Tag: review
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Alms – Act One
I caught this Baltimore-based band last year at Days of Darkness, where they opened the first day of the festival—a few of their female-fronted doom tunes reminded me of early Blood Ceremony. And yet, while keyboardist Jess Kamen’s vocals feature prominently on nearly all of the six songs on Act One, they are not strictly…
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Crossfaith in Wiesbaden, 15 June 2018
The series of the toughest pits to step into for photography continues. Sweat all over the lens, intense moshing and rarely a chance to get the camera above the heads of all the fans that rocked the Schlachthof venue in Wiesbaden on Friday, the 15th of May. The band was Japanese, and it was intense – it…
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Ancestors – Suspended in Reflections
It’s been six years since we’ve had new music from Ancestors, a proggy post-sludge outfit that’s apparently gone from a quintet to a three-piece in the process. Not only have they slimmed down their lineup, but they also seem to have trimmed the fat. While 2012’s In Dreams and Time featured six tracks spanning 66…
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Troll – self-titled
Now, “The Troll” is not my favourite Saint Vitus song. Not even on Mournful Cries. (“Dragon Time” FTW!) But when you’ve got a trad doom band from Portland ostensibly named after a Vitus track, I’m pretty much guaranteed to give it a listen. This album was actually self-released on cassette in 2016, before Shadow Kingdom…
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Bölzer in Toronto, 29 May 2018
Easily one of the fastest rising stars in black metal’s subterranean, it’s surprising that it has taken Switzerland’s Bölzer this long to indent Toronto. Bölzer’s rapid escalation to the nearest thing that can be considered black metal rock star-ism before the duo even released an album is an astonishing rarity. Without any gimmicks or tangible…
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Ivar Bjørnson and Einar Selvik – Hugsjá
The previous collaboration from Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved and Einar Selvik of Wardruna, Skuggsjá, was both an achievement and a success (though you would expect nothing less from such individuals). Follow-up Hugsjá is, simply put, a beautiful piece of music, one that works perfectly well as a body of work. The word Hugsjá means to see…
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Satyricon live in Toronto, 23 May 2018
I saw Satyricon for the first and last time in Toronto on May 23rd and it was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to in my life. All the openers were amazing (Panzerfaust and Goatwhore especially) and led up perfectly to Satyricon’s set. Even as a fairly new Satyricon fan, only having listened…
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King Heavy – Guardian Demons
Understandably, when you’re trying to form a classic doom metal band in Chile, you might have some trouble finding a singer. In the case of King Heavy, that meant enlisting Luther Veldmark, a native of Belgium. And while their debut album was recorded without him setting foot in the country, they flew Veldmark over to…
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Witchsorrow – Hexenhammer
Out of all the doom bands with “Witch” in their name, Witchsorrow is right up there with Witch Mountain in my books. Album number four from this U.K. power trio sees them continuing in the classic doom vein, with enough references to demons and devils to keep their “Occult Doom Club” membership active. And yet,…
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Graveyard – Peace
They’re back from the dead. Gothenburg rockers Graveyard were at the forefront of the whole retro-rock revival of the late aughts, with 2011’s Hisingen Blues serving as one of the finest examples of modern-day Led Zeppelin worship to these ears. After breaking up in 2016, albeit for a couple months, they’ve returned with their first…