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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Bloodiest – self-titled
We last heard from this Chicago post-sludge supergroup (of sorts) in 2011, with their debut album Descent, which was pretty decent. But almost a full five years have passed, and Bloodiest’s ranks have been narrowed from a nine-musician collective to a solid sextet, which appears on all tracks on this one. So while I might…
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David Bowie – Blackstar
[Editor’s Note: This review was written prior to David Bowie’s death on January 10, 2016 but did not arrive on the editor’s desk at Hellbound until after the singer’s passing. As a result, some of chronological references in the review may seem skewed but, out of respect for the subject and theauthor, we present it…
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Agoraphobic Nosebleed – Arc EP
Is it just me, or has everybody in grindcore gone sludgy of late? First it was Pig Destroyer with their Mass & Volume EP, and now Agoraphobic Nosebleed, a band best known for putting out a 100(!) track CD in ’03, has jumped on the sludgewagon. Now, this three-song EP runs five minutes longer than…
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Brimstone Coven – Black Magic
If Brimstone Coven isn’t my favourite occult rock act, then they’re definitely right up there with the likes of Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony and Electric Wizard. Chances are, you’ve heard those names before, but this Coven is likely more unfamiliar. I certainly hadn’t heard of them before stumbling in on a mid-afternoon set at the…
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ECHOES OF YUL – THE HEALING
While post-metal may or may not be at the nadir of scene ascendance, 2015 was undeniably a banner year for left-field, hipster-friendly heavy(ish) outfits. Quality releases from artists like SANNHET, BOSSE DE NAGE and PYRAMIDS muscled their way to the top of many a critic’s best list. One of the year’s especially avant-garde offerings came…
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Black Wizard – New Waste
It’s not everyday you have the opportunity to listen to music that’s straight from the heart, fun and by musicians that wear their influences on their sleeves. But that’s just what this four piece from Vancouver are all about. The band includes Adam Grant (vocals/guitar), Eugene Parkomenko (drums), Evan Joel (bass) and Danny Stokes (guitar)…
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Dilly Dally – Sore
In this age of computer-generated musical perfection, it’s refreshing to hear Sore – Dilly Dally‘s debut album. For the first time in what feels like forever, listeners are confronted by a female-fronted (both on vocals and guitar) outfit who is unafraid to have (and bare) some teeth and anger without trying to be cute about…
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Thy Worshiper – Ozimina
Arriving a year and a half after 2014’s triumphant comeback LP Czarna Dzika Czerwie?, Ozimina (Arachnophobia) offers undeniable sonic proof that reconstituted expat Polish pagan metal titans THY WORSHIPER have refined their spicy blend of Eastern European-flavoured folk and crisp blackened crunch to a majestic, mid-paced simmer. Craving unconventional rhythms, barren riffs, and trad-meets-contemporary instrumentation…
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Ecorche – Deep in the Ground
It seems like almost every time you turn around something is coming out of Philly. This time it’s blackened industrialists Écorché and their sophomore album Deep in the Ground. JGW (vocals, guitar, synths, programming) and Wolfman (bass, synths, samples) follow no formula on this experimental experience. The album itself and its tracks seem pieced together…
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The Lumberjack Feedback – Blackened Visions
This French instrumental outfit first got my attention with their two-song Hand of Glory EP in 2013—mostly because of their bitchin’ band name. The Lumberhack Feedback have put out a couple more EPs since, which I haven’t heard, but Blackened Visions is their full-fledged debut album, with six tracks spanning 45 minutes and change. “No…