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?
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Pixies – Indie Cindy
When the Pixies announced that they were reuniting in 2011 after an eleven-year hiatus, the wave of excitement which crashed into the remaining residents of the alt-rock and indie nations was staggering. A whole new breed of Pixies fan – who had heard the music and heard the band championed by other musicians held in…
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Doomeastvan – ‘Tis We
If you guessed, judging by their name, that Doomeastvan was a Vancouver doom-metal band… well, you’d only be half-right. The artwork on this album screams 90s death metal, while their song titles and stage names (ie. Cazbo Low Rifferson, 333 Thee Half Beast) would make Oderus Urungus proud. I guess you could call opening track “Humans…
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Sadhak – Sadhak
Well, he’s got the first part of the band name right, anyways. Not your typical one-man Norwegian metal band, Sadhak actually plays longing, despondent doom à la Warning or 40 Watt Sun. And no, his last name’s not Walker… This debut EP consists of two songs averaging nine minutes in length. “On the Arrival of…
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Admiral Sir Cloudesly Shovell – Check ‘em Before You Wreck ‘em
I often think that I was born too late. Yes, that’s a thought inspired by the Saint Vitus album. I mean, I have all the makings of a dirty hippie. As much as I enjoy all the modernity I’m subject to, I could live an eternity on bands from and inspired by the late 60s…
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Fucked Up – Year of the Dragon
It’s time for a taste of Toronto courtesy of Fucked Up, Canada’s premier progressive hardcore sextet. No, that’s not an oxymoron, but I must admit, it’s pretty fucked up (in a good way). This three-song EP features an 18-minute title track backed by two covers of semi-obscure local 70’s punk-rock bands. Cuz really, what else where you…
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Psychotic Gardening – Hymnosis
The new self-released album from Winnipeg’s Psychotic Gardening puts a great many albums released on larger metal labels to shame. The musicianship is top-notch, production values are high, and that is a very memorable name for a band indeed. ‘Origin of the Infection’ gallops along in old-school fashion, yet those guitar flourishes give the song…
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North – Metanoia EP
North is a Tuscon trio that is pretty tight with Godhunter—about the only other Arizona sludge band I know—which is reason enough for me to give this a listen. Yet these guys are grizzled veterans, as the length of their beards would attest, with three albums already under their belts. While Metanoia is more of…
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Bloody Hammers – Under Satan’s Sun
The creative spirit must run pretty deep in Bloody Hammers mastermind Anders Manga. The latest release from this North Carolina-based outfit is Under Satan’s Sun and it just happens to be their third release in three years. Releasing material at such a clip doesn’t necessarily leave much time for a change of style. As such…
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Lord Mantis – Death Mask
I namedropped the new Lord Mantis record in my Coffinworm review, so I figured I should probably say a few words about it. Oppressive, abrasive, blacked sludge. There. Oh, so you were expecting more than a few words? Opener “Body Choke” sounds like Neurosis set to super-slow-mo, a disturbing dash of death-doom that’ll haunt you in your dreams. The title…
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EyeHateGod – EyeHateGod
Not gonna lie, this was my most-anticipated album of the year. And it’s certainly been a long time coming—the last time we heard from EyeHateGod was the odds-and-ends comp Preaching the End-Time Message waaaaaay back in ’05. They did put out a live DVD a couple years back (fun fact: I missed being in it by a day!), but in…