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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Sleep – The Sciences
With the length of time that has elapsed since Sleep released Jerusalem, it would be logical to think that with the passage of time, Sleep’s ability to forge earth-crushing riffs might have diminished. But no, The Sciences can stand beside Holy Mountain and the aforementioned Jerusalem. It is, in the best possible way, exactly what you’d…
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Various Artists – Contract In Blood: A History of UK Thrash Metal boxset
This is a superb collection of music to provide the soundtrack to Ian Glasper’s fine book of the same name which I feel is one of the best music books ever written – Contract In Blood: A History of UK Thrash Metal. This is a most comprehensive selection of music with no less than 83…
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Integrity & Krieg Split
Integrity and Krieg join up for a brutal, crushing split following the release of Integrity’s critically acclaimed 2017 album, Howling, For the Nightmare Shall Consume. The split, running 23 minutes in length, serves to provide an even balance of metalcore and black metal. The Integrity half is definitely hardcore and is more of what we…
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Witch Mountain – Witch Mountain
The three previous albums from Witch Mountain – Cauldron of the Wild, South of Salem, Mobile of Angels – are truly superb. This is the first Witch Mountain album with Kayla Dixon on vocals. She has an incredible voice, powerful, heartfelt. The songs are excellent. This is timeless music, made for all the right reasons. Billy Anderson…
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Horehound – Holocene
Pittsburgh has been a pretty solid, low-key player on the doom scene ever since Dream Death first coined the term “sludge metal” by blending doom and thrash in the 80’s. Continuing the tradition of bands like Penance, Argus and Brimstone Coven, Horehound is currently shopping its second album, Holoscene, to like-minded labels. This six-track, 44-minute…
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AxMinister – The Crucible of Sin
AxMinister have arisen like vengeful wraiths from the frozen tundra of Ontario to save the metal world from trends! Founded in 1999, this power-trio are metal for life, and it shows. The Crucible of Sin is a great thrash/traditional metal album, showing strong influences from Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica to full effect. The production is…
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Forming the Void – Rift
Lafayette, Louisiana might only be 150 miles from New Orleans, but native sons Forming the Void are much further removed from the NOLA sludge metal of Eyehategod or Crowbar. Their 2017 record Relic reminded me of a cross between Torche and Sleep, with a side of early Mastodon, and landed on my year-end top 10…
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Black Elephant – Cosmic Blues
Album number three from Black Elephant landed in late July on Small Stone Records. Their heavy, fuzzy psychedelic rock is certainly right at home on one of the leading purveyors of stoner rock, as this Italian outfit walk the line between desert rock and vintage psych jams for 34 minutes. “Cosmic Soul” kicks things off with a mellow…
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Corrosion of Conformity – No Cross, No Crown
After two albums with the classic three-piece line-up of Woody Weatherman on guitars and vocals, Mike Dean on bass and vocals, and Reed Mullin on drums, Corrosion of Conformity have reunited with legendary vocalist/guitarist Pepper Keenan! Instantly we are back in Deliverance territory with strong, heavy and sincere songs. COC’s music comes from the heart,…
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Fu Manchu – Clone of the Universe
In an ever-changing universe, one thing that is pleasingly consistent is a new Fu Manchu album; it is as though this album was always with us, like some 70s stoner artifact. Fuzzy riff and grooves abound, and tracks like “Slower Than Light,” “Don’t Panic,” and the title track will please long-term Fu-fans. Interestingly though, the final…