FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
On November 14th the awesome double bill of CORROSION OF CONFORMITY and ROYAL THUNDER played just down the street from Hellbound HQ, performing an intimate show at Hamilton’s Corktown Pub. Here is a review of the night by Sean Palmerston, with cool black and white photography by Adam Wills.
If stoner doom legends Sleep have never played Toronto, it’s not due to any sort of security issues. In fact, two-thirds of the original Sonic Titans will be in town within the next eight days…
Broken, beaten, scarred and bloody, Verdonkermaan is the aural equivalent of the worst Hostel/Saw environment imaginable. It’s bleak and cold, devoid of sustaining life and terrifying to its core. For all that, it’s a stunning and unforgettable album.
The 69 Eyes borrow elements from a music library incredibly vast. To say that they supply signature twists and turns would be a bit of a stretch but there’s no denial in their ability to provide us with Goth ‘N’ Roll so melodic and relevant to sometimes crude and wild for the amorous bunch.
All in all, she sure sounds good to me!
You gotta give it up for Small Stone, one of the few labels out there still specializing in stoner rock on these shores. Tonite, some of their finest wares are on display at the Radio club in Somerville, MA, with names like Gozu, Lo-Pan, Roadsaw and Freedom Hawk on the bill. Mind you, a last-minute flight from Toronto to Boston will set ya back about $620…
Earlier this year I was contacted by Scion AV to see if I would be interested in doing an interview for them with a Canadian label. The label in question, Moshpit Tragedy Records, is a Windsor, Ontario based label that works almost entirely on a “pay what you want” business plan.
Here is what became of my day interviewing Rayny Forster down in Windsor, ON
Disorder is the natural state of the universe. Life is disorder. No matter how much we try, any order we impose will eventually return to a state of disorder. The cursed remain cursed. That’s life. So one could view VOD as Vision of Life. They can see how messed up life is and channel that negative energy into one of 2012’s most pissed off albums. VOD may feel cursed, but they aren’t keeping quiet about it. “Gimme hate, gimme love. Gimme what I fucking deserve.”
It’s no secret that I dug the shit outta the first Pyramid record (to put it not-so-mildly), so in some ways, this is kinda what I’d hoped BP II would be. But don’t get me wrong, these guys aren’t some second-rate Black Pyramid imitators, by any means. There is only one Blue Aside, and they are fully deserving of your respect and admiration. You should really buy this record!
When Witch Mountain first came to town in June, playing on a killer bill with Castle and Blood Ceremony, it went down as one of, if not the best gig I’ve seen in Toronto this year. At the time, Rob Wrong had said something about them coming back in the fall, and thus I was pleased, if not entirely surprised, when I found out they’d be making a return trip in October. But, truth be told, the excitement of seeing them the first time wasn’t equaled by the return visit–and neither was the turnout at the second gig, for that matter.