Author: Gruesome Greg
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Castle – Welcome to the Graveyard
As far as the female-fronted occult acts are concerned, I’ve always found Castle to be a cut above the fray. Granted, they’ve always had a bit of a harder edge, a more metallic sound than many of the Jex Ceremony clones—likely due to guitarist Mat Davis’ formative years in the Toronto thrash scene. Owing to…
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Foghound – The World Unseen
This Baltimore band can trace its lineage—and its rhythm section—back to stoner-rock outfit Sixty Watt Shaman, who put out a couple rippin’ records on Spitfire at the turn of the century. And like with most bands from Maryland, the riffs run deep on this, Foghound’s second record. “Above the Wake” starts things off in a more…
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Inter Arma – Paradise Gallows
Generally speaking, I like my coffee downtuned and doomy, just like my metal. Never been a big fan of the blackened stuff, but Inter Arma caught my ear with their 2013 Relapse debut Sky Burial, which owes about as much to Neurosis as it does to Emperor. Hailing from the same Richmond, Virginia scene as…
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Pentagram – First Daze Here
These days, when Bobby Liebling sings “These are gonna be my last days here…” he really means it. The dude looked like death warmed over when I saw ‘em down in Cleveland last year, and his touring troubles continued recently, with missed gigs and pissed-off openers on their last trek. The backing band behind him…
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Comet Control – Center of the Maze
This is the second release from Toronto psych rock outfit Comet Control, following their self-titled debut in 2014. A couple of these guys have some history with Tee Pee stalwarts Quest for Fire, although I found their new outfit to be a little more structured and poppy than its predecessor. Before I give that one…
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Arctic – self-titled
Three California skaters drop out, tune down and start jamming. Based on that backstory, I’m expecting some kinda cross between Earthless and The Shrine, and Arctic doesn’t totally disappoint on their debut EP. “Over Smoked” kicks off this five-track effort, a nine-minute slow burn that gets heads nodding almost from the get-go with its heavy-psych…
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AMATEUR CONCERT PHOTOGRAPHY HOUR: FLAG/DOA/War on Women @ Lee’s Palace, June 23, 2016
Evidently I can’t be in seven places at once, so for me, Lee’s was the place to be last night for a pair of hardcore pioneers from both sides of the border.
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It’s Not Night, It’s Space – Our Birth is But a Sleep and a Forgetting
This instro heavy-psych trio hails from New Paltz, a small town in New York’s Hudson Valley, which I believe is on the bus route from Cooperstown to Kingston, NY. After a couple independently released albums, they’ve signed to Small Stone for this, their third record. The artist often shortened to INNIS seems to share post-rock’s…
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Throttlerod – Turncoat
These Virginia veterans and Small Stone mainstays have just put out their first album in almost seven years. Turncoat is album number five from this heavy-rock outfit, and their fourth for the Detroit label, to which they’ve been signed almost since the turn of the century. (They have the distinction of covering “Black Betty” on…
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The Second Coming of Heavy, Chapter III (BoneHawk/Kingnomad split)
In some ways, Ripple Music is sorta like a modern-day MeteorCity—a great little label bringing underground heavy music to the masses. Ripple also has its own series of split albums; of which this is the third installment. I haven’t heard of either of these bands, so I’m not expecting Lowrider/Nebula here, but if Ripple’s logo…