Category: Reviews
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Die Mannequin – Neon Zero
It’s been five years now since Die Mannequin smashed listeners over the head with their debut full-length album, Fino + Bleed, but one look at what’s gone down in that time proves that it was a long damned five years. In that time, singer Care Failure became Joe Dick II (sort of) in Hard Core…
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King Diamond / Jess and the Ancient Ones @ Sound Academy, Toronto ON, October 18, 2014
Review by Sean Palmerston – Concert photos by Adam Wills This was a Saturday night worth remembering. A cold, crisp October evening just a few weeks before Halloween made for a fitting return of King Diamond to a Toronto stage. It had been over ten years since King had played Toronto with any of his…
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Northumbria and Famine – Blood Orchid
Blood Orchid is a nearly 16-minute live collaboration between Northumbria and Famine. The ambient drone unfolds over an expanse of time that feels much longer than it actually is because of how deeply you can get lost in it and lose your sense of reality. It feels futuristic and ancient at the same time as…
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Dawnbringer – Night of the Hammer
One might wonder if music fans rejoice more than the classic metal underground crowd when Chris Black releases a new album. You can almost hear the “hey, hey“ chants, headbanging and devil horns going up as the Chicago singer songwriter announces a new album for either Dawnbringer and or High Spirits. In this case it’s…
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The Skull – For Those Which Are Asleep
Here’s another band I recently saw this year in Milwaukee. The Skull features three former members of Trouble, most notably frontman Eric Wagner. The last time I saw him on stage, prior to this summer, he had short hair, wore sunglasses and a Beatles shirt, and spent the whole set staring at the floor. But…
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Laugh At The Fakes – Dethrone The Crown
Just looking at the publicity for the splendidly named Laugh At The Fakes, I see them being recommended for fans of such bands as Opeth (no, Opeth sound like Goblin these days, and that works well for them, but I don’t hear that here), Avenged Sevenfold (urgghh, no, a band that boast about their ‘real…
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Coheed and Cambria – In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
Sometimes there’s just no question or doubt that, when it was originally made, an album wasn’t intended to appear on a particular format. A perfect example can be found in the vinyl reissue of Coheed and Cambria‘s sophomore album, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3. While the sound is great, even the most devoted fans…
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Giant Squid – Minoans
Had not heard from this post-metal outfit, Giant Squid, in a little bit—it had been three years since their last EP, and a couple more since they put out an album. But the West Coast quintet is back with an album that, at least by its title and some of the song names, seems to…
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Phobocosm – Deprived
If your idea of death metal begins and ends with Cannibal Corpse then Phobocosm is probably not for you. But if you can allow yourself to wallow in pure darkness and depravity, then the Montreal quartet’s aptly title Deprived could be more up your alley. It’s the darkness that consumes the entire album that is…
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Pig Destroyer – Mass & Volume
When one of the biggest grindcore bands of recent years drops a two-song, 26-minute doom-metal album, you can certainly colour me intrigued. Pig Destroyer actually recorded these two tracks back in ’06 but, understandably, they took some time to see the light of day. “Mass & Volume” takes up 19 of those minutes, starting off slowly with…