Category: Reviews
-
Comet Control – Center of the Maze
This is the second release from Toronto psych rock outfit Comet Control, following their self-titled debut in 2014. A couple of these guys have some history with Tee Pee stalwarts Quest for Fire, although I found their new outfit to be a little more structured and poppy than its predecessor. Before I give that one…
-
Arctic – self-titled
Three California skaters drop out, tune down and start jamming. Based on that backstory, I’m expecting some kinda cross between Earthless and The Shrine, and Arctic doesn’t totally disappoint on their debut EP. “Over Smoked” kicks off this five-track effort, a nine-minute slow burn that gets heads nodding almost from the get-go with its heavy-psych…
-
It’s Not Night, It’s Space – Our Birth is But a Sleep and a Forgetting
This instro heavy-psych trio hails from New Paltz, a small town in New York’s Hudson Valley, which I believe is on the bus route from Cooperstown to Kingston, NY. After a couple independently released albums, they’ve signed to Small Stone for this, their third record. The artist often shortened to INNIS seems to share post-rock’s…
-
Throttlerod – Turncoat
These Virginia veterans and Small Stone mainstays have just put out their first album in almost seven years. Turncoat is album number five from this heavy-rock outfit, and their fourth for the Detroit label, to which they’ve been signed almost since the turn of the century. (They have the distinction of covering “Black Betty” on…
-
Blekkmetal Film – screening July 3 in Montreal
Blekkmetal is a compelling video document – worth watching simply for the live performances the film captures, but even more so for its unique entry into and perspective on the Norwegian black metal scene. This documentary / concert film isn’t and won’t be widely available, so if you have the chance to catch its Canadian premiere in…
-
Diamond Head – Diamond Head
Diamond Head has been around for the better part of 40 years. They’ve been there since the beginning, when heavy metal as a genre was being created. Their influence is well-documented; their importance in the canon of the heavy metal story is solidified. But you’d be hard-pressed to find any metalhead worth their salt not…
-
Ancient Shapes – Ancient Shapes LP
While Daniel Romano has found great success exposing his Country & Western inspirations over the last few years (both 2011’s Sleep Beneath The Willows and 2013’s Come Cry With Me got longlisted for the Polaris Music Prize in those respective years), it’s refreshing and relieving to hear that the singer has elected to turn up…
-
The Second Coming of Heavy, Chapter III (BoneHawk/Kingnomad split)
In some ways, Ripple Music is sorta like a modern-day MeteorCity—a great little label bringing underground heavy music to the masses. Ripple also has its own series of split albums; of which this is the third installment. I haven’t heard of either of these bands, so I’m not expecting Lowrider/Nebula here, but if Ripple’s logo…
-
VENOMOUS CONCEPT – KICK ME SILLY – VC III
Venomous Concept is a supergroup built upon the backs of some of grindcore’s forefathers, but aside from several blasting passages, as with the accelerated latter-half of “Neck Tie”, the band is much more in tune with eighties punk rock and hardcore, not unlike the band which their own namesake pays homage to with a play…
-
Völur – Disir
I’ve seen this Toronto trio live at least a couple times, most recently opening for The Body atop a skateboard ramp on Bathurst. The bass/drums/violin outfit notably features Blood Ceremony bassist Lukas Gadke, who also lends some death-metal growls to the proceedings. I suppose you could file this one under “Doom,” but I’d hesitate to slap…