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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Asatta – Spiraling Into Oblivion
Milwaukee earned its spot on the doom metal map a few years back, with the Days of the Doomed fest bringing a whole buncha slow ‘n heavy outfits to a small, cozy bar by the airport. I had the pleasure of attending said festival a couple times, enduring up to 14 straight hours of doom…
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Sahg – Memento Mori
I first saw this Norwegian outfit open for Celtic Frost and 1349 nearly a decade ago, and I liked ‘em so much, I bought their debut CD. Wasn’t as much of a fan of their sophomore effort, II, which came out in ’08… but I haven’t actually heard from them since. Not that they’ve gone…
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TMHM – Stage Names
Now frankly, I’m not sure if there’s anything resembling a hardcore scene in Regina—I’ve only stopped a couple times at a local Travelodge on the way to Winnipeg. But this outfit caught my ear pretty quickly within the opening minutes of their full-length debut. (OK, with eight tracks in less than 25 minutes, you could…
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Happy 30th birthday to… Motorhead’s Orgasmatron
It seems almost impossible to believe, but thirty years ago on this date Motorhead‘s Orgasmatron album was released on an unsuspecting public. It was the first album to see release after the band’s 10th anniversary celebrations and was the first full-length to feature Phil Campbell and Wurzel on guitar, along with former Saxon drummer Pete…
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Devil to Pay – A Bend in Space and Time
Album number five from these Indiana stalwarts sees the band keeping with the cosmic themes of its predecessor, Fate is Your Muse. But this time, the lyrics seem more grounded in reality, including the Lemmy tribute track “Your Inner Lemmy” where Devil to Pay certainly channel one Mr. Kilmeister. This record starts off on a faster…
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Skeleton Witch – The Apothic Gloom EP
The soothing tones of an acoustic guitar float to the listener’s ear when you click play on the newest EP from Ohio’s Skeleton Witch. The Apothic Gloom swells to a crescendo of happiness before causing a windmill neck injury. This is the first recording with new vocalist Adam Clemans, formerly of Veil of Maya, and he does…
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Howling Giant – Black Hole Space Wizard (Part 1)
This is hardly the kinda stuff you’d expect to hear outta Nashville. While Music Row is all caught up in producing purely putrid pop music and inexplicably marketing it as country, a forward-thinking, heavy-rock trio has emerged from deep beneath the wreckage of country music’s soul. Sonically, Howling Giant seem to be the missing link between…
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Numenorean – Home
If you’re looking for Canada’s answer to Inter Arma, look no further than Calgary-based outfit Numenorean. Their debut album Home encapsulates the epic, blackened, extended post-sludge forays of the Virginians’ Sky Burial, with five tracks spanning just shy of 45 minutes. The nine-minute title track opens the proceedings on a swirling, NeurIsian note, before the…
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Sonic Wolves – Before the End Comes
This Italian outfit includes the drummer from Ufomammut, and a bassist who’s played with Joe Hasselvander, which gives me reason enough to check ‘em out. And yet, you won’t find any lengthy post-sludge epics on this one; the longest songs on Sonic Wolves‘ debut effort clock in just over six. After a brief instrumental intro, which…
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Heavy Glow – The Filth & the Fury/Pearls & Swine and Everything Fine
With this San Diego psych trio, Heavy Glow, now signed to German imprint Kozmik Artifactz, both their last album, 2014’s independently released Pearls & Swine and Everything Fine, and their rarer 2010 EP, The Filth & the Fury, are being properly reissued. Not sure if they’re being sold separately or merged onto one recording, but…