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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Elvis Presley – Boy From Tupelo (3CD box set)
It’s strange but, now forty years after his death, the image of Elvis Presley hasn’t faded but has become pretty two-dimensional. For many, the popular images of Elvis are basically that of the man who swivelled his hips and made women swoon as he sang “Heartbreak Hotel,” and that of the fat man who ate…
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Friendship – Hatred
Who says heavy music can’t have a sense of humour? Calling this Japanese outfit Friendship is a little on the nose, but the title of this none-more-black record is much more appropriate. These caustic Care Less Bears blast through 12 tracks of blackened, sludgy crust in a little over 25 minutes on this don’t-call-it-an-EP, with…
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Kobra and the Lotus – Prevail I
Three years on from the last Kobra and the Lotus album ‘High Priestess’, the band unleash their latest opus ‘Prevail I’, the title of which is a searing statement of intent. Kobra and the Lotus are here for the long haul, here to see trends come and go. They are all about a love for…
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Perturbator + Bulkhead @ The Velvet Underground, 1 October 2017
Time to turn back the clock. The Velvet Underground is alive with retrofuturists as French synthwave artist Perturbator, James Kent, hits Toronto for the second night in a row, following last night’s sold out performance. This hotly anticipated show was originally scheduled for the Saturday but was moved to Monday, which explains why the venue…
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Wo Fat – Live Juju (at Freak Valley and Beyond)
From Made in Japan to Double Live Gonzo, not to mention those supposed Knights in Satan’s Service, the double live album has historically been a heavy-rock staple, albeit one that’s seemingly gone extinct. But with vinyl’s resurgence combined with doom’s patience-testing album lengths, ’twas only a matter of time before we saw its return. And…
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Seven Sisters – Seven Sisters
During the summer I attended one of Bad Reputation’s tenth anniversary gigs at Dolan’s. Bad Reputation are Limerick-based promoters who do a sterling job of promoting metal. This Halloween Orange Goblin are headlining their bi-annual Siege of Limerick festival – well done lads, you really have come a long way. At that same gig, I…
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Exhumed – Death Revenge
Bay Area Death Metal veterans Exhumed have a new release coming out October 13th via Relapse Records. It’s entitled Death Revenge, and to put it in simplest terms, it’s brutal as fuck. What you know and appreciate (at least I have) is that Exhumed have always stayed pretty true to who they are, so you usually…
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Enslaved – E
Enslaved is back with another slab of weirdness that only they can conjure. The band has been at it for more than 25 years now; their name is etched on the black metal pantheon for eternity. But to just call a band like Enslaved ‘black metal’ is patently absurd in 2017. That’s fine – they…
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Primitive Man – Caustic
Caustic is a fitting title for the second album from drawn-out Denver death doomsters Primitive Man, who push the patience with no less than 77 minutes of misery on this release. Having set the tone with their Scorn-ful debut and subsequent series of splits, you pretty much know what you’re getting into when you push…
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Panzer – Fatal Command
Comprising members of Destruction (bassist and vocalist Schmier), and ex-Accept members Herman Frank on guitars and drummer Stefan Schwarzmann, you would expect the quality of the music from Panzer to be high and it is. Their fine debut album ‘Send Them All To Hell’ was more thrash-orientated, whereas the new album, though it will still appeal…