Category: Reviews
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Cardinal Wyrm – Black Hole Gods
There have been enough notable sludge/doom outfits from down by the Bay Area—Sleep, Noothgrush, Neurosis, to name but a few—that when a newer outfit from San Fran or Oakland starts getting some press, I’d naturally be inclined to stop and check them out. But Cardinal Wyrm, much like the Finns in Cardinals Folly, employs the same…
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Liturgy – Renihilation (reissue)
For a genre founded on the tenets of rebellion and individuality we metal fans sure are a fickle bunch. Freedom of expression is what it’s all about, but those who don’t conform to what “we” believe metal in whatever form (black/death/what have you) should be are ostracized and ridiculed (or hated). Making music is about…
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YOB – Clearing the Path to Ascend
YOB is one of those names where I expect quality before I even take off the shrinkwrap. Only in this case, it’s been a while; their last album, Atma, came out about three years ago. Still, I wouldn’t expect any less from Mike Scheidt and co—I’m pretty sure its predecessor was on my year-end top 10 in 2011,…
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Accept – Blind Rage
I did not need to hear any of the advance singles to know this was going to be good. Three albums into Accept’s latest comeback, any skepticism about Udo-soundalike Mark Tornillo on vocals has melted away. Far from being over-the-hill dinosaurs, these guys have tapped into the sound of classic Accept, making this the Metal Heart to Blood of the Nations’ Fast…
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Blakkr Nið – Drones, Dirges, and Dark Ambient Sounds
Bands like Earth, Boris, Sunn O))), Corrupted and Nadja have all used low frequencies and overdriven instrumentation on uber-slow songs to bring drone front and centre for a metal audience. However, as a form of musical expression, drone existed for aeons before any of those bands arrived. Drone is there in the core vibrations of…
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Thantifaxath – Sacred White Noise
Mysterious Toronto black metallers Thantifaxath turn the genre inside out on Sacred White Noise, their first full-length. The hooded trio uses the bleak nature of searing black metal as a scaffold to sculpt an abstract representation of their own twisted manifesto. Through six tracks and nearly 45 minutes Thantifaxath navigate a series of stacked realities…
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Rise Against – The Black Market
After illustrating that they were more than capable of moving forward beyond their melodic hardcore foundations with Appeal To Reason and Endgame, The Black Market proves that Rise Against still has some more ground that they’d like to break and a few boundaries they still want to push. Such creative testing is always a dicey…
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Protokult – No Beer In Heaven
Ah, this album was a pleasure to review. So many albums are a slog to get through, but I was sorry when No Beer In Heaven Ended. Recently I went to see Irish folk-rock legends Hoslips, and I realise that the organic, joyous nature of their music was a delight to listen to – so much…
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Nick Oliveri’s Uncontrollable – Leave Me Alone
It sounds a little unlikely on its face, but sometimes you just know what you’re going to get from an album, even if it’s a band’s first record. That is certainly true of Leave Me Alone, billed as Nick Oliveri‘s first solo album. From top to bottom, listeners will be able to pick out familiar…
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High Spirits – You Are Here
High Spirits‘ You Are Here is resolutely old-school ’80s hard rock/metal, and if that’s your bag (baby!) it’ll definitely do you. I like the cover design by the way (very clever). On the positive side, it’s nice to listen to something that’s fun and cheerful, but in this case it’s the musical equivalent of a burger,…