FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
If Thursday is the new Friday, does that make Wednesday the new Thursday? Well, I hope so, cuz I’ve got a coupla Wild Wednesdays coming up next month. The summer concert season goes out with a bang for yours truly, but man, couldn’t they have put one of these gigs on a weekend?
Spyhorelandet comprises the kind of unrelenting hopelessness you’ll experience stumbling naked and bleeding though a blizzard after seeing your family devoured by wolves. However, where much of black metal concentrates on diabolic or fantastical pursuits, Formloff are interested in the “ugly personal histories each of us carries”.
Based on The Invisible Mountain and now Half Blood, Horseback has mastered the art of crafting a proper album. The first half has its feet in the dirt, the second half has its eyes on the stars. It manages to cover a lot of stylistic territory, yet it’s a cohesive collection and an effortless listen from start to finish.
Lethal Waters is a surprisingly good take on traditional heavy metal in the vein of Iron Maiden (“Hellraiser”, “Midnight Warrior”, “Hatred’s Maze”) splashed with early 80’s thrash, particularly Megadeth (“Lethal Waters”, “Thunderhead”) and delivered without a hint of parody. This is genuine admiration channeled into a modern interpretation. These lads play from the heart and it shows
“This show was a long time coming. A few years after making their Canadian debut in Hamilton, Hammers of Misfortune finally made it all the way to Toronto – and brought The Gates of Slumber with them to boot! These two combined made this a must see for me since I love both bands and had never seen TGOS live before. And what a show it was!”
Live review by Sean Palmerston; Live photos and video by Adam Wills
I must say, this record kinda snuck up on me, not having heard any of Altar’s previous work. But man, this is some high-quality epic doom, right here. Perhaps the best stuff to come outta Denmark since…
Following in the recent footsteps of Graveyard and Royal Thunder, German trio Kadavar, Tee Pee Records’ latest signing, attempts to bring the 70’s back with their bluesy heavy rock on this, their debut LP. You can’t really give ‘em any points for originality, so it all comes down to execution on this one.
On July 13th Sean Palmerston took his nine-year old son to go see Iron Maiden and Alice Cooper in Toronto at the Molson Amphitheatre. Here is what his kid thought of his first major concert experience.
Remember when everything was labelled alternative, and you had to ask “alternative to what?” In this case, I’d call it an alternative to listening to OM on LSD.
A nasty bit of business, this Grime – very nasty indeed: Their album hits like a blanket party, but well worth the contusions it leaves behind.