Author: Sean Palmerston

  • Altar Of Plagues: White Tomb

    With the band’s notable lack of corpse paint and the absence of beloved horror show theatrics in its sound, White Tomb emerges as a debut that contributes to a growing subset within the wider black metal sub-genre.

  • STAFF PLAYLISTS: November 2009

    Find out what HELLBOUND’s contributors are listening to going into the month of November. Each writer has submitted their Top 5 list and have an option to list a book and a film they are into right now too.

  • Thin Lizzy: Are You Ready? DVD

    Are You Ready? is an interesting visual document of Thin Lizzy during what is one of the lowest periods of their original run. While the band was still a good live act and a decent draw, by the time they released their Chinatown album in 1981 there were many cracks in the machine that spurred…

  • Converge: Axe To Fall

    It took nineteen years but, in the opening guitar slashes of “Dark Horse,” listeners can almost hear the bandmembers collectively growl and then proceed to smash everyone listening over the head with thirteen of the strongest tracks this band has ever recorded; none of which fall into easy classification because Converge plays them all their…

  • Alestorm Meets Their Biggest 7 Year Old Fan

    So, when he learned his totally awesome dad was going to take him to see Alestorm, Sam took the initiative to make a sign saluting one of his favourite bands. Said sign read: “Alestorm is fucking awesome!” Honestly, I had nothing to do with its creation. Kevin Stewart-Panko reviews the recent Toronto performance on this…

  • While Heaven Wept: Vast Oceans Lachrymose

    If you want to hear passionate music played by dedicated musicians that have been reworked and reworked again and again into perfection (some of the tracks go back as far as 95), the final results are proof that this will be one of my absolute faves of 09 and possibly one of the greatest melodic…

  • The Melvins: Chicken Switch

    For this album, thirteen musicians weren’t just handed a single song and asked to artfully adorn it with electronics, they were handed as much source material from The Melvins’ songbook as they wanted and asked to get as creative as they wanted in creating something new from their source material selections; essentially being asked to…

  • Merauder: God Is I

    Brooklyn, NY’s Merauder bring forth God Is I, a hardcore album that is not too extravagant or chaotic. With strong musicianship and relevant lyrics, the band still manages to produce something solid.

  • Slayer: World Painted Blood

    All of a sudden Slayer’s new album trades the metal in their thrash for a heavy dose of hardcore, the infusion of which makes Slayer sound exactly like Black Flag did around 1985.

  • Blatant Self-Promotion: Gov’t Mule Live Review on Exclaim.ca

    While Hellbound.ca is definitely my main focus these days, every now and then I still write for other places when asked. One band that I have covered for Exclaim! on a number of occasions that will appeal to some metal fans despite their non-metalness is the US based heavy blues rock quartet Gov’t Mule. The…