Sean Palmerston

Sean is the founder/publisher of Hellbound.ca; he has also written about metal for Exclaim!, Metal Maniacs, Roadburn, Unrestrained! and Vice.

Dawnbringer – Nucleus

I feel this band always had this kind of album in them and now have fully realized their potential in Nucleus: a glorious heavy metal album that should put a shit-eating grin on every metal head’s face.

Zoroaster – Matador

While this is a pretty decent record in its own right, I’m somewhat saddened that Zoroaster has moved away from its own unique take on
southern sludge towards a sound that can be filed next to Farflung, The Atlas Moth, and countless other bands.

District 97 – Hybrid Child

Hybrid Child is effervescent and fun, a mostly harmless romp through progressive rock territory. District 97’s edge can be found in the way vocalist Leslie Hunt carries the melodies and the staccato riffing that anchors most of the tracks—you can sorta tell that a drummer composed them.

Årabrot – Revenge

Imagine, if you will – a raw distillation of the best of the Amphetamine Reptile catalogue in its heyday, veering past the outskirts of black metal territory, and fronted by Supergrover, if he had a severe antisocial personality disorder coupled with a propensity to sing through ground-down teeth, in phlegm-clearing snarls, growls and shrieks. Congratulations, you’ve just come close to conjuring up Oslo’s startlingly visionary Årabrot and the sound of their latest blood offering, Revenge.

Dio – Holy Diver Live

While it is nice to see this upgraded to a higher quality format, as the redefinition of it has improved the picture quality over the original DVD release, I must admit that this release is not without its faults.

The Secret: Channeling Frustration Into Fury

Most of our lyrics are a reflection of the times and the country we’re living in. I think that the main lyrical concept of the record is the loss of faith in pretty much everything. Politics, religion, media. Playing is a very cathartic experience, so it’s something we’re doing mostly for ourselves. The band is pretty much an outlet for our negative sides.”

Keith Carman interviews Michael Bertoldini of THE SECRET about their new album Solve Et Coagula, the band’s debut album for Southern Lord.

Zodiac Mindwarp: The Hellbound Interview, Part 1

“Touring is the greatest fun in the world for me! I love being out on the road, but I wish I could see some of the cities! Rome? Yeah, it was great! It was a black room with amplifiers and another room on the side with cocks drawn all over the wall…oh and Paris was like that as well, wasn’t it? And Greece was like that with a hangover on the airplane! I’m well traveled!”

Jason Wellwood interviews shock rock vocalist ZODIAC MINDWARP about the release of his new album We Are Volsung.