Author: Gruesome Greg
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Ruby the Hatchet – Valley of the Snake
Female-fronted Philly buzz band lands on Tee Pee for its first major release. By now, the whole female-fronted retro-rock genre has been done to death, though to their credit, this outfit, Ruby the Hatchet, didn’t just come together yesterday—their self-released debut album saw the light of day in 2012. Anyhoo, this second record offers six…
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Black Sheep Wall – I’m Going to Kill Myself
Harsh. Caustic. Slower than molasses dripping off a tortoise’s nutsack. These are all terms to describe the new Black Sheep Wall album, which isn’t anywhere nearly as friendly as its cover might suggest…though tis certainly more befitting of its title. Lemme put it this way: there’s this one riff on “Metallica,” the cheekily named, 34-minute…
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Dö – Den EP
You’d think that with a name like Dö, these guys would be completely unGoogleable, but in fact both the second and third search-engine results are related to this band. I guess the umlaut must be what does it. Anyhoo, this Finnish doom trio has just put out its second EP, a half-hour slab of blackened,…
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Crypt Sermon – Out of the Garden
Everything about Crypt Sermon just screams power-metal (in a Dio-style falsetto) to me. The name, the font, the album cover of a knight riding up to a castle…and yet, I’m told they have more than a hint of the Candlemass, or even the Dio-era Sabbath, to them. Hey, if this album’s anything like Atlantean Kodex,…
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Karma to Burn – Arch Stanton
You always kinda know what you’re getting from Karma to Burn. Debut album aside, on which Roadrunner insisted they add vocals, they’ve always been an instrumental band, with song titles consisting simply of numbers—they’re up to 59 now. And while they took a seven-year break just past the turn of the century, they’ve been cranking…
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GRUESOME GREG’S TOP 10 CONCERTS OF 2014
Doesn’t feel like I did as much travelling last year as in years past. When our dollar was at par, a quick roadtrip to, say, Cleveland was pretty cost-effective. But when everything in the States costs 15% more loonies, well, that’s a bit of a bummer. Mind you, I still saw some solid outta-town shows…
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Hellbound’s best of 2014: honourable mentions (#16-20)
Hellbound’s end-of-the-year metal coverage begins today! We asked our staff for their best of 2014 picks and now we’ve compiled the results. From now till the early days of the new year, Hellbound will be featuring these selections, beginning with our own version of the definitive list: the 20 best metal albums of 2014. Here is…
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Sans Soleil – A Holy Land Beneath a Godless Sky
The band’s name, Sans Soleil, translates to Sunless, and they worked with a guy who produced Earthless on this EP, but their music actually sounds more like Earth. And no, not just because some of these songs are viola-driven, although that certainly helps. It’s the stringed instrument that rises right away on opening track “A…
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Astrakhan – A Tapestry of Scabs and Skin
The second release from these young Vancouver sludgesters Astrakhan combines the two tracks from their previous The Pillarist 7” with a couple new numbers on this 25-minute EP. “Cupid’s Fist” comes swinging out of the gate, a djenty piece of post-sludge with breakdowns aplenty. Vocals are clean and atmospheric for the most part, but they…