Tag: review
-
Hater – s/t LP (reissue)
I must confess that I had never heard of Hater before Ben Shepherd put out In Deep Owl a couple of years ago. I was really, really taken with that album and had been thrilled at the prospect of taking an interview with him when the opportunity came up; in fact, I jumped at it.…
-
TMHM – Stage Names
Now frankly, I’m not sure if there’s anything resembling a hardcore scene in Regina—I’ve only stopped a couple times at a local Travelodge on the way to Winnipeg. But this outfit caught my ear pretty quickly within the opening minutes of their full-length debut. (OK, with eight tracks in less than 25 minutes, you could…
-
Control / Harrington Saints – Pick Your Poison
While I happily admit that I appreciate the 7” single format, a split 7” is often a much harder sell with me. Why? Often, the focus feels too diverted on a split; the amount of time that each band involved has to leave an impression is very short and splitting focus two ways only makes…
-
Devil to Pay – A Bend in Space and Time
Album number five from these Indiana stalwarts sees the band keeping with the cosmic themes of its predecessor, Fate is Your Muse. But this time, the lyrics seem more grounded in reality, including the Lemmy tribute track “Your Inner Lemmy” where Devil to Pay certainly channel one Mr. Kilmeister. This record starts off on a faster…
-
Skeleton Witch – The Apothic Gloom EP
The soothing tones of an acoustic guitar float to the listener’s ear when you click play on the newest EP from Ohio’s Skeleton Witch. The Apothic Gloom swells to a crescendo of happiness before causing a windmill neck injury. This is the first recording with new vocalist Adam Clemans, formerly of Veil of Maya, and he does…
-
Howling Giant – Black Hole Space Wizard (Part 1)
This is hardly the kinda stuff you’d expect to hear outta Nashville. While Music Row is all caught up in producing purely putrid pop music and inexplicably marketing it as country, a forward-thinking, heavy-rock trio has emerged from deep beneath the wreckage of country music’s soul. Sonically, Howling Giant seem to be the missing link between…
-
Sonic Wolves – Before the End Comes
This Italian outfit includes the drummer from Ufomammut, and a bassist who’s played with Joe Hasselvander, which gives me reason enough to check ‘em out. And yet, you won’t find any lengthy post-sludge epics on this one; the longest songs on Sonic Wolves‘ debut effort clock in just over six. After a brief instrumental intro, which…
-
Heavy Glow – The Filth & the Fury/Pearls & Swine and Everything Fine
With this San Diego psych trio, Heavy Glow, now signed to German imprint Kozmik Artifactz, both their last album, 2014’s independently released Pearls & Swine and Everything Fine, and their rarer 2010 EP, The Filth & the Fury, are being properly reissued. Not sure if they’re being sold separately or merged onto one recording, but…
-
Periphery – Select Difficulty
Just short of a year after the release of the critically acclaimed double album Juggernaut:Alpha/Juggernaut:Omega, Periphery return with a new full length album, Select Difficulty. With high expectations and much anticipation, fans can stop holding their breath, because Select Difficulty is another high quality release from the Washington sextet. Select Difficulty is the natural progression…
-
Misfits – Friday the 13th EP
While there’s no small part of this critic that wants to hand this band which calls itself The Misfits its lungs and dismiss them as heretics (I’ve done it continually for years), the truth is that I just can’t do it now. The truth is, the four songs which comprise the Friday the 13th EP…