Tag: review
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David Bowie – Blackstar LP
It’s amazing how outside factors can affect the qualities of the music on an album and change its focus. Any number of stimuli could play an active role in the change – the medium through which the music is presented (be it vinyl record, compact disc, cassette or mp3 – whatever), the players who contributed…
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Bardus – Stella Porta
When I think Philly, I don’t usually think noise rock, but French label Solar Flare Records, home to the likes of Sofy Major and The Great Sabatini, thinks highly enough of this young trio to offer them a deal—which is reason enough for me to give this a listen. Stella Porta comes crashing out of…
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Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas – Mariner
This collaborative effort between the Swedish Neurosis [Cult of Luna] and New York noise rocker Julie Christmas appears to be a concept album about live on the high seas—a theme perhaps not unfamiliar to ISIS, another notable (though sadly long defunct) post-sludge outfit. With five tracks spanning nearly 55 minutes, tis a rather lengthy voyage.…
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The Psychedelic Sound of The Thirteenth Floor Elevators LP
It’s unlikely that anyone would disagree that The 13th Floor Elevators are a really important band in the evolution of rock. Most would cite the band’s debut album as all the proof anyone could need to make the point: “What is it which makes The Psychedelic Sound of The Thirteenth Floor Elevators a classic album?”…
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Slavestate – Illicit Mandate
With some albums, my response is immediate. I push ‘play’, and I don’t even have to try. A band does something so right within the first seconds of the first song that I can’t help but approve. I know that I’m in for a treat because the band says, “Yesss, fuck all that bullshit, time…
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Zun – Burial Sunrise
Every scene has its unsung heroes. When it comes to desert rock, for every John Garcia, Brant Bjork and Scott Reeder, there are guys like Gary Arce and Mario Lalli, scene stalwarts that have received plenty of underground praise, if not much mainstream recognition. Let’s just say the type of people who buy Small Stone…
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Altarage – Nihl
After offering an explosive sample of ruinous devastation last year via their titanic 2-track demo MMXV, Spanish metal-of-death brutalists Altarage (apparently comprised of several incognito underground Spanish scene vets) return in 2016 to clearcut an unforgiving swath through the cluttered DM landscape with their cavernous debut LP, Nihl. Co-released across various physical and digital media…
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Boris with Merzbow – Gensho
OK, so here’s the deal with the new Boris/Merzbow album. It’s actually two records, but you’re supposed to play them at the same time—which is fine if you have two turntables or multiple CD players. For the purpose of this experiment, I’m listening to Boris in Windows’ Groove Music and Merzbow on iTunes. This may…
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Novallo – Novallo II
Novallo II is a new entry from the Columbus prog five piece Novallo. This short but sweet album wraps technical showmanship inside the bubble gum stylings of pop music. Novallo II is an eccentric progressive pop metal album that provides listeners a good entry point into more technical metal and fusion without being overwhelming. The…
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Dream Death – Dissemination
Dream Death’s 1987 debut Journey Into Mystery is one of the great lost metal classics of all time. On their debut album, this Pittsburgh outfit combined the nascent sub-genres of thrash and doom into a self-styled concoction called sludge metal—that’s right, they were the Possessed of all things tuned low and played slow. Problem is,…