Cathedral

Cathedral – Anniversary

All up, Anniversary is exactly what I hoped it would be. A mucky snail-paced trawl through the band’s debut, followed up by an unrestrained romp across the years. There’s obviously a wealth of material not on the second career-spanning disc, but I guess with only one side to play with you pick your best. I’ve no complaints.

Maryland Deathfest 2011 Recap Day 1

Last weekend saw America’s biggest metal party, the annual Maryland Deathfest, happen at Baltimore’s Sonar club. The fun started on Thursday night with an evening’s worth of bands indoors at Sonar. Here is what Hellbound’s Kevin Stewart-Panko, Laura Wiebe and Sean Palmerston thought of the bands they saw that evening, with live photos by Albert Mansour.

Maryland Deathfest Preview #1: Thursday, May 26

This upcoming weekend marks the return of the biggest underground metal festival in North America, the Maryland Deathfest. Quite a few Hellbound contributors are making the pilgrimage down to Baltimore for the four day festival, which starts this Thursday and carries on through Sunday, so we have picked some of our most anticipated bands to see each day and will be running daily previews every day between now and Thursday.

Here are some bands that Sean and Adam are excited to see on Thursday night.

Winter – Into Darkness

I can see how this would’ve blown some minds back in 1990, but it really hasn’t aged all that well. Other bands have since taken the torch and left Winter sputtering behind with this lo-fi, depressing slog of an album that has more in common with the “gothic doom” of My Dying Bride than the true masters of the genre.

Ghost – Opus Eponymous

If you consider Opus Eponymous to be a pop album, you probably think Yes and Genesis are pop bands, too. Erm, wait a minnit. Well, I can’t say I see Ghost going down that route, anyways. After all, it won’t be the 80’s for another 69 years…

Back from the brink–and back on the air!

Although I took to the airwaves last weekend facing the very real possibility that I could be doing so for the last time, I did so also knowing that CKLN was planning to request a stay of the CRTC’s decision, pending our request to the federal court of appeals to hear the case.
Alas, twas well after 4 pm yesterday when I finally got the news. Request granted. We’re on the air–but not in the clear, by any stretch.

The Devil’s Blood – The Time of No Time Evermore

What makes The Devil’s Blood successful is its masterful gift for restraint. The band knows how to hold back, painting a partial musical portrait consisting solely of shadows and allowing the listener to infer the details using that most horrifying of artists: the imagination.

Tate Bengston gives us a great review of the latest output from traditional metallers, The Devil’s Blood.

Hellbound.ca’s TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2010, Part Two

We asked all of the contributing writers here at Hellbound.ca to submit their Top 10 albums of 2010, which we then compiled into a master list, assigning points to all their choices (10 points for #1, down to 1 point for #10). After tabulating the results, we have created Hellbound.ca’s Top 20 Albums of 2010. For part two of our continuing series, here is albums #15 through 11…

Cathedral – The Guessing Game

Modestly experimental and incredibly grandiose by their standards, this double album (their first ever) clocks in at an ungodly 80-plus minutes, way more than it should but, hey, it’s Cathedral. You know the fuzz-pedals were particularly gritty one day and writing got out of hand.