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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Infrared – Saviours
“Not dead which eternal lies / But with stranger aeons even death may die.” … The words of H.P. Lovecraft referring to his Cthulu Mythos, but they could so easily apply to thrash metal, with new bands inspired by the original artists, and indeed, the original artists themselves returning. Such a band is Infrared, who are not…
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Scorched – Ecliptic Butchery
If you haven’t heard of the death metal wizards of Scorched before, you’re going to want to turn your ear towards them as they are about to release one of the greatest death metal records of the last ten years. In just over a month, they’ll release their second full-length record entitled, Ecliptic Butchery, on…
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Ape Vermin – Sonic Monolith
Sonic Monolith is an impressive debut for a band that only formed last year. It’s a band that have a built in audience with their Sabbath-meets-Conan sludge metal. The album also has a concept, that of higher beings attempting to repopulate the galaxy with a new species of ape… as you do! Well, it could…
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Aepoch – Awakening Inception
Aepoch, the up-and-coming Canadian death metal group from Cambridge, Ontario have released a solid debut album to launch themselves to a place of recognition with some amazing riffs, composition, lyrics and flow. Brett MacIntosh, Kyle Edissi, Taylor Wroblewski and Greg Carvalho mix perfectly and their instruments lend very well to one another. The lyrics focus…
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The Skull – The Endless Road Turns Dark
When The Skull played Toronto on a cold winter’s night in January, they ran through Trouble’s self-titled in its entirety before tacking on a couple of originals at the end. Hey, after all, that 1990 record has been long out of print, and this outfit includes both Eric Wagner, the voice of Trouble, along with…
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Brant Bjork – Mankind Woman
The press release for this record was all talking about how this is Brant Bjork’s most political album yet, cuz apparently you gotta be political to sell records in this day and age. But when I listen to Mankind Woman, I don’t hear politics—it’s all about the grooves, maaaaan! This 11-track effort kicks off with…
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La Chinga – Beyond the Sky
The third album from this heavy rockin’ trio proves that rock ‘n roll hasn’t been priced out of Vancouver… yet. Their second effort for Small Stone Records is heading straight outta the 70’s, with 11 tracks clocking in at an even 45 minutes. “Nothing That I Can’t Do” starts off with a heavy boogie-rock riff…
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Black Tusk – TCBT
A bit of a new look for Black Tusk on this one, as this Georgia trio puts out its first new record since replacing the late Johnathan Athon with ex-Kylesa bassist Corey Barhorst. But while the lead singer might have changed, the song largely remains the same—despite some slight variations, their brand of thrashy, sludgy…
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Astral Witch – self-titled
I first saw this Hamilton outfit when they were a guitar/drums duo; Astral Witch have since added a bassist/occasional lead vocalist to the mix, giving their sound some added dynamics on their self-titled debut. Astral Witch begins with a doomy bass line on “Rune” before the rest of the band comes grooving up slowly, adding…
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Primitive Man/Unearthly Trance split
With both of these Relapse sludgy doomsters known for their droning, drawn-out numbers, I’m surprised this split between Primitive Man and Unearthly Trance is under 45 minutes. Each band gets three songs, with the opening track “Merging” serving as a mysterious one-minute collaboration between them both. Actually scratch that, Primitive Man’s A Side only has…