Category: Featured
Featured posts
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Hellbound @ Heavy Montreal, Day 3: August 9, 2015
Somehow I managed to get off to an even later start on Day 3, disappointingly missing both Omnium Gatherum and Insomnium, who I’d been looking forward to. By the time I arrived for the final day of Heavy Montreal 2015 I was just able to catch a couple of songs from Hamilton, Ontario’s Dead Tired before…
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Hellbound @ Heavy Montreal, Day 2: August 8, 2015
Day 2 of this year’s Heavy Montreal was hotter and sunnier and, for us, off to a slow, humid start. We arrived in time to catch Lita Ford rockin’ out. She looked to be having a good time and the crowd was too, singing along to classics like “Cherry Bomb” and “Kiss Me Deadly.” Abbath (ex-Immortal,…
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AMATEUR CONCERT PHOTOGRAPHY HOUR: Neurosis/Brothers of the Sonic Cloth/The Body @ Opera House, August 6, 2015
Though it had been 15 years since Neurosis last played Toronto, I must confess that I hadn’t waited nearly that long; I caught ’em in Brooklyn in 2012. Nevertheless, it was a rare East Coast performance for the post-sludge godfathers, and one that came with some welcome opening acts–in sharp contrast to that NYC show.
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Hellbound @ Heavy Montreal, Day 1: August 7, 2015
It’s been a couple of years at least since my last Heavy Montreal (or Heavy MTL, as it was called then), but if the stars were aligned right I’d make it an annual trip. In terms of setting and organization this is one of my favourite festivals, and I’ve never had a less than stellar…
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Om @ The Opera House – June 19th, 2015
HELLBOUND.CA @ NXNE 2015 Immense expressiveness. Power, boldness, no need for pomp at all. I don’t believe anybody could really sum this kind of performance up in a screen-friendly number of words, but that’s coming close. Sometimes we say “expert musicianship” when we want to say a performer is incredibly impressive. Also it seems those…
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Unleashed – Dawn Of The Nine
As I write this review I am looking out over the mighty River Shannon where, centuries ago, the Vikings sailed their long ships to establish the still-thriving city of Limerick. As an Irishman, the Vikings are a big part of my cultural heritage and one I am very proud of. Vikings still strike a chord…
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NXNE 2015 – Urvah Khan, Cold Cave, Deafheaven
Gig-hopping at NXNE 2015 – from the Bovine to Adelaide Music Hall on June 20th: On the edges of the metal world we get a lot of interesting phenomena these days. With a full program at NXNE, I got some direction and was led to an act called Urvah Khan & the Scrap Metal Army.*…
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Hellbound @ Tuska Open Air 2015 in Helsinki
The annual Tuska Open Air festival in Helsinki has become my most traveled metal festival aside from ProgPower USA in Atlanta, Georgia. People go nuts over the bigger festivals in Germany like Wacken and Summer Breeze as well as others like Hellfest in France, but I think the Finnish people have it right. It’s just…
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Liturgy @ The Opera House, Toronto ON, 19 June 2015
HELLBOUND.CA @NXNE2015 “Are you ready for some transcendental black metal?” asked a friend I ran into, while prepping my camera, as the lights went down on a Friday night in Toronto. That was all the preparation I had for the set, as apparently I have been living under a rock for the past two or…
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BRIEFCASEFEST 2015, TORONTO ON, JUNE 6
Night 2 Oui oui, le black metal Québecois! For night 2, following sets from JUGURTHA, ILMESTYS and DEATH KNEEL, we got into some seriously decadently dark material at Briefcasefest. Fog and fury were the order of the hour with Basalte from Montreal, highlighted by a pummelling performance by their vocalist/drummer that had the crowd enthralled. Ottawa’s…