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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The Obsessed – Sacred
It’s a pleasure to have The Obsessed back. The Church Within is one of my all-time favourite albums, and in a just universe everyone who professes to love music has a copy. Wino is one of rock’s great singers, period, an amazing sincere, powerful voice; he’s up there with Chris Cornell, Robert Plant— all the truly…
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Olde – Temple
They say that wisdom comes with age, and this quintet of Toronto scene vets are moving further along the path of enlightenment with Temple, their second album. The record kicks off with “Subterfuge,” a mid-paced sludgy stomp with a couple shades of Crowbar, particularly in the vocal department. “Now I See You” injects some southern-style…
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Iapetus – The Long Road Home
There is something really special about Iapetus‘s latest offering, The Long Road Home, a vortex of everything good that exists in technical, progressive metal. Honestly, this record floored me the first time I gave it a full spin. This is not a difficult album to enjoy; it is in fact a pleasure to listen to,…
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Doom Side of the Moon – self-titled
Chris Barnes has been dead to me ever since Six Feet Under unleashed the abomination known as Graveyard Classics 2, aka Barnes in Black. Although their first album of death-metal covers was actually kinda fun, the world did NOT need a half-assed re-creation of AC/DC’s most iconic album with Cookie Monster vomiting all over it.…
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Bloodclot – Up In Arms
First and foremost I have to say, I’m not a hardcore guy, but I do enjoy some good punk from time to time. With that said, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the band Bloodclot and their upcoming release entitled Up In Arms, due out July 14th via Metal Blade Records. What I got was…
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Expulsion – Nightmare Future
Do you like grindcore? How about fast and extreme? Well, take your blood pressure medication and hit play. Expulsion’s highly anticipated album Nightmare Future drops on July 10th via Relapse Records and it is brutal! The band consists of grind/metal veterans Matt Olivo (Repulsion), Matt Harvey (Exhumed, Gruesome), Danny Walker (Intronaut, Exhumed, Phobia), and Menno Verbaten…
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Shroud Eater – Strike the Sun
Strike the Sun is the second full-length from Miami trio Shroud Eater, although, like many sludge outfits, they’ve put out a handful of singles, splits and EPs in the interim. I had the chance, in theory, to catch them at Psycho Las Vegas last year… but it was a missed opportunity, since I didn’t see…
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Slow Death Lights – self-titled
Anything with Brant Bjork’s name on it has gotta be good, right? When I heard that this local Toronto outfit travelled all the way down to the California desert to record two tracks at Bjork’s own studio, I was certainly impressed. Can’t say I’ve heard of Slow Death Lights before, but with Brant’s endorsement they’ve…
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Cavernlight – As We Cup Our Hands and Drink From the Stream of Our Ache
Many of you know Adam Bartlett as the man behind Gilead Media. He also has a distro called Eroding Winds and a real-life, literally brick and mortar record shop in Oshkosh. Pretty crazy. But did you know he plays drums in Cavernlight, the depressive doom band he founded over 10 years ago with guitarist/vocalist Scott…
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Poseidon – Prologue
It takes a few minutes for the riffs to kick in on Prologue, the debut album from British post-sludge outfit Poseidon, but once they do, they hit the mark. This four-track, 45-minute effort starts off fittingly enough with “The Beginning, The End, The Colony,” which may or may not be a three-parter, clocking in at…