Tag: album review
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Psalm Zero – The Drain
Profound Lore has become known over the years as a go-to label for some of the best and most extreme black and death metal bands. But with the release of Vaura‘s The Missing last year, the label opened up another avenue of exploration. Somewhat in that vein comes Psalm Zero. The collaboration between Castevet‘s Andrew…
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The Socks (self-titled)
These Socks don’t stink! The French quartet brews a blend of pungent, throwback heavy psych on their Small Stone debut. Kicking off with “Lords of Illusion,” The Socks use their illusion to channel Hendrix, Purple and Sabbath throughout this nine-track, 44-minute effort. There are also shades of modern bands like Monster Truck on the organ-accented…
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The Wounded Kings – Consolamentum
By Gruesome Greg Album number four from this female-fronted doom troop can be pretty much divided into two categories: the 10-minute epics and the two-minute interludes, of which there are three of each, along with one song that’s only six minutes long. We get started with “Gnosis,” which happens to be the longest selection, spanning…
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Truckfighters – Universe
By Gruesome Greg This Swedish trio is one of the hardest-working bands in stoner rock. Though it’s taken a little while longer than expected to get their fourth album out there, they’ve made up for it by touring and playing pretty much anywhere… except for Canada, that is. Universe gets right down to dishing out…
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The Lion’s Daughter & Indian Blanket – A Black Sea
By Gruesome Greg Holy Nine Band Members, Batman! I’m not sure if there’s a classical term for a nine-piece band (novtet?), but that’s how many faces appear in the band photo on this album, a collaborative effort between St. Louis sludge squad The Lion’s Daughter and folksy Americana outfit Indian Blanket. No, this is not a split—it’s…
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Hexer – Hexer
By Matt Hinch This fall Gilead Media released the eponymous debut LP from Hexer. Actually, each side consists of their previous two cassette releases, Cassette 1 and 2 respectively. With new art by vocalist Ansgar and a remaster by Adam Tucker at Signaturetone Recording, Hexer is one vicious slice of wax. The most striking aspect…
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Ashes of Ares – Ashes of Ares
By Jason Wellwood When Matt Barlow left Iced Earth the last time, I thought he had retired from music for good. Needless to say, I was very excited to hear that he had returned with a band of his own, featuring former Iced Earth bassist Freddie Vidales and ex-Nevermore drummer Van Williams. Given the past…
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Behemoth – The Satanist
By Danielle Griscti As a tenth album, Poland’s Behemoth offers longtime fans and new listeners The Satanist. This collection of nine tracks is both instantly recognizable as the work of these blackened death metal legends, and a new and distinctive entry into their already impressive and worthwhile catalogue. Their 2004 monster Demigod was one of my…
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Axeslasher – Anthology of Terror Vol. 1
By Matt Hinch Earlier this year Denver/LA thrashers Axeslasher teased us with the “Mark of the Pizzagram/Invasion of the Babesnatchers” single. That was to become the lead track(s) on Anthology of Terror Vol. 1. But we had to wait months before the 6+1 song release actually surfaced. What an agonizing wait. Turns out the adage…
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Avichi – Catharsis Absolute
By Matt Hinch Dark times call for dark music. So it happened that following my grandmother’s passing last week Catharsis Absolute by Avichi came around on my playlist. And stayed there for days as I grieved. What Avichi mastermind Aamonael (aka Adam Markuszewski) performing as this one-man black metal project has managed to do is…