Category: Featured

Featured posts

  • Psychostick live in Ottawa, 31 July 2018

    Psychostick live in Ottawa, 31 July 2018

    The Very Serious Business Tour w/ Urizen, July 31 – Ottawa, ON – Maverick When you go past a venue and see a marquee or poster with the names Pussy Goblin, Thünderkok, Urizen, and Psychostick, you know damned well you don’t want to miss the show. I made the journey to Mavericks with an old colleague…

  • Deafheaven live in Toronto, July 2018

    Deafheaven live in Toronto, July 2018

    Deafheaven with Uniform – Friday, 27 July 2018 @ The Opera House, Toronto, ON I cannot believe I just saw Deafheaven. The show felt like it took forever to approach and was over with too quickly. That’s how all life’s joys go though. Drab Majesty were absent as they had some issues getting across the border and had…

  • Contract In Blood: A History of UK Thrash Metal (book review)

    Contract In Blood: A History of UK Thrash Metal (book review)

    The hard part of reviewing a book as good, as well-written, unique and badly needed as Ian Glasper’s never-to-be surpassed Contract In Blood: A History of UK Thrash Metal is keeping the review to a respectable length (the temptation to write one as long as the book is immense). Anyone who writes about music appreciates…

  • Festival preview: Aftershock 2018

    Festival preview: Aftershock 2018

    With summer in full swing, as everyone heads (and has headed) out and about to take in their favorite music festival, let’s not forget one experience that is a must for any music lover: Monster Energy’s Aftershock Festival. Aftershock takes place October 13th and 14th in beautiful Discovery Park, located in Sacramento, California. For the 7th…

  • AMATEUR CONCERT PHOTOGRAPHY HOUR: WITCH MOUNTAIN, Volur, Smoulder @ The Garrison, August 4, 2018

    AMATEUR CONCERT PHOTOGRAPHY HOUR: WITCH MOUNTAIN, Volur, Smoulder @ The Garrison, August 4, 2018

    It’s nice to see a bill where all the bands are complementary, but not identical–three different shades of doom metal were on display last night.

  • Hellbound @ Tuska Open Air 2018 in Helsinki

    Hellbound @ Tuska Open Air 2018 in Helsinki

    Friday Denmark’s Baest started the 2018 edition of the Tuska off with with a surprisingly tight death outfit in the veins of Entombed or Bloodbath.  Definitely was unexpected, and definitely a surprise out of the gate.  Baest hasn’t even released an album at this point, but their debut is coming later this month. They’ll be…

  • Hellfest 2018 in review: Day 3

    Hellfest 2018 in review: Day 3

    Similar to Saturday at Hellfest, during the last festival day I was very selective with the acts that I would shoot versus the acts I would attend to simply watch. Finally I ended up enjoying acts like Killswitch Engage, Arch Enemy, Amorphis, Septicflesh, At the Gates, Exodus and Nightwish. It was an honour to be right…

  • Myth and Magic in Heavy Metal Music

    Myth and Magic in Heavy Metal Music

    This book scores major kudos by having Cronos of the mighty and highly influential Venom on the cover. It’s a fine idea to explore the influences on the themes of heavy metal and Robert McParland does this with great aplomb. It’s nice to read such well-written work. It would have been nice if a well-known metal…

  • Hellfest 2018 in review: Day 2

    Hellfest 2018 in review: Day 2

    One could have felt that the weekend had come to Hellfest, as the festival site was more than overfilled on Saturday, the second fest day. That was not a problem; people there did not give much of a damn about the melting heat or the overcrowded sites. Good music and cold beer made it all great!…

  • AMATEUR CONCERT PHOTOGRAPHY HOUR: SLEEP @ Danforth Music Hall, July 30, 2018

    AMATEUR CONCERT PHOTOGRAPHY HOUR: SLEEP @ Danforth Music Hall, July 30, 2018

    Man, this was the fifth time I’ve seen Sleep since 2010…and the first time they played any new material.