Category: Reviews – Audio
Glorious metal in all its earthly forms, compressed onto shiny plastic discs or into digital files. Which ones will become the soundtrack to your life?
-
High Spirits – You Are Here
High Spirits‘ You Are Here is resolutely old-school ’80s hard rock/metal, and if that’s your bag (baby!) it’ll definitely do you. I like the cover design by the way (very clever). On the positive side, it’s nice to listen to something that’s fun and cheerful, but in this case it’s the musical equivalent of a burger,…
-
The Body Politic – Egressor EP
Taking their name from a Clive Barker story, The Body Politic share a similar desire to take their art in new directions. Opening track “Vtam Agere” is the perfect intro to the EP, short ,modern and original, and something that would work well in film soundtrack. Second track “Armature” shows the band to be technically…
-
Bastard of the Skies/Grimpen Mire split
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never heard either of these British bands before, though they’ve both been around for a handful of years. But that’s what’s great about splits—they’re a bite-sized introduction to acts otherwise unknown, without putting you through the paces of a 72-minute album or something. And while I’m not…
-
Music Blues – Things Haven’t Gone Well
I must admit that I’m somewhat partial to the autobiographical sludge solo project. (Let’s just say that if I ever get my shit off the ground, you’ll hear it here first.) Music Blues is the nom de plume of Stephen Tanner, ex-bassist of Harvey Milk—who weren’t exactly a band of happy campers to begin with.…
-
Disparager – Timeless, Ageless
Passion and sincerity are what matters most in music, and Disparager have an overabundance of those. Opening with “Pictures,” the band show themselves as technically adroit but never at the expense of the actual song. “Tuesday Love” is raw in its emotion; this is an antidote to the fake music that clogs up the airwaves…
-
Missiles of October – Don’t Panic
A Belgian band named after the Cuban Missile Crisis is not something you hear every day. Nor are they the only outfit with that moniker—there’s also a soul/folk band from California that beat them to the domain name for Missiles of October. That being said, if it came down to an armed nuclear standoff, I’d…
-
Secret Cutter – Self Titled
It’s not cool to cut yourself; remember that, kids. But Secret Cutter, a bassless trio from Bethlehem (Pennsylvania, that is), is out to make the baby Jesus cry with their self-titled debut, a 26-minute blast of sludge-metal sickness. Downtuned chugs abound on tracks like album opener “Mirror Mirror” with glass-shattering vocals straining to be heard in…
-
Blues Pills – Self-Titled
I’ve been hearing a bit of buzz about Blues Pills for some time, albeit predominantly from the other side of the pond. Though not a super group by any stretch (I think their bassist was in Radio Moscow or something), this multinational outfit unites an American rhythm section with a French guitar prodigy and a…
-
Brimstone Coven – Self-Titled
I actually just saw these recent Metal Blade signees about a month ago at Days of the Doomed IV, where I was knocked out by their exuberance, their raw power – and their punctuality! (They took the stage promptly at 3 pm.) Not sure if that performance led to their new record deal or if it…
-
Nunslaughter – Angelic Dread
If the review of the Spooky split with Acid Switch whetted your appetite for more Nunslaughter, read on… Angelic Dread is Nunslaughter’s first full length in seven years and has been well worth the wait. It has a lot of excellent tracks and thus is great value for the money. The first disc consists fifteen brand…