Reviews

Blogs, Headline, Jay Gorania, Reviews, Reviews - Live April 2, 2010

Jay Gorania’s SXSW 2010 – Part 1

Austin’s 6th Street area is the performance location for much of the musical side of South by Southwest—a massive interactive, film and music conference and festival. Historically, unsigned bands came to get noticed by suit ’n tie record label reps; however as it has evolved, signed underground and mainstream bands have dominated showcases, and schmoozin’ and boozin’ is underway as backroom deals and negotiation unfolds. Hell, it’s gotten to the point that Metallica played last year.

Jay Gorania recaps his take on this year’s SXSW Music Festival. In this first entry, he reviews the Relapse Records showcase as well as sets by Torche, Goes Cube and Goatwhore.

Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Audio April 1, 2010

DoomDogs – s/t

DoomDogs is a fair solid slab of thud-rock. I’d go so far as to say that, from the opening bombardier riff of “Fight the Greed”, DoomDogs is a notch or two above a lot of doom records I’ve subjected myself to lately.

Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Audio March 31, 2010

Impetuous Ritual – Relentless Execution of Ceremonial Excrescence

Despite the fact that the album title reads as if Impetuous Ritual chose it using Death Metal Mad Libs, this album is anything but random in concept and performance. No, this soul-rending slab of doom-laced death metal is a calculated carnage machine of the first order.

Tate Bengston reviews the new album by Portal side-project Impetuous Ritual, released earlier this year by Profound Lore Records.

Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Live March 31, 2010

Helix @ Legendary Red Rooster, Burlington ON, March 27, 2010

Helix has been known in the metal scene since the mid 80’s and has over the years made some incredible tracks. They played a good chunk of them Saturday night and it made for one hell a perfect night. Checking out this band live is a must for any metal fan into the 80’s scene. The hits kept on rolling one after another. Great set list. As I get to see so many bands in concert, the one thing which caught my attention with Helix was their level of professionalism shown on stage. No sloppy guitar solos, no scratchy feedback in the speakers. Basically a flawless gig.

Albert Mansour reviews the March 27, 2010 concert at Burlington’s Legendary Red Rooster club by Canadian hard rock/metal legends Helix.

Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Audio March 30, 2010

Ratt – Infestation

I wasn’t expecting much from this album but am mildly impressed with a lot of the songwriting – full of huge hooks, great guitar work and of course Pearcy’s voice. Ratt brings back the classic sound of the 80s with great songwriting and great guitar solos but still for the most part inject some modern toughness to it. Now if they could just lose some of those cheeseball songs this would of been an absolute monster of an album.

Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Audio March 29, 2010

Scorpions – Sting In The Tail

Regardless of whatever commercial success this final album brings for them, the band’s attempted to recapture their past glories and I’ll give them their due propers for it. Put it this way: If you cut your teeth on albums like Blackout or Love At First Sting, I’d hazard a guess that you’ll dig this record too.

Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Live March 28, 2010

Immortal / Eclipse Eternal / Panzerfaust @ The Opera House, Toronto, ON, March 27, 2010

Immortal never failed to acknowledge the momentous occasion that their appearance was for the diehards in the crowd. From their frequent praising of the crowd to Abbath’s invocation of fan worship during “Tyrants,” the band’s antics never failed to garner overly-excited cheers from fans who had obviously been long bursting a gut to see their heroes in the flesh. While there was no fire-breathing to be had, Abbath and company didn’t fail to prove their musical chops.

Jonathan Smith reviews Immortal’s March 27th concert at Toronto’s Opera House. Panzerfaust and Eclipse Eternal also appeared. All concert photos by Adam Wills.

Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Audio March 26, 2010

Postcards From Natalie Zed, Part 2

Hellbound readers, remember Natalie Zed? Natalie was our big grand prize winner back in January, taking home more than 50 CDs + and shortly after she received her huge box ‘o CDs, Ms. Zed asked us over at Hellbound HQ if we’d be interested in running reviews of her winnings if she did postcard sized reviews of the albums. How could we say no?

So, without further adieu, here is Natalie’s second installment in what Hellbound likes to refer to as “Postcards From Natalie Zed”…