Tag: Relapse Records
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ZOMBI – ZOMBI and Friends Volume 1
This album is possibly the Zombi album that will get the least amount of repeated plays of their entire recorded output but it is a really fun listen nonetheless. It’s a big step, at least to these ears, from what the band is best known for, but kudos to them for putting it out there.
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Monolord – No Comfort
By the release of their fourth album, Rust, Monolord has well defined their sound. You could thus say this record sounds very Monolordy…or Monolordian? With that said, they do switch it up on a couple of tracks… “The Bastard Son” kicks off this six-song, 48-minute effort in true Monolordian fashion, with a slithering stoner-doom riff…
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The Obsessed – Sacred
It’s a pleasure to have The Obsessed back. The Church Within is one of my all-time favourite albums, and in a just universe everyone who professes to love music has a copy. Wino is one of rock’s great singers, period, an amazing sincere, powerful voice; he’s up there with Chris Cornell, Robert Plant— all the truly…
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16 – The Lifespan of a Moth
Although sludge is usually seen as a southern staple, it also had a notable West Coast presence in its early years, with bands like Noothgrush outta Oakland and 16 from L.A., not LA. Like many early sludge outfits, 16’s discography is marked with a whole buncha splits and 7-inches, but The Lifespan of a Moth…
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Rwake – Xenoglossalgia (The Last Stage of Awareness)
I don’t deny that I dig Rwake’s later stuff—pretty sure Rest cracked my year-end Top 10 in 2011—but I must admit I’d never heard their ’98 debut before… which was, after all, an extremely limited, independent EP. They raised a few red flags in the liner notes when, by their own admission, they mention “This…
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Relapse Records: 25 Years of Contamination
Now available from Relapse Records: “Celebrate 25 years of independent metal with over 180 tracks from our catalog! From death and doom to grind and hardcore to experimental and noise, get acquainted with our entire roster and help us celebrate a quarter century of contamination!” Right away I got a new discovery, and I was only…
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Lord Dying – Poisoned Altars
Lord Dying’s 2013 debut, Summon the Faithless, kinda caught me by surprise. Hey, it’s not every day that a relatively unknown band outta Portland issues its debut album on Relapse. But it’s grown on me over time, and translated well to the live setting when I caught ‘em in a shitty Tex-Mex bar on tour…
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Mortals – Cursed to See the Future
Much of the time I tend to shy away from bands that are getting a lot of buzz. At least at first. Not because I don’t trust the hype – and I don’t – but because, well, I don’t want to be one of those guys who loves everything everyone else loves. Enter Mortals. I’ve…
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View From the Vault: Warpig Wails Again
Originally published in VIEW Magazine in November 2006, this interview was with Warpig founding vocalist/guitarist Rick Donmoyer about the 2006 re-release of their self-titled album, originally released on Fonthill Records Canada on 1971