Tag: review
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Diamond Head – Diamond Head
Diamond Head has been around for the better part of 40 years. They’ve been there since the beginning, when heavy metal as a genre was being created. Their influence is well-documented; their importance in the canon of the heavy metal story is solidified. But you’d be hard-pressed to find any metalhead worth their salt not…
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Ancient Shapes – Ancient Shapes LP
While Daniel Romano has found great success exposing his Country & Western inspirations over the last few years (both 2011’s Sleep Beneath The Willows and 2013’s Come Cry With Me got longlisted for the Polaris Music Prize in those respective years), it’s refreshing and relieving to hear that the singer has elected to turn up…
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The Second Coming of Heavy, Chapter III (BoneHawk/Kingnomad split)
In some ways, Ripple Music is sorta like a modern-day MeteorCity—a great little label bringing underground heavy music to the masses. Ripple also has its own series of split albums; of which this is the third installment. I haven’t heard of either of these bands, so I’m not expecting Lowrider/Nebula here, but if Ripple’s logo…
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VENOMOUS CONCEPT – KICK ME SILLY – VC III
Venomous Concept is a supergroup built upon the backs of some of grindcore’s forefathers, but aside from several blasting passages, as with the accelerated latter-half of “Neck Tie”, the band is much more in tune with eighties punk rock and hardcore, not unlike the band which their own namesake pays homage to with a play…
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Völur – Disir
I’ve seen this Toronto trio live at least a couple times, most recently opening for The Body atop a skateboard ramp on Bathurst. The bass/drums/violin outfit notably features Blood Ceremony bassist Lukas Gadke, who also lends some death-metal growls to the proceedings. I suppose you could file this one under “Doom,” but I’d hesitate to slap…
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SUNN O))) – KANNON
Sunn O))) isn’t for everyone, certainly not for those with bowel control issues if they were to attend one of the band’s notorious ground and venue-rumbling performances, such shows that some fans liken to spiritual experiences. The drone overlords have returned with a reliably thunderous slab that continues to eschew conventional four-piece band structure and…
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Beelzefuzz – The Righteous Bloom
This Maryland-based band features players from doom-metal mainstays Revelation and Pale Divine, yet they aren’t really doom, in the traditional sense. There is a strong 70’s influence here, but without too many lugubrious tempos; more of an uplifting sound inspired by everything from 70’s power ballads to 80’s power metal. Righteous Bloom, their second album,…
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Scientist – 10100II00101
It seems there’s no shortage of post-sludge bands coming outta Chicago in recent years—from Yakuza to Bloodiest, Minsk to The Atlas Moth. Well, now you can add Scientist to the mix. This four-piece outfit is actually fronted by the guitarist from Yakuza, and while their 2013 debut strictly contained tracks named after elements from the…
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Spell – For None and All
Formerly known as Stryker from Vancouver (not to be confused with Striker outta Edmonton), heavy power trio Spell strikes again with their second record, For None and All, a bubbling cauldron of witchcraft and scorpions on Bad Omen Records. “Madame Psychosis” immediately puts us under with its bright, clean riffage of the trad-metal variety, coming…
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Pup – The Dream Is Over
Over the last few years, critics have announced the death of rock n’ roll so often that it has become pretty difficult to truly wonder if they’re not right. It gets even harder to not think that maybe – just maybe – there’s no going back either; it is the twenty-first century, after all, and…