Author: Sean Palmerston

  • Sirenia – The Enigma of Life

    For goth metal fans, at least you can buy the aforementioned highlights on iTunes. As far as splurging for the complete album, you’re better off waiting for the new Within Temptation album.

  • Dragged Into Sunlight – Hatred For Mankind

    Hatred for Mankind is a special flavor of ugly, reveling in nightmares and revealing in its horror. Predatory and visceral, Hatred for Mankind is a knife-in-the-gut of an album, one that begs to be listened to in its entirety – if only to see what’s around the next corner.

  • Finntroll / Ensiferum / Rotten Sound / Barren Earth @ Opera House, Toronto ON, Feb 22, 2011

    Sean Palmerston reviews the February 22, 2011 Toronto stop on the current Finnish Metal Tour. Live photos by Albert Mansour. Live footage by Sean.

  • Snail – Blood

    Snail isn’t your typical tune-in-and-drop-out stoner band. There’s something more interesting in this collection of tunes, something in that juxtaposition of the sweet vocals and heavy riffs that has my head nodding in approval.

  • COUGH / THE WOUNDED KINGS: An Introduction To The Black Arts

    By Kevin Stewart-Panko First truth be told, I am a fan of the metallic sub-genre that has come to be known as sludge. Second truth be told, as much as a fan as I am of the metallic sub-genre that’s come to be known as sludge, sludge as a metallic sub-genre itself isn’t exactly know…

  • Motörhead – Kiss of Death

    In all it is somewhat workman-like in approach, but thanks to solid songwriting and another airtight performance by the veteran trio, Kiss of Death keeps the Motörhead legacy alive.

  • North Pole Throwdown! An Interview With Children of Bodom’s Alexi Laiho

    “I don’t want to live up to anything. I want to act like how I feel. It did come to the point sometimes where people, when they saw me sober, just drinking a bottle of water, they’d come to me, like, ‘Dude, are you okay?’ [Laughing] ‘Yeah, I’m fucking fine.’ [Laughing] Then when they see…

  • Demontage – The Principal Extinction

    I gotta say, the first black metal album I ever bought was Venom’s Black Metal, and I haven’t purchased many others since. Alas, to call Toronto trio Demontage a black metal band would be applying the word in its traditional sense, the way it was once used to describe Venom and Mercyful Fate.

  • CloverSeeds—The Opening

    CloverSeeds have an accessible modern prog sound that plucks bits from the accepted gallery of influences: Tool, Radiohead, Porcupine Tree, Anathema… It’s big and blustery, with taut riffing and grand, sweeping gestures in any number of time signatures, all presented with clean, powerful production.

  • Redeemer – Global Exorcism

    It seems that Redeemer have found a solid line up and have put together some stunning, memorable songs. It may have been a long time coming but this is one hell of an impressive debut album.