Sean Palmerston

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

Anekdoten – Chapters

Of course, no “best of” anthology could tell the whole story of this incredible band. There are some essential deep-album tracks missing, so once you’ve got a dose and you’re feeling that bittersweet Anekdoten bliss, you’ll need to check out the albums in full.

Kamelot – Poetry for the Poisoned

It’s a real testament to the song-writing ability and musicianship of a band when they can have superstar guests on their album but don’t really need them. Poetry for the Poisoned features such notables as Bjorn ‘Speed’ Strid (Soilwork), Simone Simons (Epica), Jon Oliva (Jon Oliva’s Pain, Savatage, Trans Siberian Orchestra) and hotshot guitar player Gus G. (Firewind, Ozzy) but all of the songs would have done just as well without the famous help.

Noctis Valkyries Returns This Weekend!

This Friday and Saturday sees the return of Canada’s most unique metal festival – and I’m happy to say I am a part of it this year! Calgary, Alberta plays home to the fourth edition of the Noctis Metal Fest and Conference this weekend and I am about to jump on a plane on Thursday to be an active participant as a panelist during the Conference segment. It is something I have always wanted to do in a metal context – I’ve had the chance to participate in a few non-metal music conferences before, but never one to do with my real passion – and this this is going to be a pretty interesting time on Friday during the day.

In Conversation With… Kataklysm’s J-F Dagenais

“When I think about us being four young guys who started a band in high school and now we’re sharing a stage with Ozzy Osbourne and Motley Crue, I think that’s pretty crazy! We look at each other and think, ‘man, that’s pretty awesome!’ compared to where we came from. Every year it seemed like it grew a little bigger and it took a little while for us to become serious about playing music. We started Kataklysm more as a hobby, we wanted just to have fun, hang out, to tour and see the world and party with a lot of people. After awhile you see that your career is doing better and you realize that ‘wow, this can be your daily job’ and that’s how it’s been for the last 8 years or so.”

Jason Wellwood in conversation with KATAKLYSM’s J-F Dagenais

Accept – Blood Of The Nations

Helped by the fantastic production of Andy Sneap, you have the perfect combination of old school Accept with a modern touch. All their trademarks are here. Excellent riffs that are undeniably Accept in feel/tone, with those huge gang vocals and twin guitar attack will have you grinning from ear to ear.

Kvelertak – Kvelertak

Kvelertak hold nothing sacred, aren’t afraid to whip out their six schlongs to piss on the walls of convention and are getting the appropriate attention – both positive and negative – because of it, whether you like it or not. It all starts with their sound: a furious, kinetic and coruscating blend of 85 octane burnin’ garage rock, greasy punk, blues, hardcore, Motorhead, black and death metal. They manage to sound like all of the above without exactly sounding like any of ‘em,