Tag: album review
-
Fight Amp – Constantly Off
I figure I’m somewhat familiar with Fight Amp at this juncture. They’ve found their way to the bottom of a coupla sludge-metal touring packages that have hit Toronto—albeit not in the past couple years. The Philly-area outfit is known for its Neurosis-inspired post-sludge and complete lack of stage lighting that makes them hard to see…
-
Leprous – The Congregation
Their experience as the backing band for Ihsahn (of Emperor fame) may have given Leprous an advantage. I, for one, took extra notice of them once I became aware of the Ihsahn connection. But if an association with the ‘nobility’ of Norwegian metal has gained Leprous some extra attention, it is well deserved. The Congregation is…
-
Kinski – 7 (Or 8)
Without intending to sound condescending, things are really starting to get interesting for Kinski now – on their seventh full-length album. For the sake of context, Kinski willfully challenged themselves a couple of years ago when the (long thought to be) instrumental band released Cosy Moments, an album which defied convention because it featured lyric sheets…
-
Gateway Drugs – Magick Spells
It’s hard to believe how long punk has been a musical idiom. For the sake of argument (because it’s hard to get many people to agree on when punk rock became recognized as a musical form), let’s say it started in 1969; that’s when MC5 released Kick Out The Jams. That’s a time period of…
-
DTRASH + Schizoid & Melt Banana in Toronto, 17 May 2015
In these days of digital music production and distribution my snail mailbox sees a lot less action than my email inbox. In some ways it’s a relief (I ran out of shelf space for my CD collection years ago). But that fact also makes it all the more special when something more tangible does actually show…
-
TENGGER CAVALRY – Blood Sacrifice Shaman
Incredibly energetic, fast paced gallops through ancient plains, accompanied by bands of singers and fiddlers? Not your average day trip in the metal world. I’ve seen quite a few people auto-cringe at the mere mention of the words “folk” and “metal” together these days, which means the proverbial bar for this genre is pretty high…
-
Denizen – Troubled Waters
I was a big fan of this French outfit’s second album, Whispering Wild Stories, which came out over four years ago, back in 2011. Their sound melds the stoner grooves of Fu Manchu with some harsh sludge vocals reminiscent of Eyehategod—and while it sounds like an odd combo at first, it actually works quite nicely. Those…
-
Demon Lung – A Dracula
I’ve always loved the idea behind Demon Lung. Here you’ve got this Satanic, occult doom metal band… based outta Las Vegas. Hey, I’ve been to Vegas, and there’s nothing about that city that screams “occult doom metal.” (Now, if they were a mafia-themed doom band, on the other hand…) That said, if this outfit was…
-
Faith No More – Sol Invictus
The last time Faith No More released a new studio album (which was Album Of The Year in 1997, by the way), I was eighteen years old – it was literally half my lifetime ago. While it wasn’t the band’s best album (critics complained that the proliferation of side projects the band’s members were contributing…
-
Periphery – Juggernaut: Alpha / Juggernaut: Omega
Those Periphery boys are at it again. The Maryland sextet brings their unique progressive style back with a new double album, Juggernaut:Alpha and Juggernaut:Omega. Although the two are meant to be companion pieces to one another, the styles and sounds differ drastically between these two entries. Juggernaut: Alpha offers up a far more accessible album…