Author: Justin Allec
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Abnormality – Mechanisms of Omniscience
It’s been four years since Massachusetts’s Abnormality released their debut Contaminating the Hive Mind, which is a long time for a band dedicated to technical-flavored, ‘droid-stomping death metal. You’d think that the speed of the music (and label requirements) would lead to more frequent releases, but thit isn’t the case. Surprisingly, Abnormality are already a…
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VHS – Screaming Mad Gore
For context, that which frightened me as a child is that in which I now take comfort. Despite my childhood fears of boogeymen, axe murderers, and the glowing visage of my own 5-1/2” tall Skeletor, I now find that stylized images of death, made familiar and trusted by metal and horror movies, have become a…
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Slavestate – Illicit Mandate
With some albums, my response is immediate. I push ‘play’, and I don’t even have to try. A band does something so right within the first seconds of the first song that I can’t help but approve. I know that I’m in for a treat because the band says, “Yesss, fuck all that bullshit, time…
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Wake – Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow
Writing about grindcore almost demands violent language: churn, blast, crush, ad nauseam. Descriptions follow a tried-and-tired vocabulary. You could fit Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow, the third full-length from Calgary grinders Wake, into that familiar mold. It would easily fit in some ways, but it wouldn’t exactly be accurate. I’m hedging against those…
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Year-in-review 2015: Justin Allec
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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Cryptopsy – The Book of Suffering (Tome 1)
Say your piece, objectors: yes, Lord Worm is still out of the band, which leaves Flo Mounier as the only original member, and he’s the drummer to boot; yes, their undisputed classic, None So Vile, is twenty years old; yes, they chased trendy deathcore and ran their name into the ground in 2008 with The…
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Black Breath – Slaves Beyond Death
Let’s judge an album by its cover art, and specifically, its depiction of hands. Black Breath’s 2012 album, Sentenced to Life, and their new one, Slaves Beyond Death, both feature a lone hand on the cover. Take another look at Sentenced, if it’s been a while: darkness, leather, spikes, and a wielded big-ass hammer that…
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Horrendous – Anareta
Forget whatever else you were going to get excited about this year. With the release of their third album Anareta, you can stop comparing Horrendous to anyone besides themselves. You can also leave this album on repeat. These songs are so fucking good that I feel like I’m doing the community a service by blasting…
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Kylesa – Exhausting Fire
Exhausting Fire, the seventh album from Georgia’s Kylesa, is surprisingly flexible – though that may not be a good thing. I found I could bend its mild sludge sounds to fit anywhere into my day. At first listen, I thought the album required headphones, so the space between my ears was treated to the pleasant fuzzy…
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Unconditionally Ours: Comeback Kid in their Hometown
If home is where the heart is, then for Winnipeg’s Comeback Kid, there’s a lot of love for hardcore as well. Still on the road promoting 2014’s Die Knowing, self-tagged “no-coast” hardcore veterans Comeback Kid visited Winnipeg’s Park Theatre on Thursday, September 24, for their first hometown show in more than a year. With a…