Category: Featured

Featured posts

  • Falloch – Where Distant Spirits Remain

    Where Distant Spirits Remain is not the strongest release of its ilk this year, but overall it’s a good debut that shows much future potential and talent. The biggest issues found here (vocals that don’t always fit in as well as tendencies toward being long-winded) are hazards of the band’s chosen style, and both are…

  • The nite that Tee Pee came to town

    Great gig at the Silver Dollar Room last nite, featuring Tee Pee recording artists Naam, ELKS and Toronto’s own Quest For Fire. It’s not every day that Toronto sees a heavy psych triple bill of this magnitude.

  • Tyr – The Lay of Thrym

    This album isn’t breaking any new ground, but if you’re a fan of clean-voiced heavy/melodic/viking metal (with some power metal mixed in) this album is for you.

  • Neil Daniels: The Hellbound Interview

    All Pens Blazing writer Neil Daniels in conversation with Hellbound’s Natalie Zed

  • Iced Earth – Festivals of the Wicked

    Now after watching this thing twice I’ll bet anyone who would argue that Matt Barlow is not the one and only true vocalist for this band. His performance on the Metal Camp festival show is flawless. Such emotion and passion in his delivery, it will have you punching your fist in the air. Highlights are…

  • Thantifaxath – s/t Demo

    Thantifaxath – s/t Demo

    The debut demo by Toronto-based black metallers Thantifaxath is enough to make you’d wish you’d never given up your cassette player. It’s certainly an incentive to get it back.

  • VREID / KAMPFAR / NECRONOMICON/ SCYTHIA @ Rickshaw Theatre, Vancouver BC, September 5, 2011

    “Luckily, it was Kampfar who delivered that adrenaline-shot of what I needed. Taking to the stage with ‘Mare’, from their most recent album of the same name, the band proceeded to blow the doors off with an unrelenting set that not only roared far louder and rawer than they do on record, but also proceeded…

  • Untimely Demise – City of Steel

    City of Steel is a terrific debut full length for Untimely Demise, and though there may be a few things they could tweak here and there to tighten up the songs, the album is still very memorable and catchy. There is absolutely nothing to dislike here, and anything that might be perceived as needing fixing,…

  • Kyuss Lives! Long Live Kyuss!

    Last nite, Kyuss Lives! kicked off its North American tour in Toronto, with support from The Sword and MonstrO. To say that the venue was a little out of the way would be an understatement, and the support was a little underwhelming, but I woulda given a kidney to see 90 minutes of Kyuss tunes…

  • White Wizzard—Flying Tigers

    White Wizzard have had a bumpy ride so far, with band members changing regularly, but I hope they can stick together from now on because if Flying Tigers is evidence of anything, it’s that the band are easily capable of producing infinitely more complex material while retaining that traditional 80s sheen that makes them so…