Features

Features, Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Live October 7, 2011

Enslaved / Alcest / Junius @ The Opera House, Toronto ON, September 30, 2011

“There’s no doubt in my mind that when I look back on 2011, this show will stand out as one of my top concerts of the year. It was incredibly well curated and all the artists on the bill enhanced and challenged one another. I was initially disappointed that Ghost couldn’t make this show due to visa issues, and wondered how the substitution would affect the line-up. As it turns out, it was a non-issue. The flow of the performance, the tension and build, was lovely and perfectly balanced — definitely one of the best tours to come through Toronto in a while.”

Natalie Zed reviews the Sept 30th performance by Enslaved, Alcest and Junius. Concert photography by Adam Wills

Articles, Features, Headline October 5, 2011

Matt Finney: The Hellbound Interview

“As evidenced by my previous review of their infectious Ain’t No Night album, Heinali and Matt Finney’s music really crept up on me this year. A taut, vivid marriage of shoegaze, post-metal and doomy spoken-word, the duo craft something very special, unlike anything I’d heard before. That they do it from separate continents, despite having never met in person, just ups the impressiveness factor for me.

I recently caught up with Matt Finney to discuss what duo have been working on recently, and what they’ve got planned for the near future.”

Kyle Harcott in conversation with Matt Finney.

Articles, Featured, Features October 5, 2011

No Dick, No Metal? No Effin’ Way!

Disparaging women is a real problem in our society. Ignoring someone who has been given a platform to write that the images and videos of young women, scantily clad with self-tailored metal gear is an irrefutable sign that women in metal do not, and will never be legitimized as true fans, is wrong. As a metal journalist, author and concert photographer, and more importantly a female metal fan for almost 30 years, if we want to generalize even more, that post essentially told me that regardless of the fact that writing about metal and shooting concerts serves as a portion of how I make my living, my work is not relevant because I do not have a penis.

Articles, Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Vinyl October 3, 2011

KEVI METAL’S RIMSHOTS – THE ALL-VINYL VERSION

Hi friends. It’s been a while. I know it. Sean certainly knows it. You, on the other hand, probably didn’t even notice I was gone. That’s okay. In my absence, I heard a rumour that some people have reaffirmed a love affair with vinyl. Some of these people even own turntables! Fucking crazy!! So, in salutary notion to those of you keeping it real and the labels who graciously send us their latest releases on varying colours of wax, I present the all-vinyl edition of Rimshots.

Articles, Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Live September 30, 2011

Katatonia @ The Montage Music Hall, Rochester NY, September 24, 2011

Katatonia, the Swedish kings of melodic gloom, are enjoying a couple of anniversaries in 2011. To celebrate, the band is playing a little more than a handful of headlining shows on the nights when current tour mates (and fellow Swedes) Opeth have decided to take some time off. Hellbounders Adam Wills and Laura Wiebe caught the fourth of seven such gigs scheduled in North America, crossing the border into New York State to see how our southerly neighbours would welcome one of our favourite bands.

Articles, Features, Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Live September 28, 2011

ProgPower USA 2011 @ Center Stage, Atlanta, GA September 15th to 17th, 2011

Although he almost missed it – please see inside for all the details – Hellbound’s Rob Kachluba finally made it back to Atlanta GA earlier this month for this year’s edition of the ProgPower USA Festival. Here is Rob’s recap of the three days that he was in attendance at the fest, which included performances by Evergrey, Sanctuary, Ihsahn, Haken, While Heaven Wept, Forbidden, Therion and many more.

Articles, Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Live September 27, 2011

Weedeater / Saviours / Bison B.C. / Fight Amp @ Lee’s Palace, Toronto ON, September 13, 2011

“When headliners Weedeater began to play, I was immediately struck by how much effort they put into differentiating their sound from every other group on the bill. Their tone was harsh, ugly, abrasive and super-filthy, the guitars and bass drenched in feedback. Vocalist Dixie Dave Collins matched this perfectly, sounding like he’d been gargling with hot rocks and thumbtacks. Their songs are generally on the short side, and this translated into blasts of super-distorted guitar that washed over you like waves of shrapnel.”

Natalie Zed reviews the September 13th Toronto performance by Weedeater, Saviours, Bison B.C. and Fight Amp at Lee’s Palace. Live photography by Laina Dawes.

Articles, Blasphemy Blog, Blogs, Featured September 26, 2011

Blasphemous Meals #4: Hail The Goatfish

Now home in Canada and back in school for another year, our favourite university journalism student has recently sent us her fourth installment in her Blasphemous Meals series, where she makes meals for her family taken out of the pages of the Bazillion Points book Hellbent for Cooking. Here are three more inspired meals that we here at Hellbound HQ wish we could have the chance to taste ourselves…

Articles, Features, Headline September 22, 2011

Katatonia: Twenty Years Down the Road

Days after kicking off a North American anniversary tour, with headlining dates tucked in between dates opening for Opeth, guitarist/songwriter Anders Nyström enthusiastically answers Laura Wiebe’s questions about Katatonia’s latest activities and current travels on this side of the Atlantic.