Reviews

In Solitude – The World.The Flesh.The Devil

It’s great seeing bands from our continent carrying the proverbial torch, but it seems these Swedes have an incredible knack for making themselves sound like they came from a 1983 Banzai Records compilation rather than 2011. When a band takes that vintage style and absolutely nails it, like Portrait, like Ghost, like Year of the Goat, like Helvetets Port, like Bullet, and in this particular case, like In Solitude, it’s enough to make any metal geezer over the age of 40 realize that there just might be hope for metal after all.

Maryland Deathfest 2011 Recap Day 3

Continuing on from our collected review of Thursday’s and Friday’s shows, here is what we thought of the bands we saw which played Saturday, Day three, of the 2011 Maryland Deathfest. Reviews by Adam Wills, Laura Wiebe and Sean Palmerston, with photography by Albert Mansour.

Baptists—s/t 7-inch

Captured by Stuart McKillop and Jesse Carr at The Hive Creative Labs, Baptists have arrived hitting fast and hard. It’s a little cruel that four songs are all we get, but as a way of documenting the band’s formidable power at this early stage, the 7-inch is the perfect delivery method.

Maryland Deathfest 2011 Recap Day 2

Continuing on from our collected review of Thursday’s show, here is what we thought of the bands we saw which played Friday, Day two, of the 2011 Maryland Deathfest. Reviews by Adam Wills, Laura Wiebe, Kevin Stewart-Panko and Sean Palmerston, with photography by Albert Mansour.

Maryland Deathfest 2011 Recap Day 1

Last weekend saw America’s biggest metal party, the annual Maryland Deathfest, happen at Baltimore’s Sonar club. The fun started on Thursday night with an evening’s worth of bands indoors at Sonar. Here is what Hellbound’s Kevin Stewart-Panko, Laura Wiebe and Sean Palmerston thought of the bands they saw that evening, with live photos by Albert Mansour.

Nightbitch – Sex and Magic

Alas, for the most part, this EP is listenable, even enjoyable—but by no means original. That said, if a record sleeve of a black-clad woman in front of an oak tree with the words Sex and Magic along the bottom would incite you to buy this album, you won’t be disappointed with the content within.