FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
Blue Record is a forward-thinking pastiche of all points of sludge/stoner/doom light as informed by a bunch of toothless, Smokey Mountain ban-jer pickers, the Thin Lizzy fanclub, the Melvins irreverence, Converge’s 21st Century output and Queen’s penchant for mini rock operas.
Find out what HELLBOUND’s contributors are listening to going into the month of October. Each writer has submitted their Top 5 list and have an option to list a book and a film they are into right now too.
There are very few bands which can inspire relentless, reckless hedonism in the same way Destroyer 666 can; their very essence screams out the wild whirlwind in all of us. Owning the stage from first note to last, guitarist/vocalist KK Warslut and Co. pushed the rabid Providence crowd to the brink of the precipice and back, leaving no head un-banged, no fist un-pounded and no soul un-reaped by the maniacal, merciless onslaught.
MetalGeorge recaps the recent Providence stop on Destroyer 666’s recent (and very brief) North American tour, which also included Vital Remains, Baphomet’s Horns and Revocation.
On the surface, the band is rooted in the same post-thrash groove that Lamb of God has dominated this decade, but unlike the otherwise likable Virginians, Revocation don’t dig themselves a safe little rut, instead using the sound as a launching pad for other, bolder musical excursions. The end result is their second album and Relapse debut Existence is Futile, an album undeniably accessible enough to draw in the Rockstar Energy™ Mayhem Fest crowd, yet clever enough to pull the rug from under everyone’s feet with sudden forays into progressive death metal and continue to command listeners’ attention while doing so.
Ok, I admit when I offered to review this CD I didn’t realize it was a reissue. Since I had never heard of the band before I couldn’t possibly know they had a discography and haven’t been together in ten years. On a good note, if I hadn’t actually looked at the date and saw this was recorded in 1997 I wouldn’t have thought the album sounded dated.
Culted’s MySpace biography makes much of the fact that the band’s impressive first full-length album is a “truly collaborative effort across international lines.” One can only hope for more musical cooperation in the future from the jointly Canadian/Swedish band.
This third full length album from Glasgow, Scotland’s Man Must Die is an amazing listen from start to finish.
Like Goatwhore, like Crucifist, Black Anvil is not so much preoccupied with the thin-sounding Scandinavian aspect of black metal (although we are privy to the odd melodic movement reminiscent of Dissection) as they are completely obsessed with the mid-1980s first wave of Bathory, Possessed, and early Celtic Frost, the kind of primitive, immediate, old school metal with crust-infused riffs thick enough to stick to your ribs.
Adrien Begrand reviews the fantastic new debut release by NYC black metal/punk trio Black Anvil.
The breakdowns are so damn catchy I turned a baseball cap sideways and slammed danced by myself, right into a wall. My cat looked at me funny.
Burnt By The Sun has never been one to leave out groove and melody laced with absolutely fury and heaviness in an intelligent way and this continues on Heart of Darkness. As always the groove is driven by Dave Witte on drums, a man of many bands but never short on talent and ability to hold any style of music together. The drums sound huge and really pound out those heavy head banging riffs like Lexington Steele pounding a chick into submission.