Tag: Relapse
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From the archives: ZOMBI show preview from 2005
Reading Steve Earles’ awesome review of the John Carpenter film score retrospective has sent me on a musical journey this weekend, dealing primiarily with horror music soundtracks. I started out with some Carpenter scores, then listened to and watched some live Goblin – mostly the awesome Austinato live blu-ray that features Steve Moore as a…
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Inter Arma – Paradise Gallows
Generally speaking, I like my coffee downtuned and doomy, just like my metal. Never been a big fan of the blackened stuff, but Inter Arma caught my ear with their 2013 Relapse debut Sky Burial, which owes about as much to Neurosis as it does to Emperor. Hailing from the same Richmond, Virginia scene as…
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Pentagram – First Daze Here
These days, when Bobby Liebling sings “These are gonna be my last days here…” he really means it. The dude looked like death warmed over when I saw ‘em down in Cleveland last year, and his touring troubles continued recently, with missed gigs and pissed-off openers on their last trek. The backing band behind him…
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Cough – Still They Pray
Virginia doomsters Cough return with their long-awaited third album, following 2010’s Relapse debut Ritual Abuse. This is not a band that moves particularly fast, as the 8 tracks on this 68-minute effort would attest. And while they do tend to drag out and drone on at times, the longest song on this one still falls…
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Wrong – self-titled
This Miami noise-rock outfit features former members of Torche and Kylesa, but musically, Wrong are more like Unsane or the Melvins’ old-school slowcore, with just a dash of punk rock fury. Either way, you can’t really go wrong… Their self-titled Relapse debut has 11 tracks clocking in at an even half-hour; when it comes to song…
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Graves at Sea – The Curse That Is
The first full-length from Graves at Sea isn’t just a long time coming, it’s a long time, period—eight tracks spanning 76 minutes! I guess that with just a handful of EPs and splits over the past several years, they finally got the chance to make the most of their studio time. The lineup here is…
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Windhand – Grief’s Infernal Flower
I’m probably one of the few doom critics who didn’t put Windhand’s Relapse debut Soma in his year-end top 10 in 2013. Not that I really had anything against that album; I just thought it tested my patience a tad, what with its whopping 77-minute runtime. Since then, I’ve seen ’em live twice, and while…
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Gruesome – Savage Land
How much do you love Chuck Schuldiner’s legendary band Death? How much do you love that primal, teeth-rattlin’, gut-churning death metal that Chuck helped wretch out of the Florida muck? If there is love, the actual, physical need to listen to Death’s first few albums routinely, then does that love extend to wishing that there…
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Valkyrie – Shadows
Been a while since we’ve heard from these Virginia doomsters—split 7” with Earthling aside, they haven’t released a record since 2008. And yet, their profile has grown somewhat in their absence, what with guitarist Pete Adams joining Baroness. Suffice to say, the Baroness connection secured their record deal with Relapse, providing the resources—recorded by Sanford…
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Primitive Man – Home is Where the Hatred is
One needs not listen to a note of this EP to know that it’s gonna be bleak—the artwork is about *thisclose* to getting Relapse charged with supporting terrorism under the Patriot Act. And certainly, the band’s reputation precedes them, Primitive Man being known for downtuned, punishing sludge tunes and terrifying horror-movie music videos. And while…