FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
Now, Sleep is perhaps best known for Dopesmoker, the posthumous reissue of their Jerusalem record, with a more stoner-friendly title. Whether you
call it Jerusalem or Dopesmoker, the single-track, 52-minute platter is a noteworthy album. But Holy Mountain isn’t just an album, it’s a collection of SONGS, man!
Two of the most important American bands of the early seventies were ALICE COOPER and BLUE OYSTER CULT. Both bands had a string of successful studio albums, sell-out tours and even hit singles on the radio. Some of the key members of the original versions of both these bands have joined force in a new live band called BLUE COUPE, who are playing some shows in Southern Ontario this week
When Anneke van Giersbergen announced her departure from The Gathering it was a shock – for many fans but for her bandmates as well. But shock doesn’t have to lead to death or paralysis, and in a sense The Gathering had been down this road before. Reinvention is a familiar enterprise for the Dutch alt rockers, who started out as a doomy metal band with male vocals in the early nineties. Van Giersbergen’s entry on lead vocals was merely one shift, the eventual transition from aggression to shoegazing another. Though Anneke was the voice and forward face of The Gathering for well over a decade, her decision to leave meant another change, not the end.
Misery Index is a long running death/grind outfit from Baltimore, Maryland. This album, their debut full length, was recorded originally back in April 2003 at Wild Studio in St-Zenon, Quebec and it is one of the most blistering technical, speed shattering, deathgrind cds of all time.
Hey, it’s a contest. Check inside to see how you can win an autographed copy of the brand new AUGURY CD!
Todesbonden’s full-length album feels refreshing, which perhaps isn’t surprising given the images of breezy fields and mossy forests that Sleep Now, Quiet Forest conjures up within the listener’s mind.
This 1978 full length debut album by the Vancouver, British Columbia based artist known only as Thor was an original RCA vinyl release and it has never made too much impact on my heavy metal ears. I really don’t call Thor’s first album real metal, instead I’ve always considered it glam rock like the Sweet, New York Dolls and Slade
As New York’s Bloody Panda concluded their final note, and began to pack up, the small crowd, who had gathered for their awe-inspiring performance, wasn’t sure how to react to the intensity that was just laid out before them. So instead of applause, cheering, or even conversation, the room filled with an eerie silence that couldn’t have been more fitting.
Adam Wills documents the recent Toronto performance by NYC doom collective Bloody Panda.
Forget concept albums…..have you heard of concept bands? Sweden’s Axis Powers (whom I assume took their name from the military alliance of countries that formed in 1940….Hitler-run Germany being one of the strongest members….which if correct doesn’t sit with me that well) has dedicated themselves and their album “Marching Towards Destruction” to war.
The debut album from England’s Viatrophy offers an enjoyable collection of melodic death metal tracks that only get better as things progress.