Category: Reviews
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Heavy Glow – The Filth & the Fury/Pearls & Swine and Everything Fine
With this San Diego psych trio, Heavy Glow, now signed to German imprint Kozmik Artifactz, both their last album, 2014’s independently released Pearls & Swine and Everything Fine, and their rarer 2010 EP, The Filth & the Fury, are being properly reissued. Not sure if they’re being sold separately or merged onto one recording, but…
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Periphery – Select Difficulty
Just short of a year after the release of the critically acclaimed double album Juggernaut:Alpha/Juggernaut:Omega, Periphery return with a new full length album, Select Difficulty. With high expectations and much anticipation, fans can stop holding their breath, because Select Difficulty is another high quality release from the Washington sextet. Select Difficulty is the natural progression…
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Misfits – Friday the 13th EP
While there’s no small part of this critic that wants to hand this band which calls itself The Misfits its lungs and dismiss them as heretics (I’ve done it continually for years), the truth is that I just can’t do it now. The truth is, the four songs which comprise the Friday the 13th EP…
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Beldam – Still the Wretched Linger
Richmond might have recently put Virginia on the map when it comes to downtuned doom, with outfits ranging from Cough to Inter Arma to Windhand, but the sludge seems to be seeping eastward to another college town an hour away. Beldam hails from Charlottesville, home of the Hoos, and their debut album is as gritty…
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Asphalt Graves – The New Primitive
Asphalt Graves, a new project boasting an impressive resume of talent with current and former members of bands like Dying Fetus, Black Dahlia Murder, and GWAR leaves something to be desired with their debut album out on Vitriol Records. Starting with a slow roll of a riff in terms of this death/grind/punk style hybrid it…
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Fistula – Longing for Infection
It might surprise you that Cleveland was recently named the most metal city in America, but it’s always had a pretty solid sludge/hardcore scene. This gritty, edgy style of music can often be found in rough ‘n tumble towns—and having seen everyone from St. Vitus to Accept to Pentagram play places like the now-closed Peabody’s…
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16 – The Lifespan of a Moth
Although sludge is usually seen as a southern staple, it also had a notable West Coast presence in its early years, with bands like Noothgrush outta Oakland and 16 from L.A., not LA. Like many early sludge outfits, 16’s discography is marked with a whole buncha splits and 7-inches, but The Lifespan of a Moth…
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Mos Generator – Abyssinia
I was a pretty big fan of Mos Generator’s last album, Electric Mountain Majesty, which was released in 2014. It was a solid blend of retro-rock and proto-doom that’s got me jonesing for the follow-up, Abyssinia. This one starts off nice ‘n heavy right outta the gate, with a great-big Swedish-style stoner rock riff in…
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Kriegs Legion – The Anti-State War Machine EP
It’s impossible to listen to Kriegs Legion‘s new EP and not flash on the crew of bands which came before them who didn’t exactly typify hardcore or punk rock in any manner but did explode forth with a sound and vision all their own under those banners. Bands of this tradition included names like D.O.A., Cosmic…
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Castle – Welcome to the Graveyard
As far as the female-fronted occult acts are concerned, I’ve always found Castle to be a cut above the fray. Granted, they’ve always had a bit of a harder edge, a more metallic sound than many of the Jex Ceremony clones—likely due to guitarist Mat Davis’ formative years in the Toronto thrash scene. Owing to…