Lacuna Coil @ Annex Wreckroom, Toronto, ON, November 20th 2009
Lacuna Coil live photo courtesy of wikipedia, copyright creative commons By Melissa Andrews Lacuna Coil, previously already in Toronto this year on tour…
Reviews
Advance Screening: Disgorge, Mexico – The Movie
I could simply describe Disgorge, Mexico – The Movie as visually stunning yet disturbing, as Hall definitely has an aesthetic and a well-formed point of view that matches the brutality and not-to-be dismissed splendor in the chaotic madness of Ottawa’s Fuck the Facts – and brilliant in not only the fact that similar to Hall and Cardoso’s previous film (based on Today is the Day’s Axis to Eden), it is clearly obvious that Hall knows the music and its nuances inside and out.
Laina Dawes sits down for an advance screening of Disgorge, Mexico – The Film, the upcoming new film by Handshake Inc. that is based on the Fuck the Facts album of the same name.
The Atlas Moth: A Glorified Piece of Blue Sky
Chicago’s The Atlas Moth emerge from the gate with a debut full-length album that is pretty entertaining at both it front and back end, but which has a more ambiguous middle that is much more tedious than it should be
Skinny Puppy/Vvervvolf Grehv @ The Phoenix, Toronto, ON, November 13, 2009
By Melissa Andrews In the twenty plus years that Skinny Puppy have been around, their Friday the thirteenth show at Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre…
Sonata Arctica: The Days of Grays
This album has changed my entire perspective on power metal, as I have always viewed it as a cheesy and cliché attempt at applying emotion to music. If there are three things that Sonata Arctica have justified on The Days of Grays, it is that the genre is indeed epic, captivating and genuinely metal. And I don’t need an overly excited narrator to tell me so.
Ola Mazzuca reviews the new release by Finnish power metal experts Sonata Arctica
Dying Fetus/Beneath The Massacre/Suffokate @ Mod Club, Toronto, ON, November 24, 2009
I have to admit that one of the reasons why I pitched Hellbound.ca a concert review of the Planetary Depravity Tour was because I wanted to see Dying Fetus guitarist John Gallagher and guitarist Michael Keene from The Faceless play live. Would they be able to pull their dexterous guitar feats off or were they simply studio tricks? Does Gallagher look as evil and demented as he sounds? Inquiring minds wanted to know.
Laina Dawes reviews the recent Toronto stop of the Planetary Depravity tour.
Merrimack: Gray Rigorism
Grey Rigorism is the third full-length album from French black metallers Merrimack. The record starts out strong, but over the course of the hour-long running time things become somewhat inconsistent at points.
Trivium/Chimaira/Whitechapel @ Odeon, Saskatoon, SK, November 20, 2009
Trivium has talent up the wazoo. That’s never been in doubt. The problem with the Florida band is that Matt Heafy and his mates often try far too hard to impress, the perfect example being the bloated 2008 album Shogun, which threw everything at the wall, from thrash riffs, to hooky choruses, to tempo changes, to epic song structures, with very little sticking in the end. With this fall tour being one last go-round before the band takes a break to write and record their fifth album next year, it was interesting to see Trivium downplay the Shogun record as well as 2006’s The Crusade, instead focusing primarily on the breakthrough Ascendancy, as if they were openly conceding that it’s the best album.
Marduk/Nachtmystium @ Annex Wreckroom, Toronto, ON, November 22, 2009
Late November seems as good a time as any to take in a performance by Swedish metal veterans Marduk. A concert centered around a black metal band known for its own distinct take on imagery and songs centering on everything from war machines to religious blasphemy to paganism seems strangely appropriate for a grey month squashed between the twin commercial juggernauts that are Halloween and Christmas.
Concert review by Jonathan Smith
Swallow The Sun: New Moon
At its core, New Moon is about what Swallow The Sun have been doing at their best — infectious, melancholy, and swaying lead guitar melodies eventually overwhelmed by crushing fuzz surging against the backdrops of subtle keyboard ambiance. It’s quite possible that there will be time when Swallow The Sun’s sound is in need of a new direction, but New Moon ensures that for now it’s still well worth another trip down the beaten path.