Tag: metal
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Jinjer live in Frankfurt, 18 May 2018
It’s been a while since I attended a concert in a small venue but I have to say that even though they are not the best lighted places, they offer the most intimate shows and the interaction between the bands and the fans is at its loveliest and most honest levels. It was just such a…
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Shadygrove – In The Heart of the Scarlet Woods
As we see with the surprising and pleasing success of artists like Myrkur, our beloved metal genre is becoming ever more diverse. More and more artists are returning to the past, like aural archaeologists, to the primordial musical wellspring for inspiration. Shadygrove have an acoustic heaviness that can only come from the heart and soul:…
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Staff Picks, May 2018
Join us as we carry on a revived Hellbound tradition – our monthly staff picks/playlists. Every few weeks we ask our regular and longtime contributors to weigh in on what they’re listening to, watching, going to see… Expect a few quirks and idiosyncrasies now and then, but these are our standard staff pick categories: Listening…
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Unshine – Astrala
Epic is an understatement to describe this fine album. Imagine Ritchie Blackmoor’s Rainbow (Dio era) with a brilliant singer in the shape of Susanna Vesilahti, and you’re only halfway there. The melodies are reminiscent of Within Temptation or Nightwish but with a harder edge. The music courtesy of Harri Hautala is excellent, and again, epic! Another band…
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Hoth – Astral Necromancy
Seattle’s Hoth released Oathbreaker back in 2014 and I was captivated. Extreme metal with a Star Wars angle? Sold. But on that album the concept was veiled and perhaps only people familiar with Star Wars would put the pieces in place. Fast forward to 2018 and the duo have outdone themselves with new album, Astral…
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Orange Goblin – The Wolf Bites Back
It’s been about three and a half years since we last heard from Orange Goblin, but it’s good to have them back. Album number nine from the British stoner/doom vets contains some of the speedier, Motorhead influences heard on its outstanding predecessor, Back from the Abyss, but that’s not to say there’s any shortage of…
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Metal vs cancer: Kitchener Metalfest 2018
Raising funds + raising awareness on May 26th Kitchener Metalfest returns on Saturday, May 26 for a celebration of metal and a ‘frak off’ to cancer. Beyond raising money, the organizers also aim to raise awareness about cancer prevention. Concert-goers can pick up some useful health information while enjoying some live metal – Vesperia, Atria, Maitreya,…
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Grave Lines – Fed Into The Nihilist Engine
Like Mogwai meeting Black Sabbath, this is music that mines dark inner depths. The music is given a chance to breathe, to surge and fall, like a painting composed of monochrome darkness. I felt ‘the Nihilist Engine’ the album refers to could be the modern world we live in, a world that crushes hope if…
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High Priestess – self-titled
Although there are some outstanding female-fronted doom outfits that don’t dabble in witchcraft and wizardry (Witch Mountain and Windhand being two excellent examples), most of the ones that do aren’t taking things any further than what Jex Thoth and Blood Ceremony were playing 10 years ago. But once in a while, a band such as…
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Fister – No Spirit Within
Anywhere there’s high levels of violence and poverty, sludge metal often isn’t far behind. Listed as the Number 4 Murder Capital of America, ahead of Baltimore, Detroit and Compton, St. Louis definitely fits the bill (the suburb of East St. Louis is actually Number 1), and its native sons Fister display plenty of downtrodden aggression…