Category: Featured

Featured posts

  • Agnes Vein – Duality

    Agnes Vein have well steeped themselves in the lore of Blood Fire Death-era Bathory and latter-day Celtic Frost, but at times, the music also hints at the drone and mood of Jesu. There’s also the strong aftertaste of Primordial in the guitar tone. It’s an eclectic mix, but the influences serve them well and Agnes…

  • Ion Dissonance/ The Last Felony/ Starring Janet Leigh @ Club Absinthe, Hamilton ON, August 23, 2010

    Holy Christ, the new songs Ion Dissonance played, which were about half their set, blew me away. Crazy, maniacal and with a heavy as an elephant low end, these guys use 8 string guitars and you can feel it in the stomach. Their performance was tight, to the point and they left it all on…

  • Blind Guardian – At The Edge of Time

    Make no mistake, this is POWER metal. The songs on At The Edge of Time are arranged with a classical ear, the attention to detail on this album cannot be denied.

  • HELLBOUND RADIO: August 22nd, 2010 Playlist

    Jesus Christ…I go away for a month and everything goes to a shambles. The station from which we broadcast Hellbound Radio every Sunday has begun the process of being gutted in order to be moved to a still undetermined location sometime in the next nine months – nothing like planning ahead, eh? Half the college…

  • Deathmarch/ Esoteric Doctrine/ Hallows Die/ Twilight Child @ The Corktown Pub, Hamilton, ON, Aug. 18, 2010

    “Next on the docket was Hamilton’s own Deathmarch. For reasons I’m not fully aware of they were without a drummer tonight, getting by with a drum track and Northern Storm Records label head Rob Cranny. By this I mean that Rob sat in the middle of the stage, shirtless with drum sticks in hand, phantom…

  • Roareth – Acts I-VI

    Although they aren’t too creative with the written word—all songs are entitled Acts I through VI, and the band name itself is cringe-worthy—Seattle’s Roareth does have something to offer musically with this, their debut album. Take Zoroaster circa Dog Magic, sprinkle in a few non-distorted slow passages a la Neurosis, and a handful of Cisneros…

  • Stratovarius – Polaris +live

    Pairing Polaris with a 14 track live disc recorded around the world, is a great move on Armoury’s part. It is a chance for fans and detractors to hear the new guitar player (Matias Kupianinen) in live action, and he more than stands up to the challenge. Recording this over a few shows means the…

  • I can now proclaim to have seen Peyton pass the pigskin in person…

    I bought into the Bills in Toronto series when it was first announced, opting for the three-game ticket package. Aside from a close, competitive exhibition game against the Steelers in ’08, the Bills hardly delivered on my somewhat-considerable investment. This season, sensing that the Toronto natives were getting restless, the organization threw us a bone…

  • Volbeat/ The Sleeping/ Dommin @ the Mod Club, Toronto ON, August 17, 2010

    “I have no bone to pick with VOLBEAT at all. Their heavy metal/rockabilly/early rock’n’roll gangster aesthetic is fantastic. They’re greasy, twangy and a hell of a lot of fun to see live. Michael Poulsen embodies their sound: lean, punchy muscles, the lines of his brow and cheekbone just a little haggard from hard living, slicked…

  • Death Angel – Relentless Retribution

    The production and mix are crystal clear but there is a condensed and compressed feel to the overall sound. Killing Season had one of the best productions I’d heard in many years, organic and vibrant, and I think Relentless Retribution would have benefited from that same production. As would any record for that matter.