Category: Reviews

  • Shibboleth – S/T

    In Sam Dunn’s debut documentary, Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, the anthropologist describes his hometown of Victoria, British Columbia as the land of the “newly wed and nearly dead”, an anecdote that resonates with the city’s primitive black metal practitioners Shibboleth.

  • Queens Of The Stone Age – s/t (vinyl reissue)

    As a long awaited reissue, the new 2011 version of this album is about as good as it gets.

  • Sepultura / Belphegor / Hate / Keep of Kalessin / Neuraxis @ The Opera House, Toronto ON, April 18th 2011

    Sepultura as they exist today have incredible muscle and power, at the expense of some of their subtlety. Their music now has less of an eerie quality, gets under the skin less. Instead, it wants to tear you apart. The experience of seeing them live was thrilling and exhausting, but left a ghost behind, alittle…

  • Sylosis – Edge of the Earth

    These guys are the real deal and with a bit more emphasis on some stronger songwriting and maybe a shorter length – 70mins seems to be a tad too long for this kind of music – really big things could lie ahead.

  • SepticFlesh – The Great Mass

    The Great Mass doesn’t stay with me long after the final track, “Therianthropy,” dies away, but in the moment each song offers to be deliciously, mind-numbingly immersive, and I’m quite willing to let myself drown in the experience.

  • Graveyard – Hisingen Blues

    Song after maleficent song, Hisingen Blues is an infectious monster of retro-styled, devil-take-my-soul blues fury that has left me wondering why I never sought these guys out before, and wondering how long before everyone else finally picks up on them. If they were obscure before, they’re not going to be much longer.

  • USX – The Valley Path

    While this is an interesting effort that serves as mellow mood music for a nice relaxing vibe, I feel like I’ve heard a lot of this not so long ago on Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1.

  • Echtra – Paragate

    Echtra are among those bands that do not invite the exuberance or intensity of much extreme music, instead appealing to listeners’ more contemplative sensibilities. Paragate, of all the band’s output, is the most cohesive and single-minded work they’ve yet released.

  • Lo-Pan – Salvador

    I actually quite liked their debut, but this one isn’t grabbing me in the same way. Songs seem shorter, and they’ve definitely dialled down the heavy, opting for a slightly less distorted desert rock/grunge sound.

  • Wall of Sleep – When Mountains Roar

    Even Dehumanizer was gloomier than this. That being said, if Balls to the Wall/Metal Heart era-Accept or those mid-80’s Scorpions albums are your thing, you might not mind this modern slice of throwback Euro metal.