Category: Reviews
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Origin – Omnipresent
The music of tech deathers Origin produces either a smile or a grimace. Outer space themed! Insanely fast! Insanely technical!…but also a blender of sound and a stagnant end point close to frigid techno. Really, resembling a computer blurp isn’t something everyone aspires to (or wants to listen to). 2008’s Antithesis changed the narrative by…
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Astrakhan – A Tapestry of Scabs and Skin
The second release from these young Vancouver sludgesters Astrakhan combines the two tracks from their previous The Pillarist 7” with a couple new numbers on this 25-minute EP. “Cupid’s Fist” comes swinging out of the gate, a djenty piece of post-sludge with breakdowns aplenty. Vocals are clean and atmospheric for the most part, but they…
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Death From Above 1979 and Old Lines – last minute xmas vinyl suggestions
Two last minute vinyl picks for your holiday gift-giving list, from Bill Adams, editor-in-chief of Ground Control Magazine. Death From Above 1979 The Physical World (Last Gang/Warner Brothers) On The Physical World, it’s impossible to miss the difference between Death From Above as they existed in 2005 and this new, re-energized incarnation of the band.…
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Psychostick – IV: Revenge of the Vengence
I love this album. Sometimes albums that are funny are only good for one listen, but I’ve lived with this one for a few weeks, and I still like listening to it. One of the reasons is that the band are great musicians and there are some really good metal songs here. A reference point…
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The Oath – The Oath
It says a lot for The Oath that their music actually matches the images created by the album’s cover. I’ve seen this album described as occult rock, but that’s beginning to become a catch-all term, it’s meaning worn out by over-use. Rather, to my experienced ears this a great modern take on the new wave…
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Graveyard Ghoul / Cryptic Brood split
You can judge Final Gate Records‘ latest split from the cover. It’s a skeletal sepulchral party in full occult swing, done in pen ‘n’ ink scratching à la Mark Riddick. Musically it’s the same – this is Old Skool Death Metal worship at the altar of Incantation, so if that sounds like fun, take gulp…
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Darkspace – III I
“We die praising the Star Maker, the Star Destroyer.“ With little tangible to pin down in a typical ‘kvlt’ sense (beyond corpse paint and obsidian stage pageantry), the mercurial interstellar ritualism of Bern, Switzerland trio Darkspace remains one of ambient black metal’s most intriguingly opaque and highly original offerings. Since their advent in 1999, Darkspace…
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Single Mothers – Negative Qualities
It might sound weird to those who don’t know the band (yet) but, with their debut full-length album Negative Qualities, Single Mothers have proven they’re THE SINGLE GREATEST NEW HOPE for hardcore punk. Over the last few years, the rise of bands like Fucked Up and Trash Talk coupled with the decline of groups including…
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David Bowie – Sue (Or in a Season of Crime) / ‘Tis A Pity She Was A Whore 10″ single
The arc that David Bowie‘s career has appeared to take over the last forty-seven years has been a truly unique one, when you think about it. It could be hypothesized that being a Bowie fan is very, very similar in nature to being a heroin addict: the first hit you took was good – so…
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Northumbria – Bring Down the Sky
There’s something special about Northumbria and their latest, Bring Down the Sky. The ambient metal drone duo of guitarist Jim Field and bassist Dorian Williamson sound like the heavens conversing with subterranean realms resulting in the ying/yang earthly experience we know. Structurally independent and devoid of solid forms, the listener’s mind is thrown open to…