Category: Reviews
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Baby In Vain – More Nothing
After seeming to appear from nowhere with an EP which was capable of absolutely levelling listeners even if they did see it coming with pure unadulterated Riot Grrl power last year, it’s unlikely that fans of Baby In Vain expected to see a full-length album appear so soon – but the band is not only…
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Oranssi Pazuzu – Kevät / Värimyrsky EP
Eerily ethereal, beautifully brutal. These are a few bits of dark matter that have slipped through the cracks of Oranssi Pazuzu‘s ever expanding galaxy of recordings. From the band via the 20 Buck Spin website: “Although not ‘new’ in every sense of the word – the first song ‘Kevät’ was recorded during Valonielu sessions in…
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Birds – Everything All At Once LP
Birds’ new album, Everything All At Once, rightly commands attention It might sound contrived to someone who has yet to experience it themselves, but the idea that great music is capable of moving a listener spiritually and emotionally is a very real thing. On the right day, the first listen to a record can excite…
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Justin Townes Earle – Kids On The Street LP
After being toasted first and then either critically maligned or flat out ignored for a little while thereafter, Justin Townes Earle has made a sound on his seventh album (first for New West Records) that any critic worth his sand simply cannot ignore. After all the hard luck, Earle had some addiction issues and he…
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Na Cruithne – Gairm An Fhiantais
Hailing from the mighty land of Galway in Ireland, Na Cruithne meld traditional Irish music with heavy metal, showing a skill and love for this music seldom seen. Often in folk metal, one element overwhelms the other, but not so here. Na Cruithne’s music is a new beast, one extremely pleasing to the ear and,…
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Akercocke – Renaissance In Extremis
When Akercocke broke up in 2012, it was a sad loss for the metal scene, for they are that rarest of beasts, an original band with a unique vision (and I loved the suits!). Thankfully, five years on,Akercocke have returned. It’s difficult to categorize their music, featuring as it does elements of black metal, death metal,…
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A Devil’s Din – One Hallucination Under God
Montreal psychedelic power trip A Devil’s Din continues to impress with this, their wittily titled third album. It is a timeless album, one with a great sense of fun and humour. Indeed, unlike so much of today’s music, it is positively positive! Multi-instrumentalist David Lines is truly a man born out of time (as the…
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Crim – Blau sang, Vermell cel LP
The catch, when it comes to working within any pop music-based form (and, as inconvenient as it is to say, punk rock definitely falls into that category), is that language plays a key role in the music’s accessibility. Simply said, if a band’s not speaking the mother tongue of the country they’re playing to, they’ve…
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The Atomic Bitchwax – Force Field
The Atomic Bitchwax is back with 12 new tracks on this, their seventh studio album. The band that brought us such classic burners as “Birth to the Earth,” “Shitkicker” and “Hope You Die” is heavy on the riffs and the drug references on here. Toke ‘em if you got ‘em! In stark contrast to many…
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Tuskar – Arianrhod EP
The bio I read for this British sludge duo said that they grew up listening to Conan… which seems a little weird, until you get to the part where they’re barely 20 years old. And on Tuskar‘s debut EP, you can hear that influence—if Conan had no bass, they might sound something like this. Arianrhod kicks…