Tag: black metal
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The Body / Sandworm split
I still have fond memories of the one and only time I’ve seen The Body live. The local promoter had a hard time finding a venue that would accommodate their awesome amplitude, and they ended up being double-booked with some indie-rock band at The Shop, a pre-fabricated Parkdale punk-rock dive. After the respective local openers…
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Atriarch – An Unending Pathway
Not too familiar with this Portland outfit, but Atriarch have been described as a head-on collision between post-sludge and new wave, which seemed intriguing enough for me to listen up. The fact that heavy-rock luminaries Billy Anderson and Brad Boatright had a hand in mixing and mastering is also a good sign; the production really…
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Metalhead’s Holiday Gift Guide 2014
December is almost upon us. Unless you’re one of those highly-organized, forward-thinking people, you’ve likely still got a ways to go with your holiday shopping. There’s still plenty of time! But we here at Hellbound want to make things as easy for as possible, so once again we’re stepping up to help you out on…
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Ides of Gemini – Old World New Wave
I’ll admit, I kinda slept on this album, which actually came out back in September. But the L.A. trio’s debut, Constantinople, left enough of an impression that I figure their follow-up effort is worth a belated listen. A two-thirds-female outfit that mixes shoegaze sounds into a lighter shade of doom with stirring feminine vocals: unlike…
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Bastard Sapling – Instinct is Forever
I’d heard a lot of good things about Bastard Sapling’s debut album, Dragged From Our Restless Trance, but their newest offering, Instinct is Forever, serves as my introduction to the band. And what an introduction it is! The Richmond, VA quintet displays remarkable vision and execution on this sophomore effort. Working off a base of…
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Liturgy – Renihilation (reissue)
For a genre founded on the tenets of rebellion and individuality we metal fans sure are a fickle bunch. Freedom of expression is what it’s all about, but those who don’t conform to what “we” believe metal in whatever form (black/death/what have you) should be are ostracized and ridiculed (or hated). Making music is about…
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Thantifaxath – Sacred White Noise
Mysterious Toronto black metallers Thantifaxath turn the genre inside out on Sacred White Noise, their first full-length. The hooded trio uses the bleak nature of searing black metal as a scaffold to sculpt an abstract representation of their own twisted manifesto. Through six tracks and nearly 45 minutes Thantifaxath navigate a series of stacked realities…
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Barghest – The Virtuous Purge
For their second full-length, The Virtuous Purge, Louisiana deathened black metal titans Barghest have ratcheted up the production quality several notches. They still sound raw and born from the places hidden from the sun’s piercing glare, but now all the hellish screams, ice cold, bowel-shaking guitars and manic percussion can be heard with a new…
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Cardinals Folly – Our Cult Continues
Wasn’t a huge fan of the previous demos from Cardinals Folly, which were a little too black-metal-sounding for me, but I really want this to be good. Maybe it’s unfair to expect this outfit to fill the void left by another Finnish doom trio named after a quirky religious figure… but at least on paper, you’d think…
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Mortals – Cursed to See the Future
Much of the time I tend to shy away from bands that are getting a lot of buzz. At least at first. Not because I don’t trust the hype – and I don’t – but because, well, I don’t want to be one of those guys who loves everything everyone else loves. Enter Mortals. I’ve…