Category: Reviews

  • Misery Index: Retaliate

    Misery Index is a long running death/grind outfit from Baltimore, Maryland. This album, their debut full length, was recorded originally back in April 2003 at Wild Studio in St-Zenon, Quebec and it is one of the most blistering technical, speed shattering, deathgrind cds of all time.

  • Todesbonden: Sleep Now, Quiet Forest

    Todesbonden’s full-length album feels refreshing, which perhaps isn’t surprising given the images of breezy fields and mossy forests that Sleep Now, Quiet Forest conjures up within the listener’s mind.

  • Thor: Keep The Dogs Away (30th anniversary reissue)

    This 1978 full length debut album by the Vancouver, British Columbia based artist known only as Thor was an original RCA vinyl release and it has never made too much impact on my heavy metal ears. I really don’t call Thor’s first album real metal, instead I’ve always considered it glam rock like the Sweet,…

  • Axis Powers: Marching Towards Destruction

    Forget concept albums…..have you heard of concept bands? Sweden’s Axis Powers (whom I assume took their name from the military alliance of countries that formed in 1940….Hitler-run Germany being one of the strongest members….which if correct doesn’t sit with me that well) has dedicated themselves and their album “Marching Towards Destruction” to war.

  • Viatrophy: s/t

    The debut album from England’s Viatrophy offers an enjoyable collection of melodic death metal tracks that only get better as things progress.

  • Eagle Twin: The Unkindness of Crows

    Much as Gentry Densley used jazz in order to elevate hardcore in The Iceburn Collective, so does he use jazz (among other things) in order to plunge doom further into its depths. As The Iceburn Collective cast hardcore in a new light, so does Eagle Twin cast doom in a new darkness.

  • Throne of Katarsis: Helvete-Det Iskalde Mørket

    Norway’s Throne of Katarsis have produced a sophomore full-length album that is, in almost every way, a recreation of much of the early nineties Norwegian black metal sound.

  • Progressive Nation tour @ Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto ON, August 14, 2009

    This past Friday marked the Toronto stop of this year’s Progressive Nation tour, the now-annual summer festival curated by and starring Dream Theater as headliners – basically their chance to take out some of their favourite bands on tour with them across North America playing outdoor amphitheaters. Sean Palmerston reviews the recent Toronto stop of…

  • Korpiklaani: Karkelo

    Another year, another Korpiklaani album. Depending on how you feel about these fun-loving Finns, they’re either showing tremendous resilience in putting out six albums in fewer than six years, or they’re continuing to inundate listeners with their repetitive music.

  • November’s Doom: Into Night’s Requiem Infernal

    By Melissa Andrews Into Night’s Requiem Infernal is the latest offering from November’s Doom. I loved the band’s previous release The Novella Reservoir so I was greatly anticipating this album. It’s not quite as good but this album is definitely going to be on high rotation on my iPhone for the next little while. The…