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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Electric Wizard – Wizard Bloody Wizard
Much like Lee Dorrian rallying against occult doom while simultaneously profiting from it with Rise Above Records, something about the pre-release press for this new Electric Wizard record has rubbed me the wrong way. It seems Jus Oborn has also jumped on the “modern metal is lame” bandwagon, hailing the new album as a “return…
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Iron Monkey – 9-13
In case you missed it, there’s been a big 90’s sludge revival of late. Some of the guys in Grief are playing shows as Come to Grief, Cavity is reuniting for Days of Darkness, and now Iron Monkey returns with their first album in almost 20 years. Not that I’m complaining—I’d take any of these…
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Pristine – Ninja
As Nuclear Blast’s roster expands like some musical big bang, so does it get more and more diverse. Case in point is Pristine. Their music is hard to pigeonhole, which is as it should be, because it’s simply very good – a mixture of psychedelic rock, blues, hard rock and funk. Strong vocals from Heidi Solheim give…
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Dead Quiet – Grand Rites
Though they might be a new band, Dead Quiet are no strangers to the vaunted Vancouver heavy rock scene. Featuring former members of Barn Burner and 3 Inches of Blood, these dudes have already toured with Anciients and Black Wizard, before issuing their debut album on… a Toronto EDM label??? However, there ain’t no techno…
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Pale Horseman – The Fourth Seal
While Chicago might be more known for progressive post-sludge (think Yakuza, Minsk, The Atlas Moth, et al), it’s nice to hear a band that still plays ‘er low ‘n slow, the way Kirk Windstein intended. This foursome, Pale Horseman, is serving us up a full hour of deep-fried southern sludge on their fourth full-length in…
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Unleash The Archers – Apex
Unleash The Archers play excellent traditional metal, which I very much mean as a compliment. There are occasional diversions into harsher vocal realms, but this is unnecessary when you’ve got a vocalist as good as Brittney Slayes. Like Kobra Paige, she gives her band a strong identity and has a most metal name as an…
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Motherslug – The Electric Dunes of Titan
Admittedly, I don’t know much about the Aussie stoner scene. I mean, there’s never been a Desertfest Australia… although that would probably make more sense than Desertfest Berlin, when you think about it. So I can’t say I knew much about Motherslug before I pushed play. With that said, this album cover screams Nebula, and…
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Various Artists – American Epic (5CD Box Set)
It might sound like a bit of a reach on the surface, but the first thing that listening to American Epic reminded me of was my university experience and how music like that which can be found on this box set changed my life. My first full-time year, I took – in addition to the…
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Burning Witches – Burning Witches
A band needs a good name, and Burning Witches is an excellent one. This group of five lady metallers truly are on fire! Musically, this is old school metal, à la Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and especially the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Which is to say, your actual songs! There are enough contemporary influences…
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Year of the Cobra – Burn Your Dead
This husband/wife, bass/drums, stoner/doom duo is sorta like Seattle’s answer to Jucifer… only without quite as many amplifiers, I presume. After their debut album dropped last year, they’ve followed it up with this five-song, 25-minute, 12-inch EP on Magnetic Eye Records. “Cold” wastes little time in getting down to business, with a heavy, fuzzy bass…