ editions from Nuclear Blast (the bands new home) were a huge treat for me.”
Jason Wellwood reviews the new ReArmed Edition reissues of the first four SABATON albums on Nuclear Blast USA.
Last week the inaugural 70000 TONS OF METAL cruise sailed from Miami, FL to Cozumel, Mexico and back and featured live performances by forty-two metal bands. Hellbound.ca was lucky enough to have been able to send four of its contributors on the cruise and here is what they had to say about the performances that took place on Day number two.
Live reviews by Adrien Begrand, Albert Mansour, Kevin Stewart-Panko and Sean Palmerston. All photography by Albert Mansour unless listed otherwise.