FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
“This is the music equivalent of a B-movie horror director gaining access to a budget and real special effects and using them to perfection. And at less than 40 minutes, it certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome.”
In his debut review for Hellbound.ca, writer William Seay reviews Necrocracy, the new 2013 album by California death metal outfit Exhumed
while the albums that Bad Religion has released since returning to Epitaph in 2002 have been consistently improving, True North marks the high point of a decade’s worth of work. This album is a true classic which marks a pinnacle of powers in Bad Religion and upholds everything that is best about the band.
Saw Jello Biafra at Lee’s the other night. Round One of my mid-week madness, if you’re keeping track at home. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, though I’d sorta been tipped off ahead of time that he wouldn’t be playing a whole buncha Dead Kennedys covers…
If Thursday is the new Friday, does that make Wednesday the new Thursday? Well, I hope so, cuz I’ve got a coupla Wild Wednesdays coming up next month. The summer concert season goes out with a bang for yours truly, but man, couldn’t they have put one of these gigs on a weekend?
Alas, while they’re neither classic rockers nor 80’s hair band royalty, Corrosion of Conformity has been going strong now since 1981. And I gotta say, the three founding members, they’ve still got it–and then some!
“Converge are an overwhelming band to see live, vicious, visceral and breathtaking. The set quickly settled into a hard, driving rhythm, and the entire audience was carried along by it, compelled, possessed – taken. It can be difficult to talk about music and sexuality in a way that isn’t sensationalizing or reductive, but there is no question that the sheer aural force of Converge is an intense experience that borders on the erotic.”
Natalie Zed reviews the April 6th Toronto performance by Converge, Burning Love, Loma Prieta and Vilipend
The first and most obvious question you’re probably asking yourself after seeing that Hellbound is reviewing the Fat Wreck re-issues of the first five albums by these Goleta, California’s melodi-punk heroes is whether or not the version we’re reviewing here is the box-set edition or simply the individual releases reviewed as a collective. I believe what Grand Wizard Palmerston has provided here are the individual releases, seeing as they are strewn across my desk and there’s no box provided that might maintain any amount of order in the slightest…
At just under half an hour, This Machine Is Driving is almost not enough but at the same time it’s the perfect length. It makes you want to leave it on repeat, though continued listening may force you in to the shower several times a day.
Kvelertak hold nothing sacred, aren’t afraid to whip out their six schlongs to piss on the walls of convention and are getting the appropriate attention – both positive and negative – because of it, whether you like it or not. It all starts with their sound: a furious, kinetic and coruscating blend of 85 octane burnin’ garage rock, greasy punk, blues, hardcore, Motorhead, black and death metal. They manage to sound like all of the above without exactly sounding like any of ‘em,
“I have no bone to pick with VOLBEAT at all. Their heavy metal/rockabilly/early rock’n’roll gangster aesthetic is fantastic. They’re greasy, twangy and a hell of a lot of fun to see live. Michael Poulsen embodies their sound: lean, punchy muscles, the lines of his brow and cheekbone just a little haggard from hard living, slicked back, dark hair and covered in old-school tattoos. His voice is surprisingly clean. Volbeat’s set was idiosyncratic and playful.”
Natalie Zed reviews the August 17th Toronto performance by VOLBEAT, THE SLEEPING and DOMMIN at the Mod Club. VOLBEAT live photos by Adam Wills.