Pistons: We’re Pistons
Punk rock Italians Pistons recorded this ten-track album, which sounds like a cross between vintage Sex Pistols and the modern version of Motorhead, in nine hours but I wish they had spent more time, or recorded more songs.
Reviews – Audio
Mondo Generator: Cocaine Rodeo (deluxe edition)
Cocaine Rodeo is an offbeat mixture of plodding, bass-heavy alt rock, and sub- two-minute punk tunes.
Baroness: Blue Record
Blue Record is a forward-thinking pastiche of all points of sludge/stoner/doom light as informed by a bunch of toothless, Smokey Mountain ban-jer pickers, the Thin Lizzy fanclub, the Melvins irreverence, Converge’s 21st Century output and Queen’s penchant for mini rock operas.
Count Raven: Mammons War
Mammons War is kick-ass Doom metal offering, combining elements from several genres; Dan “Fodde” Fondelius has done a fine job creating that. A very respectable and a pretty cool album to check out.
3: Revisions
It’s hard to think of any other contemporary progressive rock band that combines complexity, discipline, and catchiness better than 3. The upstate New York band has been steadily improving with each record, but it was their fifth album, 2007’s The End is Begun, that established them as one of the more promising prog acts today, the kind of band that could easily make the jump from King Crimson-esque dexterity to the kind of sweeping melodic hooks and economical beats that Rush excelled at back in the mid-’80s. Led by the smooth tenor voice of guitarist/singer Joey Eppard, 3 brings an element that bands like Coheed and Cambria, Porcupine Tree, and the gawd-awful Dream Theater (‘scuse the blasphemy, prog geeks) never quite had: enormous crossover appeal.
Adrien Begrand reviews the new, upcoming 3 album set for release on Metal Blade on October 27th.
Vader: Necropolis
Polska death metal masterminds Vader throw punches with absolutely no remorse on their latest release Necropolis; composing varied sounds and melodies to keep things fresh yet brutal.
The Red Chord: Fed Through The Teeth Machine
From a musical standpoint, Fed Through The Teeth Machine is as strong as the Red Chord has ever sounded.
Adrien Begrand reviews the new album by Boston-area metal quartet The Red Chord.
Marduk: Wormwood
In the midst of harvest time, Swedish metal veterans Marduk have offered up Wormwood. It’s a grotesque feast of sonic gore, and as such brings to mind the best in bombastic and blasphemous splatter movies. Like a lot of its cinematic counterparts, however, the album is a mixed-bag.
Harvestman: In A Dark Tongue
In A Dark Tongue is built on the foundations of folk, yet wanders all over the musical soundscape throughout the 12 tracks, ranging from blissful layered guitar, to pounding electronic overtones, to a Gaelic inspired John Martyn cover. However, the album flows completely naturally, so the disjointed styles don’t seem out of place.
Mean Streak: Metal Slave
The pace is very steady with solid lead guitars going back and forth, Metal Slave is about exactly what you always wanted in a NWOBHM style album. These guys give a helluva good performance, showing a great influence of Judas Priest, Battleaxe, Saxon and early Scorpions. It is a pleasure to listen to a debut album like this