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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Hound – Out of Space
This Philly power trio contains Ted Leo’s bass player and was once described as “neo-stoner.” Now, I’m not sure what that means, but if neo-stoner is to stoner rock what neo-conservatism is to right-wing politics, chances are Stephen Harper has a secret mancrush on these guys already. Or maybe neo-stoner has something to do with…
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El Caco – 7
Get yer mind outta the gutter—this band’s name is Spanish for thief. That said, El Caco ain’t from Mexico, Spain or some other Latin American outpost… but rather from Norway, where they’ve been a household name since 1998(!)—as its moniker would suggest, this is actually their seventh album. Mind you, there are eight songs on here,…
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Wailin Storms – One Foot in the Flesh Grave
“Holy Danzig Homage, Batman!” That was pretty much my first thought upon hearing the opening track of this Carolina quartet’s second record. “Don’t Forget the Sun” has plenty of that gloomy, gothic feel found on the few couple Danzig records—y’know, the good ones—with a pretty decent Evil Elvis impersonator, to boot! “Ribcage Fireplace” has more…
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Hooded Menace – Darkness Drips Forth
When they told me that Darkness Drips Forth was Hooded Menace’s “most gruesome work yet,” I knew I was gonna hafta give’r a listen. Don’t get me wrong, death/doom ain’t really my cuppa—but hey, gimme Autopsy, Coffins and Winter’s Into Darkness any day. (I’ll admit, the latter has grown on me a bit since I…
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Carved Up – Matador
Carved Up may or may not be named after a classic Hypocrisy cut, but make no mistake, this Philly post-sludge trio is all about the almighty riff, mixing math-rock guitars and caustic sludge screams all over this record. To wit, “We Built Riff City” starts off on a roll with some vicious stop-start riffage anchoring the…
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Adrenechrome – Tales from Adrenechrome
I quite liked the debut album from these Northern Ontario rockers, which reminded me of Mastodon and Baroness before both bands sold out. These guys are easily the heaviest thing to come out of Orillia since… OK, I got nothing on that one. Anyhoo, album number two starts off in somewhat unfamiliar fashion, with “A…
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Mountain of Wizard – Casting Rhythms and Disturbances
This NOLA quartet, Mountain of Wizard, is best known for having the drummer who replaced Joey LaCaze in Eyehategod. Unlike some other outfits from the area, they aren’t really known nationally… at least not yet. And they’re not really your standard sludge-metal outfit, either. For one thing, this album is entirely instrumental, featuring some up-tempo…
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Whore Paint – Ultra Sound
I can’t quite recall how the second album from this Rhode Island post-feminist, post-rock trio, Whore Paint, came to my attention, but colour me intrigued. Ultra Sound packs eight tracks into less than 38 minutes, and with over half of these songs bestowed with non-descript, one-word titles in true noise-rock fashion, it’s hard to detect…
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Tylor Dory Trio – Carried Away
If I were to try and summon up Tylor Dory Trio’s sound in a soundbite, it would be that they are a cross between Opeth and Alice In Chains. But that doesn’t do justice to the depth of their music. As you can gather from the name, we have here the classic power-trio format in…
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Xaemora – Kingdom Venom I
The first thing you’ll notice about Kingdom Venom I by St. Louis based symphonic black metallers Xaemora is their logo. It’s Cthulu-esque appearance translates well to the otherworldly beast you’ll find within. KVI is blatantly vicious and cold. Bitter, militant chugs power through symphonic melodies while vocals full of true black metal hate raise the…