Tag: doom metal
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Calgary 420 Music & Arts Fest 2018: Dopethrone and many more
Tickets are on sale and the line-up’s been announced for 420 Music & Arts Festival – presented by METALHEADS UNITED in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, April 19-21. Headlining this year are Sasquatch (Thursday), La Chinga (Friday), and Dopethrone (Saturday), plus Brant Bjork (Kyuss, Vista Chino) will be around on Friday, April 20, deejaying between bands and to close the…
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Primitive Man – Caustic
Caustic is a fitting title for the second album from drawn-out Denver death doomsters Primitive Man, who push the patience with no less than 77 minutes of misery on this release. Having set the tone with their Scorn-ful debut and subsequent series of splits, you pretty much know what you’re getting into when you push…
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High Reeper – self-titled
Their name might be silly, but if you like your doom underdone Saint Vitus style with a dash of Black Sabbath, the debut album from Philly’s High Reeper ain’t no joke! From “Die Slow” to “Reeper Deadly Reeper” to “Weed and Speed,” the nine tracks on this freshman effort don’t disappoint. “Die Slow” starts things…
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Hands of Orlac / The Wandering Midget split
Cruz del Sur has established a solid reputation in power/epic doom circles, with several records from the likes of Argus, Atlantean Kodex, Slough Feg and While Heaven Wept under their belts. So when they put out a split between a couple bands I’ve never heard of, from Italy and Finland, respectively, I’ll at least give…
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Interview: Albert Bell of Sacro Sanctus
Albert Bell is one of metal’s great characters, well known in his native Malta and beyond. Not content with his sterling work with Nomad Son and Forsaken, in recent years he has produced two outstanding albums with his most recent band Sacro Sanctus. Albert kindly took the time to give me a most illuminating and entertaining,…
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Beastmaker – Inside the Skull
Beastmaker is a band with solid heavy-rock bloodlines—their singer’s father played bass on Montrose self-titled, arguably one of the finest examples of American proto-metal and inarguably the best thing Sammy Hagar has ever sung. The California trio rises above the crop of faceless Swedish outfits on Rise Above, taking us back to the glory days…
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Scum – Garden of Shadows
Bit of an interesting back story behind this one. This Finnish death/doom outfit formed in 1990, and was signed to the legendary Black Mark Productions, where they put out a couple records in ’94 and ’95. Garden of Shadows, recorded in ’96, was to be Scum‘s third album, but Quorthon reportedly tossed this demo in the…
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Inter Arma – Paradise Gallows
Generally speaking, I like my coffee downtuned and doomy, just like my metal. Never been a big fan of the blackened stuff, but Inter Arma caught my ear with their 2013 Relapse debut Sky Burial, which owes about as much to Neurosis as it does to Emperor. Hailing from the same Richmond, Virginia scene as…
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Warped Cross – Abbot of Unreason
Right away, I’ll say that this sounds like High on Fire. The good news is I don’t find myself believing that the guys in Warped Cross heard Matt Pike’s most prolific band and decided just to copy his approach. The members of Warped Cross are veterans of the German doom scene, and their experience pays…
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Yidhra – Cult of Bathory
Countess Elizabeth Bathory has been the muse of many a black-metal band, from Venom onwards, but this is the first time I’ve seen her name attached to a doom-metal record. Mind you, L.A. outfit Yidhra are no strangers to the occult; they’re named after the dream witch in H.P. Lovecraft lore. This four-song, 10” EP…