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Articles, Features, Headline September 1, 2010

Marky Ramone: The Hellbound Interview

“We didn’t want to overindulge in anything other bands were doing. In the mid-70s people were just doing guitar solos and drum solos and albums only had five songs. Rock was being diluted by jazz rock and folk rock and blues rock. We wanted the two-and-a- half minute approach. It was the same when I was with Richard Hell and the Voidods. We all liked Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Those songs were only two minutes and twenty seconds long. We only cared about the song. We didn’t care about solos. We just wanted a chorus that could be remembered and a song structure that wasn’t 20 minutes long.”

Justin M. Norton in conversation with the one and only Marky Ramone.

Articles, Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Live August 30, 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 band not to miss, and I was glad for every moment I hung in to soak up some of the torrent they unleashed upon the crowd.”

Natalie Zed recaps the Toronto performance by EXODUS, HOLY GRAIL, BONDED BY BLOOD and more at Toronto’s Mod Club on August 24, 2010

Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Live August 27, 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 afraid of him all at once. With veins popping out of his neck, he was rigid and tense, but then on the turn of a dime, overcome with emotion and completely vulnerable.”

Laina Dawes reviews the August 22nd Toronto performances by UNSANE, TODAY IS THE DAY, KEELHAUL and VILIPEND at Sneaky Dee’s

Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Live August 24, 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 drumming throughout the entire set. Remember what I said about metal being fun?”

Renee Trotier reviews the August 18th performance by DEATHMARCH, ESOTERIC DOCTRINE, HALLOWS DIE and TWILIGHT CHILD at the Corktown Pub in Hamilton ON.

Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Live August 20, 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 back, dark hair and covered in old-school tattoos. His voice is surprisingly clean. Volbeat’s set was idiosyncratic and playful.”

Natalie Zed reviews the August 17th Toronto performance by VOLBEAT, THE SLEEPING and DOMMIN at the Mod Club. VOLBEAT live photos by Adam Wills.

Articles, Features, Headline August 18, 2010

In Conversation With: Cynic’s Paul Masvidal

“I’m interested in various philosophical perspectives in relation to the inner workings of the mind and how that relates to being a human on planet earth. So there’s this balance between earth and cosmos and merging micro with macro. Something as simple as observing a flower one can see the entire universe contained within it. I’m also influenced by love and the variety of human emotions, sadness and despair, joy and happiness. Life is so incredibly rich and intense, it’s all there, happening all the time, I just have to open my eyes or more importantly heart to it. Life constantly informs us, if we could just pay attention.”

Navjot Kaur Sobti in conversation with Cynic guitarist/vocalist Paul Masvidal for Hellbound.ca

Articles, Features, Headline August 16, 2010

Geezer Butler: The Hellbound Interview

“We all thought that we’d be able to do [Black Sabbath] for two or three years and then go get proper jobs. I mean, that is what bands did back then. That is what we thought would happen with Black Sabbath. We were lucky to do a second album, we were hoping that it would do well and then eventually we’d disappear. Nobody ever dreamt that any band would last this long, still being popular some forty years later.”

Sean Palmerston in conversation with Black Sabbath bassist and founding member Geezer Butler for Hellbound.ca

Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Audio August 13, 2010

Blood Revolt – Indoctrine

The fact that the much-ballyhooed debut album by Blood Revolt is generating vehement reactions from the metal world shouldn’t be much of a surprise. And you know it’s the kind of reaction Alberta black metal mainstays C. Ross and James Read wanted when they formed a trans-Atlantic artistic partnership with Primordial proselytizer Alan “Nemtheanga” Averill. One one side, you’ve got underground metal scenesters who can make neither heads nor tails of all that damned singing atop the scorching backdrop of raw black metal provided by the two members of Axis of Advance and Revenge. On the other side are the Primordial fans that are so starved for a new album that they’ll listen to anything Averill lends his voice to. Needless to say, hearing the man contribute to something so unflinching, so confrontational had to have been the last thing they expected. Where are the 6/8 time signatures, dammit!

Articles, Features, Headline August 11, 2010

Introducing: Mares of Thrace

Guitarist/vocalist Therese Lanz and drummer Stefani MacKichan have been part of Calgary’s music scene for a while now, Lanz as frontwoman for grindcore band Exit Strategy and the pair most notably comprising two-thirds of the hard rock trio Kilbourne, but since forming Mares of Thrace it feels like they’ve stumbled upon something special. One album in, they already have a very strong identity, as The Moulting (Arctodus Records) is a blistering combination of the massive riffs and rhythms of Neurosis, the angularity of Unsane and the Jesus Lizard, the intricacy of the Dillinger Escape Plan, and some well-timed melodic passages to boot.

Adrien Begrand speaks to one of Canada’s most exciting new bands, the Calgary based duo known as MARES OF THRACE.

Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Live August 9, 2010

Cynic/ Intronaut/ Dysrhythmia @ The Opera House, Toronto ON, August 2, 2010

“Metal cannot often be defined as subtle. Every now and again, however, these is a show that serves as a sort of palate-cleanser, offering metalheads an opportunity to indulge in some of the more delicate flavours that this broad, strange genre of music has to offer. Cynic, Intronaut and Dysrhythmia performed just such a show, giving the audience at the Opera House an aural meal to be sipped and sampled as well as devoured.”

Natalie Zed reviews the August 2nd Toronto performance by CYNIC, INTRONAUT and DYSRHYTHMIA. Concert photography by Adam Wills