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?

  • Clamfight – III

    Clamfight – III

    Man, I really dug Clamfight’s second record, which came out almost five years ago. In tr00 none-more-kvlt fashion, they put out a live cassette tape that was limited to 20 copies in 2014, but no one has really heard from them since… until now. Their aptly named third album offers five tracks in just under…

  • WarCall – Invaders

    WarCall – Invaders

    Like a black metal Motorhead or the mutant offspring of New Wave of British Heavy Metal legends Tank, WarCall really live up to their name! Indeed the comparisons with Motorhead and Tank are apt as WarCall are a strong power trio. On this, their fourth album (following ‘Demonarchy’, ‘Blood, Guts and Dirt’, and ‘III’), they show…

  • The Hazytones – self-titled

    The Hazytones – self-titled

    It seems that there hasn’t been a solid heavy rock outfit outta Montreal since Priestess was in its prime. Enter The Hazytones, a stoner power trio that just got picked up by Ripple Music. Their self-titled debut offers 40 minutes of heavy tuneage to burn one to! “Light of the Day” starts things off with…

  • Baby In Vain – More Nothing

    Baby In Vain – More Nothing

    After seeming to appear from nowhere with an EP which was capable of absolutely levelling listeners even if they did see it coming with pure unadulterated Riot Grrl power last year, it’s unlikely that fans of Baby In Vain expected to see a full-length album appear so soon – but the band is not only…

  • Oranssi Pazuzu – Kevät / Värimyrsky EP

    Oranssi Pazuzu – Kevät / Värimyrsky EP

    Eerily ethereal, beautifully brutal.  These are a few bits of dark matter that have slipped through the cracks of Oranssi Pazuzu‘s ever expanding galaxy of recordings. From the band via the 20 Buck Spin website: “Although not ‘new’ in every sense of the word – the first song ‘Kevät’ was recorded during Valonielu sessions in…

  • Na Cruithne – Gairm An Fhiantais

    Na Cruithne – Gairm An Fhiantais

    Hailing from the mighty land of Galway in Ireland, Na Cruithne meld traditional Irish music with heavy metal, showing a skill and love for this music seldom seen. Often in folk metal, one element overwhelms the other, but not so here. Na Cruithne’s music is a new beast, one extremely pleasing to the ear and,…

  • Akercocke – Renaissance In Extremis

    Akercocke – Renaissance In Extremis

    When Akercocke broke up in 2012, it was a sad loss for the metal scene, for they are that rarest of beasts, an original band with a unique vision (and I loved the suits!). Thankfully, five years on,Akercocke have returned. It’s difficult to categorize their music, featuring as it does elements of black metal, death metal,…

  • A Devil’s Din – One Hallucination Under God

    A Devil’s Din – One Hallucination Under God

    Montreal psychedelic power trip A Devil’s Din continues to impress with this, their wittily titled third album. It is a timeless album, one with a great sense of fun and humour. Indeed, unlike so much of today’s music, it is positively positive! Multi-instrumentalist David Lines is truly a man born out of time (as the…

  • The Atomic Bitchwax – Force Field

    The Atomic Bitchwax – Force Field

    The Atomic Bitchwax is back with 12 new tracks on this, their seventh studio album. The band that brought us such classic burners as “Birth to the Earth,” “Shitkicker” and “Hope You Die” is heavy on the riffs and the drug references on here. Toke ‘em if you got ‘em! In stark contrast to many…

  • Tuskar – Arianrhod EP

    Tuskar – Arianrhod EP

    The bio I read for this British sludge duo said that they grew up listening to Conan… which seems a little weird, until you get to the part where they’re barely 20 years old. And on Tuskar‘s debut EP, you can hear that influence—if Conan had no bass, they might sound something like this. Arianrhod kicks…