Tag: album review

  • Fórn – The Departure of Consciousness

    Fórn – The Departure of Consciousness

    The best thing about Gilead Media is that label head Adam Bartlett doesn’t release material he doesn’t believe in. So naturally a certain level of quality is guaranteed. And The Departure of Consciousness, the debut from Fórn is top quality funeral doom. The 33 minutes of utter darkness found within is merciless in projecting a…

  • Kings Destroy – self-titled

    Kings Destroy – self-titled

    I’ve been a big Kings Destroy fan ever since I saw ’em at Days of the Doomed III in Milwaukee a couple years back. Their second album, A Time of Hunting, cracked my year-end Top 10 in 2013, and I have high hopes for their follow-up effort. The band brings the melodic doom, similar to…

  • Louise Distras – Dreams From The Factory Floor LP

    Louise Distras – Dreams From The Factory Floor LP

    The problem with a lot of what is earnestly being marketed as punk rock in the twenty-first century is that much of it is fundamentally flawed: it’s made the way it is because that’s what’s expected. The expectation is that punk songs will come equipped with a confrontational attitude stacked on top of a progression…

  • Connoisseur – Stoner Justice

    Connoisseur – Stoner Justice

    Pretty sure I reviewed this when it was just an EP—but I can’t seem to find that write-up anywhere on the site. Anyhoo, Connoisseur is a marijuana-themed crust-punk outfit from Oakland—or Smokeland, as they call it, and with song titles like “Circle of Heads,” “I Am the Weed” and “Full Blown Marijuana Addict,” you can…

  • Cusses – Here Comes The Rat EP

    Cusses – Here Comes The Rat EP

    Before we attempt to pull Cusses‘ long-awaited new EP apart, I have two questions for listeners to consider: 1.) Do you like roller coasters and 2.) Why? For some, their love of rollercoasters springs from the rush of adrenaline which accompanies a fast ride; it’s a physical thing. For others though, the rush is far…

  • Wooden Stake – A Feast of Virgin Souls

    Wooden Stake – A Feast of Virgin Souls

    I don’t often judge an album by its cover, but in the case of A Feast of Virgin Souls, I was more than a little put off by the artwork. It’s kinda like classic Cannibal Corpse, only slightly less gorey and much more misogynistic. And yet, one half of this female-fronted death/doom duo is… well,…

  • Ghold – Of Ruin

    Ghold – Of Ruin

    So, I might be a little late on this self-proclaimed “Weight & Grunt” doom duo—which is just a nice way of saying they don’t have a guitarist. But hey, when it comes to this style of music, you’re better off with bass and no guitar than the other way around. From what I can ascertain,…

  • Gruesome – Savage Land

    Gruesome – Savage Land

    How much do you love Chuck Schuldiner’s legendary band Death? How much do you love that primal, teeth-rattlin’, gut-churning death metal that Chuck helped wretch out of the Florida muck? If there is love, the actual, physical need to listen to Death’s first few albums routinely, then does that love extend to wishing that there…

  • Venomous Maximus – Firewalker

    Venomous Maximus – Firewalker

    Though I don’t consider Venomous Maximus to be doom—they’re a little too up-tempo, IMO—these guys definitely stole the show at the third installment of Days of the Doomed fest a couple years back. They sure sold a lotta copies of their first CD that night… I didn’t buy one myself, but I’m still looking forward to…

  • Barren Earth – On Lonely Towers

    Barren Earth – On Lonely Towers

    Barren Earth is a six-piece progressive metal band from Finland. They play a style that some might say is akin to Opeth and their albums Still Life and Blackwater Park – this meaning that the music is epic in scope and shape and contains retro progressive rock elements. Most fans of this genre may remember…