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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Genocide Pact – Order of Torment
Well what can I say, I had never heard of the Death Metal act Genocide Pact prior to the fine folks at Relapse Records sending me this gem of an album, and I’m super stoked they did. Order of Torment is due out on February 2nd on the aforementioned Relapse Records and it is a…
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Black Moth – Anatomical Venus
Often reviews of an album consist of ‘this sounds like band x’, the singer sounds like ‘singer y’, and ‘this album sounds like album z’. But this is not the case with Black Moth: they are special; they sound like Black Moth, no one else. This in itself is a mighty achievement.Their song-writing and performances are…
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Heave Blood and Die – Vol II
Now, based on the band name you’re probably thinking I’m about to review a grindcore outfit, or maybe an uber-kvlt black metal brigade. Well no, not even close—although they are from Norway. But their sound is far removed from the grim, frostbitten forest. Instead, they’re more akin to the Georgia prog-sludge of early Baroness or…
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Blackwülf – Sinister Sides
You can tell Blackwülf is from Oakland right from the opening notes of this, their third album—the Bay Area quartet channels local legends like Sleep and Acid King in their stoner doom worship. Speaking of legends, Geof O’Keefe of Pentagram fame plays guest guitar on a cover of the proto-stoner Cream classic “Sunshine of Your…
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Astrakhan – Without New Growth Process is Bloodshed
When I finally sat down to get down to the business of writing this review I put each song on repeat separately for a number of spins while making notes on each one. That is the wrong way to listen to Without New Growth Process is Bloodshed. Astrakhan‘s latest (and last… I’ll get to that)…
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Hooded Menace – Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed
Death doom can often be hit or miss for me, but I was a big fan of Hooded Menace’s last album, Darkness Drips Forth, which seemed to be a little light on the “death”—except in the vocal department. I’d be perfectly happy if they followed a similar path on this one. An ossuarium is a…
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Sass Jordan – Racine Revisited
Twenty-five years ago, Sass Jordan made her first big breakthrough onto Canadian radio airwaves with her sophomore album Racine. It was very much a “right place, right time” kind of moment – with bands like the Black Crowes and singers like Melissa Etheridge holding a whole lot of time and space on playlists around the…
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Coffin Torture – Dismal Planet
This South Carolina sludge duo only had three indie EPs and a couple live-off-the-floor albums to their credit, but The Sludgelord liked them so much, they started a label just so they could sign ‘em. So that’s gotta count for something. Dismal Planet offers up seven tracks, most around the seven-minute range, on their full-length…
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Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard / Slomatics – Totem
You gotta love Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard. It’s like someone fired up a Random Doom Metal Name Generator, gave it a few spins, then picked their two favourites. What’s also cool about this band is that they sing in Welsh, although one of the titles of their two contributions to this split LP with UK…
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Apostle of Solitude – From Gold to Ash
I rarely, if ever, have been disappointed by Apostle of Solitude. The veteran Indiana doomsters have been at it for more than decade now, and their last three full-lengths have all found favour in my books. (“December Drives Me to Tears” is one of my all-time favourite doom tunes.) These guys tend to be gloomier…