FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
Natalie Zed reviews the January 22nd Toronto performance by occult rockers Ghost, as well as support acts Blood Ceremony and Ancient VVisdom at the Mod Club. All live photos by Adam Wills
Ambitious and progressive, razor-raw and unrelenting, the debut from Cape Town’s WILDERNESSKING is passionate and exciting, and I’d daresay an early frontrunner in my book for one of the best of the year.
Alas, I’m not sure that this record is all that different from Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I, but I’m not quite feeling this one as much. I shall have to revisit the original, perhaps.
Ghost haunts the Mod Club tomorrow nite with Blood Ceremony and Ancient VVisdom. No need to sell your soul–advanced tickets are just 15 bucks!
Right from the beginning though it is obvious that Joe Thrasher not only want to make you bang your head, they want you to remember these songs for a long time.
Though it does not quite possess the potent and urgent vibe of Altar of Plagues’ Mammal, Social Disservices takes second place in my personal albums of the year. Hopefully it will receive even more recognition in 2012.
Fortunately, it seems that quite a few bands that used to play that Bloor Street dive have moved on to the 460 now. A much better location, if you ask me–College and Spadina, literally right next to the El Mocambo. Mind you, there’s really no comparison between the ElMo and this hole in the wall, for better or for worse.
When The Screams Come is a great visual document of the band that will be as entertaining to longtime fans of the band as it will be to newcomers. It’s not the flashiest, it’s certainly a warts-and-all type performance, but it captures a historically important band in their background getting the kind of adulation they deserve.
The first and most obvious question you’re probably asking yourself after seeing that Hellbound is reviewing the Fat Wreck re-issues of the first five albums by these Goleta, California’s melodi-punk heroes is whether or not the version we’re reviewing here is the box-set edition or simply the individual releases reviewed as a collective. I believe what Grand Wizard Palmerston has provided here are the individual releases, seeing as they are strewn across my desk and there’s no box provided that might maintain any amount of order in the slightest…
Main musician Jay Valena has crafted a powerful full-length record with many strengths even as it doesn’t often stray far from the sub-genre’s tried-and-true clichés. Its organic, earnest, and perhaps even retro sound lifts its five lengthy tracks above some of the contemporaneous releases of even seasoned veterans of the genre. What it lacks in polish and originality it more than makes up for in terms of epic grandeur. That this self-titled debut is mostly the product of a single individual makes it all the more impressive.