FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
Don’t get me wrong, I like my sludge metal, but I’m more into bands that bring something palatable to the table. If I were to liken the genre to a Mexican restaurant—I also like me some Mexican food—Black Cobra would be the basket of plain tortilla chips they put out before the main course.
Katatonia, the Swedish kings of melodic gloom, are enjoying a couple of anniversaries in 2011. To celebrate, the band is playing a little more than a handful of headlining shows on the nights when current tour mates (and fellow Swedes) Opeth have decided to take some time off. Hellbounders Adam Wills and Laura Wiebe caught the fourth of seven such gigs scheduled in North America, crossing the border into New York State to see how our southerly neighbours would welcome one of our favourite bands.
The nightmare thread notwithstanding, Alice and company could have given this a different title and stayed away from the ‘sequel’ aspect and still had this be the best, most complete sounding Alice Cooper album in a decade. Yes, even the song with Ke$ha (‘What Baby Wants’) is catchy as hell, if not a little discoesque (ala Goes To Hell).
The approach Fleshgod Apocalypse take to succeed in an extremely intricate sub-genre is successful as they combine balance, precision and experimentation for an intriguing listen that pushes past a world of concepts already tackled.
Exploiting the turbulence of the world in every way imaginable, the political campaigning cycle in the United States has become a nauseating, 24/7 machine that simply never stops. Any break from the monotony of prudish American political ads would be an event worth welcoming. Sure, we probably won’t find that any time soon stateside, but in Poland, someone is straying from the norm in the most entertaining way possible…for metalheads, anyway.
Without doubt, one of the best records I have heard this year.
“These guys have definitely got the Georgia sound (Kylesa, Baroness, Zoroaster et al), though they mould it into shorter, faster and maybe not quite as loud tunes. Still better than most.”
Although he almost missed it – please see inside for all the details – Hellbound’s Rob Kachluba finally made it back to Atlanta GA earlier this month for this year’s edition of the ProgPower USA Festival. Here is Rob’s recap of the three days that he was in attendance at the fest, which included performances by Evergrey, Sanctuary, Ihsahn, Haken, While Heaven Wept, Forbidden, Therion and many more.
“When headliners Weedeater began to play, I was immediately struck by how much effort they put into differentiating their sound from every other group on the bill. Their tone was harsh, ugly, abrasive and super-filthy, the guitars and bass drenched in feedback. Vocalist Dixie Dave Collins matched this perfectly, sounding like he’d been gargling with hot rocks and thumbtacks. Their songs are generally on the short side, and this translated into blasts of super-distorted guitar that washed over you like waves of shrapnel.”
Natalie Zed reviews the September 13th Toronto performance by Weedeater, Saviours, Bison B.C. and Fight Amp at Lee’s Palace. Live photography by Laina Dawes.
Now home in Canada and back in school for another year, our favourite university journalism student has recently sent us her fourth installment in her Blasphemous Meals series, where she makes meals for her family taken out of the pages of the Bazillion Points book Hellbent for Cooking. Here are three more inspired meals that we here at Hellbound HQ wish we could have the chance to taste ourselves…