Category: Reviews
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Serpents of Secrecy – Ave Vindicta
While Ave Vindicta is the band’s first album, Serpents of Secrecy are no strangers to the Maryland doom scene, featuring members of Sixty Watt Shaman, Borracho, King Giant and the late Jim Forrester, who was callously murdered in Baltimore in 2017. After his death, these tunes understandably sat on the shelf for a while, before…
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The Full Counts – Next Up
About two years after the release of their debut album (which is a marked acheivement, at a certain level – many bands go many years between releases, in their early development) the Full Counts made a blistering return with Next Up in 2019. The improvements to the band’s sound are obvious and consistent; now with…
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The Full Counts – First Out
The fact of the matter (as inconvenient as it may be) is that not every record is a work of genius and not every band is made up of earthbound gods; sometimes the band is a job for those in it, and the music they make simply makes the bandmembers and their fans happy. That…
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Round Eye – Culture Shock Treatment
Fuck this year. 2020 has proven to be the most disappointing annum in many regards but, perhaps most importantly (at least within the goings on for this website), 2020 has gone down as the year which stalled the releases of an impressive number of albums, completely halted all touring routes through North America and diverted…
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The Texas Gentleman – Floor it!
It’s funny to think about how much The Texas Gentlemen have changed since first appearing with the release of Texas Jelly in 2018. Just two years ago, The Texas Gents arrived sporting the tightest sound but it was coupled with a design which let the album’s shape develop as it played. The end results turned…
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Wayfarer – A Romance With Violence
With October coming to a close and the cold weather approaching here in the wilds of Canada, black metal often comes to the minds and playlists of many metal heads. The genre which embodies the coldness of the north, and the sense of melancholy accompanying it. Sometimes however, for the best examples of the style,…
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Naked Giants – The Shadow
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Naked Giants – The Shadow, LP. While it’s not terribly uncommon for a band to make great creative changes in their sound and style unexpectedly throughout their career, the knowledge that such events can happen still doesn’t exactly explain the arc that Naked Giants have taken which ultimately brought…
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Sammy Brue – Crash Test Kid
After releasing a debut album which, while obviously ambitious, ultimately yielded results which were “just okay” followed by an EP that revealed a greater-than-average Blind Melon influence, Sammy Brue clearly upped his dose of Fuckitol, just cut loose and bravely elected to just have fun when it came to making Crash Test Kid. Through the…
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Isengard – Vårjevndøgn
I’m hearing a lot of cries and complaints about the new Isengard. Black metal warlords wailing about another man’s project as if they were being served the wrong order at McDonalds; bloggers describing the sound as if they have ever understood Isengard’s purpose, and essence in the first place. So much flaccid chatter from meak…
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Mercury Rev – The Secret Migration
The Secret Migration has always been a hopeful album, and hope is certainly something we need right now! The Secret Migration is a magical album in it’s own right. But, this 5CD version is very special indeed, it will take listeners many happy hours to unearth and appreciate all its varied treasures. A special album in a…