NWOBHM

Black Moor – Lethal Waters

Lethal Waters is a surprisingly good take on traditional heavy metal in the vein of Iron Maiden (“Hellraiser”, “Midnight Warrior”, “Hatred’s Maze”) splashed with early 80’s thrash, particularly Megadeth (“Lethal Waters”, “Thunderhead”) and delivered without a hint of parody. This is genuine admiration channeled into a modern interpretation. These lads play from the heart and it shows

A Metal Blade quartet

Metal Blade celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2012. While the label has already released a plethora of classic and genre-defining albums, and fostered and supported our dearly loved heavy metal community, it remains, to this day, as active and energetic as ever. What the metal realm would have looked like without Metal Blade’s steely presence over the past three decades is a frightening thought indeed.

To help celebrate this, here are four new reviews of new Metal Blade titles by our New Zealand based writer Craig Haze, who tackles the new releases by Angel Witch, Exhumer, Ram and OSI

Christian Mistress – Possession

The words “retro” and “throwback” get used a lot when describing music, especially in the rock and metal realm. In the case of Christian Mistress it goes way beyond that, sonically speaking anyway. Every single track on Possession is steeped in classic metal awesomeness.

Biff Byford: The Hellbound Interview

Early last week NWOBHM legends Saxon made their first stop in Toronto for a show in over twenty-five years. As astonishing as it seems, the last time the venerable British metal unit made it to Canada’s most populated city was way back in 1986. It was a long time coming, but the band played one hell of a show.

Sean Palmerston in conversation with Saxon founding member and lead singer Biff Byford,

White Wizzard—Flying Tigers

White Wizzard have had a bumpy ride so far, with band members changing regularly, but I hope they can stick together from now on because if Flying Tigers is evidence of anything, it’s that the band are easily capable of producing infinitely more complex material while retaining that traditional 80s sheen that makes them so compelling in the first place.

RIFFS NOT RIOTS @ Fortune Sound Club, Vancouver BC, July 13, 2011

“While the Stanley Cup Riot of 2011 will be neither forgiven nor forgotten any time soon, it was heartening to see Vancouver’s metal scene step up and do their part to help soothe some of the sting the city’s been feeling since that night. I also got my eyes opened – there are a lot of incredible bands in this city”

Rob Hughes and Kyle Harcott review the July 13th RIFFS NOT RIOTS festival that happened in Vancouver. Concert photography by Ted Reckoning.

Hellbound Staff Interrogation #1: Adrien Begrand

With today being the second anniversary of the launch of Hellbound.ca (yay us!), we have decided to do short interviews with the staff of Hellbound so that you the readers can find out more about us and where we come from. Justin M. Norton came up with a bunch of questions, which we will be asking all of our current staff over the next few weeks.

Adrien Begrand was the first writer to sign on with Sean when he decided to start Hellbound, so he is the first one to be interviewed. Here is his interview below. Please enjoy