The Melvins – Tres Cabrones
By Bill Adams It might be a little late in the game to try and call what The Melvins have done on Tres Cabrones…
Crimson Shadows: Ready to Take on the World
Hellbound is a Canadian-based metal site. That doesn’t determine our coverage – we can appreciate, evaluate and cover heavy tunes from anywhere in the…
Drawers – Drawers
By Gruesome Greg Sure, there’s certainly no shortage of silly European band names, but Drawers!? If you’re going to name yourself after furniture, at…
Wacken Metal Battle Canada: Canucks winning their way to an international stage
Interview by Laura Wiebe
If you’re a metalhead you’ve heard of Wacken Open Air. Founded in 1990, the German festival is a mecca for metal pilgrims, a status immortalized in Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen’s Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey (2005). But Wacken is a desired destination for more than fans. For a band, playing Wacken must be a tremendous high – a chance to reach out directly to some of the scene’s largest crowds, gathered together from some of its farthest reaches.
Relatively few Canadian bands have had the chance to storm a Wacken stage. So far…
Heavy Metal, Popular Culture, and Academia
“Importantly, the presentations often approached a generalized assumption that some group or groups of people hold about metal music or culture only to complexify the issue, demonstrating how research in particular locations, milieus, and demographics reveals the diversity in the ways people understand and engage with metal.”
Laura Wiebe reports back on the first North American academic heavy metal conference.
Death to All / Anciients @ Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto ON, April 28, 2013
“Though revisiting Schuldiner’s musical legacy meant the sense of collective loss was strong, the sense of fellowship was stronger. In the end it was less for sadness than a cause for celebration.”
Laura Wiebe reviews the April 28th Toronto performance by Death To All and Anciients. Concert photography by Adam Wills.
Dark Forest: Land of the Evening Star
“Sometimes album art can be misleading, but visual imagery is to some extent genre specific, so there’s usually a pretty good chance I can judge by an album cover if a band’s style is likely to be my kind of thing. Such was the case with Dark Forest’s Land of the Evening Star. What I can’t always predict is how good the music is going to be, but with Dark Forest’s third “Vinlandic pagan black metal” release, the tracks inside are not just well represented by the gloomy mountain and forest scene on the cover. They’re also very good. As impressed as I was with the recording I wanted to learn more about the band, so I went straight to the source.”
Interview by Laura Wiebe
Staff Picks: Favourite Canadian Metal Songs
To celebrate Canada’s birthday today we has asked all the Hellbound contributors what their favourite Canadian metal songs of all time were and to write a paragraph or two why. Here is what they told us, along with youtube links to all the songs in question so you can enjoy them too.
HAPPY CANADA DAY TO ALL!