FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
Ambitious and progressive, razor-raw and unrelenting, the debut from Cape Town’s WILDERNESSKING is passionate and exciting, and I’d daresay an early frontrunner in my book for one of the best of the year.
Ladies and gentleman, the TOP 5 METAL ALBUMS OF 2011 according to the contributing writers of Hellbound.ca…
While I expected Hammers to be tight, I was pleasantly surprised to discover exactly how spot-on the intricacies of their songs translated live. Hammers of Misfortune, of course, had the perfect balance of both precision and emotion, the songs given a new vitality, positively glowing in the live setting.
Musically, while True Traitor, True Whore is rooted in black metal -as dragged through a mire of nightmarish black psychedelia- it’s too experimental to be labeled as anything so straight-ahead. The record runs the gamut as it incorporates avant-psychedelic passages, as well as experimental progression within its bleak and damnable structure.
Vital and blistering on stage, and with a new album scheduled for February release, Napalm Death laid waste the Rickshaw and Vancouver’s grind-starved crowd.
Vermin to the Earth is a bleak, vicious, and razor-sharp swipe at the gut. No warning bites here, Thrall make it clear they will not rest until they see/bring forth complete annihilation.
7th Street is another impeccable notch in the Hammers’ collective belt, and while it may be their most sophisticated and accessible album to date, it is without a doubt sonically and thematically classic Hammers of Misfortune. One of the must-have albums for 2011.
“As evidenced by my previous review of their infectious Ain’t No Night album, Heinali and Matt Finney’s music really crept up on me this year. A taut, vivid marriage of shoegaze, post-metal and doomy spoken-word, the duo craft something very special, unlike anything I’d heard before. That they do it from separate continents, despite having never met in person, just ups the impressiveness factor for me.
I recently caught up with Matt Finney to discuss what duo have been working on recently, and what they’ve got planned for the near future.”
Kyle Harcott in conversation with Matt Finney.
Without doubt, one of the best records I have heard this year.
“Luckily, it was Kampfar who delivered that adrenaline-shot of what I needed. Taking to the stage with ‘Mare’, from their most recent album of the same name, the band proceeded to blow the doors off with an unrelenting set that not only roared far louder and rawer than they do on record, but also proceeded to garner them the largest crowd of the night. The pagan and folk influences I’d read so much about were barely there, foregone in favor of a very straight-to-the-jugular approach.”
Live review by Kyle Harcott; Concert photography by Ted Reckoning