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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Enslaved – E
Of course, after so many years, the excitement is already there as soon as a new Enslaved release is announced. They continue to surprise though, and digging in to their fourteenth studio album, “E“, was nothing short of delightful. Just one track in – the below single, “Storm Son” – and new listeners will be…
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Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats – Vol 1
With the abundance of audio recording software that’s out there, pretty much any guy with a laptop can cut a couple tracks in his spare time. I might even have a few of those sitting on my computer somewhere, but trust me, you DON’T wanna hear them! On the other hand, if that guy with…
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Municipal Waste – Slime & Punishment
This is music without scepticism; it is created with innocence as all good art should be. Municipal Waste are a band truly born out of time, weaned on a diet of beer, 80s music and films – they create their own version of what we now can see was creatively a great time. Lots of…
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Amenra – Mass VI
After destroying several stages while opening for Neurosis and Converge, this trilingual Belgian sludge squad have graced us with their sixth album. If you didn’t show up early enough to see Amenra‘s live set, this is what you missed. Mass VI offers up six new songs spanning just under 41 minutes, although two tracks are…
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Prophets of Rage – Prophets of Rage
I’d like to start this review by saying that I won’t personally be sharing my specific political views or opinions. I’ll do my best not to make this overly political, but it’s impossible to divorce the music from the message with a band like Prophets of Rage. Anyone familiar with Rage Against the Machine or…
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BongCauldron – Binge
Hailing from the U.K. by way of the Ministry of Silly Names, this trio wears its Weedeater and Bongzilla influences on their sleeves—right down to their redneck nicknames. Corky, Jay and Biscuit of BongCauldron bring us eight tracks of downtuned heaviness on this, their debut album. Binge begins with the simply titled “Devil,” with a…
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Venom Inc – Ave
Venom are, after Black Sabbath and Motorhead, the third most influential band in the history of heavy metal. Thrash metal, speed metal ,death metal, black metal… all owe a huge debt to Venom. The first four Venom albums, especially the first two – ‘Welcome To Hell’ and ‘Black Metal’ – are stone cold classics. This is…
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Kadavar – Rough Times
After the demise of Graveyard, it could be argued that Kadavar are now the leading purveyors of Euro psych—at least on the continent. Their fourth album, and third for Nuclear Blast, would do little to disprove this theory, as the Berlin trio brings some solid tuneage for a good 45 minutes. Rough Times opens with…
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The Night Flight Orchestra – Amber Galactic
Sometimes the degree of talent involved in a project leads you to expect that the said project will be at least as great, if not as good as the sum of its parts. Sadly, despite the competent musicianship displayed here (hence the five out of ten for that), this is music created by committee. The Night…
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Cradle of Filth – Cyptoriana: The Seductiveness of Decay
There is often talk about what band will be the next Iron Maiden. To my mind, a strong contender has to be Cradle of Filth. Their music is first class, easily up there with the Iron Maidens and Judas Priests of this world. Moreover, like the aforementioned Iron Maiden, they are steeping in the story-telling tradition.…