Tag: review
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Slim Dunlap – The New Old Me / Times Like This (2LP reissue)
Of course, after the collapse, crash and burn of The Replacements in 1991, it was almost instantly hoped that somebody in the band would begin producing more music but nobody looked at Slim Dunlap to be the first one out of the gate. Dunlap was, after all, the replacement guitarist in The Replacements – that…
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Psychostick live in Ottawa, 31 July 2018
The Very Serious Business Tour w/ Urizen, July 31 – Ottawa, ON – Maverick When you go past a venue and see a marquee or poster with the names Pussy Goblin, Thünderkok, Urizen, and Psychostick, you know damned well you don’t want to miss the show. I made the journey to Mavericks with an old colleague…
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Deafheaven live in Toronto, July 2018
Deafheaven with Uniform – Friday, 27 July 2018 @ The Opera House, Toronto, ON I cannot believe I just saw Deafheaven. The show felt like it took forever to approach and was over with too quickly. That’s how all life’s joys go though. Drab Majesty were absent as they had some issues getting across the border and had…
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Various Artists – Contract In Blood: A History of UK Thrash Metal boxset
This is a superb collection of music to provide the soundtrack to Ian Glasper’s fine book of the same name which I feel is one of the best music books ever written – Contract In Blood: A History of UK Thrash Metal. This is a most comprehensive selection of music with no less than 83…
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Integrity & Krieg Split
Integrity and Krieg join up for a brutal, crushing split following the release of Integrity’s critically acclaimed 2017 album, Howling, For the Nightmare Shall Consume. The split, running 23 minutes in length, serves to provide an even balance of metalcore and black metal. The Integrity half is definitely hardcore and is more of what we…
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Hellbound @ Tuska Open Air 2018 in Helsinki
Friday Denmark’s Baest started the 2018 edition of the Tuska off with with a surprisingly tight death outfit in the veins of Entombed or Bloodbath. Definitely was unexpected, and definitely a surprise out of the gate. Baest hasn’t even released an album at this point, but their debut is coming later this month. They’ll be…
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Witch Mountain – Witch Mountain
The three previous albums from Witch Mountain – Cauldron of the Wild, South of Salem, Mobile of Angels – are truly superb. This is the first Witch Mountain album with Kayla Dixon on vocals. She has an incredible voice, powerful, heartfelt. The songs are excellent. This is timeless music, made for all the right reasons. Billy Anderson…
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Hellfest 2018 in review: Day 3
Similar to Saturday at Hellfest, during the last festival day I was very selective with the acts that I would shoot versus the acts I would attend to simply watch. Finally I ended up enjoying acts like Killswitch Engage, Arch Enemy, Amorphis, Septicflesh, At the Gates, Exodus and Nightwish. It was an honour to be right…
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Myth and Magic in Heavy Metal Music
This book scores major kudos by having Cronos of the mighty and highly influential Venom on the cover. It’s a fine idea to explore the influences on the themes of heavy metal and Robert McParland does this with great aplomb. It’s nice to read such well-written work. It would have been nice if a well-known metal…
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Hellfest 2018 in review: Day 2
One could have felt that the weekend had come to Hellfest, as the festival site was more than overfilled on Saturday, the second fest day. That was not a problem; people there did not give much of a damn about the melting heat or the overcrowded sites. Good music and cold beer made it all great!…