Category: Reviews – Live

Hellbound is always there, lurking in the crowd, while the band blisters the very air.

KEN Mode/ Engineer/ Vilipend/ Gray Acre @ Sneaky Dee’s, Toronto ON, August 31 2010

Review by Natalie Zed By now, you’re used to me attaching caveats to my reviews. I am profoundly aware that circumstances have a significant effect on my writing, so attempt to identify out any variables as much as possible. Something as simple as a stomach ache or my level of sobriety can influence the way…

September 9, 2010
Melvins @ The Opera House, Toronto ON, September 1st, 2010

“The best part of the show outside of a really awesome 20-song setlist was watching drummers Coady Willis and Dale Crover play. I’d seen the band in Detroit last year and even though the duo has drummed together for almost four years, Willis seemed more confident on this stop. Crover was still in command, but…

September 7, 2010
Aborted/ Augury/ System Divide/ Horde of Worms @ Sneaky Dee’s, Toronto ON, August 28th 2010

“Only in death metal can you seriously announce that the next song is about the secret shadow-dwellers who live underground, have the room nod along seriously and then play a blisteringly brilliant song without a hint of irony. It’s damn fun to play mind-bogglingly intricate, complex music and still assert that the subject matter is…

September 3, 2010
Mares of Thrace/ Spitfist/ Drunk Hussy @ Rancho Relaxo, Toronto ON, August 14, 2010

Mares of Thrace played last on the bill, and brought the night to a thunderous close. I am profoundly interested in the aesthetics of constraint and the way art can be produced by limitation. Mares of Thrace plug directly into this particular obsession. Consisting only of vocals, baritone guitar and drums, this two-woman force of…

September 2, 2010
Exodus/ Holy Grail/ Bonded By Blood/ Fatality/ Black Elysium @ The Mod Club, Toronto ON, August 24, 2010

“Just as my energy level was reaching a crisis point, the audience’s had risen to a fever pitch, becoming positively explosive by the time Exodus took the stage. I made it about halfway through their 90-odd-minute set before throwing in the towel, but what I saw was absolutely spectacular. They are without a doubt a…

August 30, 2010
Unsane/ Today Is The Day/ Keelhaul/ Vilipend @ Sneaky Dees, Toronto ON, August 22, 2010

“What stood out for me was Steve Austin. Not only did the conservative persona I observed earlier in the evening quickly disappear and was replaced by an incredibly intense musician who howled -either in pain or in passion, I don’t know – but it was clear where one could be in awe and be incredibly…

August 27, 2010
Ion Dissonance/ The Last Felony/ Starring Janet Leigh @ Club Absinthe, Hamilton ON, August 23, 2010

Holy Christ, the new songs Ion Dissonance played, which were about half their set, blew me away. Crazy, maniacal and with a heavy as an elephant low end, these guys use 8 string guitars and you can feel it in the stomach. Their performance was tight, to the point and they left it all on…

August 26, 2010
Deathmarch/ Esoteric Doctrine/ Hallows Die/ Twilight Child @ The Corktown Pub, Hamilton, ON, Aug. 18, 2010

“Next on the docket was Hamilton’s own Deathmarch. For reasons I’m not fully aware of they were without a drummer tonight, getting by with a drum track and Northern Storm Records label head Rob Cranny. By this I mean that Rob sat in the middle of the stage, shirtless with drum sticks in hand, phantom…

August 24, 2010
Volbeat/ The Sleeping/ Dommin @ the Mod Club, Toronto ON, August 17, 2010

“I have no bone to pick with VOLBEAT at all. Their heavy metal/rockabilly/early rock’n’roll gangster aesthetic is fantastic. They’re greasy, twangy and a hell of a lot of fun to see live. Michael Poulsen embodies their sound: lean, punchy muscles, the lines of his brow and cheekbone just a little haggard from hard living, slicked…

August 20, 2010
Fatality/ Terrorhorse/ Hallows Die @ El Mocambo, Toronto ON, August 6th 2010

Natalie Zed reviews the August 6th performance of FATALITY, TERRORHORSE and HALLOWS DIE at the El Mocambo in Toronto, ON

August 20, 2010