Author: Gruesome Greg
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AMATEUR CONCERT PHOTOGRAPHY HOUR: SLEEP @ The Phoenix, January 22, 2016
Seeing Sleep at The Phoenix wasn’t just another gig–it was a religious experience. Let’s just say there might have been more than one bearded dude bowing down to the almighty riff last night. And when the whole band came in at the beginning of “Dopesmoker,” everybody up front started headbanging in unison, like a buncha…
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Agoraphobic Nosebleed – Arc EP
Is it just me, or has everybody in grindcore gone sludgy of late? First it was Pig Destroyer with their Mass & Volume EP, and now Agoraphobic Nosebleed, a band best known for putting out a 100(!) track CD in ’03, has jumped on the sludgewagon. Now, this three-song EP runs five minutes longer than…
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Brimstone Coven – Black Magic
If Brimstone Coven isn’t my favourite occult rock act, then they’re definitely right up there with the likes of Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony and Electric Wizard. Chances are, you’ve heard those names before, but this Coven is likely more unfamiliar. I certainly hadn’t heard of them before stumbling in on a mid-afternoon set at the…
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The Lumberjack Feedback – Blackened Visions
This French instrumental outfit first got my attention with their two-song Hand of Glory EP in 2013—mostly because of their bitchin’ band name. The Lumberhack Feedback have put out a couple more EPs since, which I haven’t heard, but Blackened Visions is their full-fledged debut album, with six tracks spanning 45 minutes and change. “No…
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The Lion’s Daughter – Existence is Horror
I really dug this St. Louis outfit’s last record, A Black Sea, which came out late in 2013. But seeing as it was a collaborative effort with local folk band Indian Blanket, I’m definitely expecting some different sounds from The Lion’s Daughter this time around. What we get instead are 40 minutes of Midwest blackened…
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The Body – No One Deserves Happiness
Pop goes The Body!? On this record, they’ve set out to create the “grossest pop album of all time,” adding 80’s synths, dance beats and female vocals to their two-pieced sludge attack. This might be where you’d accuse them of selling out… but does anybody really wanna buy this? Oftentimes, the overall effect is more…
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GRUESOME GREG’S TOP 10 CONCERTS OF 2015
There were some really high-quality gigs in the Big Smoke this year, with the long-awaited returns of Neurosis, Electric Wizard and AC/DC, Ufomammut’s first-ever appearance, and a couple outstanding lineups curated by High on Fire and Corrosion of Conformity. Turns out I didn’t hafta travel too far to get my heavy-rock fix.
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Year-in-review 2015: Gruesome Greg
As another year draws to a close, we metalheads tend to take time to reflect on what the year in metal meant to us, and prepare our various lists of what was great, what sucked, and everything in between. This year we decided to get a little more up close and personal with Team Hellbound,…
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Yidhra – Cult of Bathory
Countess Elizabeth Bathory has been the muse of many a black-metal band, from Venom onwards, but this is the first time I’ve seen her name attached to a doom-metal record. Mind you, L.A. outfit Yidhra are no strangers to the occult; they’re named after the dream witch in H.P. Lovecraft lore. This four-song, 10” EP…
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We Lost the Sea – Departure Songs
What drew me to Departure Songs, the third album from Aussie post-rockers We Lost the Sea, was the concept. All of these songs are about people who died helping others, from deep-sea diver David Shaw to the two men who shut down the Chernobyl reactor; they’ve even got a two-part epic about the Space Shuttle…