Norilsk – Japetus
This is an excellent three-track introduction to a very worthy band. On the title track and “Potsdam Glo,” the band show a talent for…
Canadian Metal
Canada Day 2014: Best Canadian metal from years ending in ‘4…
As Canada Day rolls around again, some of our regular Hellbound contributors have pitched in for another year of celebrating Canadian metal on the…
Unleash the Archers: creating a lasting impression
Unleash the Archers is a female fronted, melodic power metal band hailing from Vancouver, BC. Since forming in 2007, UTA have released three self-produced…
Kataklysm guitarist Jean-Francois Dagenais craves culture on the road
It’s 16 degrees Celsius in Dallas, Texas and steaks are sizzling on a grill in a shaded backyard patio. They’re being cooked medium rare…
And the battle wages on – Wacken Metal Battle Canada dates & compilation
Last night the latest round of Wacken Metal Battle Canada had Toronto area bands Our Covenant, Operus, Protokult, The Fiction In Folklore and Endemise duking it out…
Shooting Guns: dealing some heavy instrumental magic
When it comes to the metal aesthetic many bands feel they need to choose the route of texture or torture. Bands decide whether to…
Crimson Shadows: Ready to Take on the World
Hellbound is a Canadian-based metal site. That doesn’t determine our coverage – we can appreciate, evaluate and cover heavy tunes from anywhere in the…
Wacken Metal Battle Canada: Canucks winning their way to an international stage
Interview by Laura Wiebe
If you’re a metalhead you’ve heard of Wacken Open Air. Founded in 1990, the German festival is a mecca for metal pilgrims, a status immortalized in Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen’s Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey (2005). But Wacken is a desired destination for more than fans. For a band, playing Wacken must be a tremendous high – a chance to reach out directly to some of the scene’s largest crowds, gathered together from some of its farthest reaches.
Relatively few Canadian bands have had the chance to storm a Wacken stage. So far…
The Night Watch – s/t
Hellbound Metal: “The Night Watch have released a challenging debut, one which initially did not work for me. Though not all the tracks stand out, it’s with repeated listens that it becomes apparent to me that the album is an exciting piece of avant-garde metal/post-rock/insert label here.”
Dark Forest: Land of the Evening Star
“Sometimes album art can be misleading, but visual imagery is to some extent genre specific, so there’s usually a pretty good chance I can judge by an album cover if a band’s style is likely to be my kind of thing. Such was the case with Dark Forest’s Land of the Evening Star. What I can’t always predict is how good the music is going to be, but with Dark Forest’s third “Vinlandic pagan black metal” release, the tracks inside are not just well represented by the gloomy mountain and forest scene on the cover. They’re also very good. As impressed as I was with the recording I wanted to learn more about the band, so I went straight to the source.”
Interview by Laura Wiebe