Airbourne – No Guts, No Glory
It has been a very long time since music like this sounded so energetic; on No Guts, No Glory, Airbourne rock out like true believers and they have the chops to back up their ambition.
Roadrunner
Megadeth: Rust in Peace 20th Anniversary Tour w/ Testament and Exodus, Prairieland Park, Saskatoon, SK, March 8, 2010
If there was a concert to bring out the old school headbangers in full force, some with their kids in tow, it was this one. Not only was Megadeth bringing along fellow Bay Area thrash legends Testament and Exodus along for their spring tour of North America, but Dave Mustaine and crew were set to perform the classic Rust in Peace album in celebration of its 20th anniversary, while Testament had promised to play their great 1987 debut The Legacy in its entirety.
Adrien Begrand reviews the recent Saskatoon stop of the current Megadeth, Testament and Exodus tour.
Rob Zombie – Hellbilly Deluxe 2 – Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls And The Systematic Dehumanization Of Cool
For the first time in years, Hellbilly Deluxe 2 sees Rob Zombie playing and interacting with other musicians on tracks that actually sound like new songs rather than a set of reconstituted remixes. After the tone gets set by “Jesus Frankenstein” – which sounds a bit like an overture for the proceedings and echoes “Sawdust In The Blood” from Educated Horses – Zombie leads the charge through a set of the ten hardest-driving, least computer-controlled rockers to come from the singer since the word “White” preceded his name.
Taking Dawn – Time to Burn
Time to Burn is stuck shamelessly in 1984: it was a time when melodic heavy metal and hard rock boasted über-slick production and massive, massive hooks, but most importantly, the guitars still retained a metallic bite, unlike the gaudy, thinner sounds of the post-1986 glam metal era. More Spencer Proffer, less Bruce Fairbairn. Simply put, if you grew up with bands like Ratt, Dokken, Kick Axe, and Y&T, you will dig this sucker, without a doubt.
Arch Enemy/Exodus/Arsis/Mutiny Within @ Phoenix Concert Theater, Toronto ON, January 27, 2010
Live review by Ola Mazzuca; Photos by Adam Wills There is a certain magic quality about metal shows; magic in which no matter what…
Fear Factory – Mechanize
It’s not clear at this point whether this new offering has enough unique staying power to ensure that, once the dust of its release has settled, its cuts will stand out from the rest of the band’s music. It’s a great listen for the first few times, but then it begins to feel a little too familiar.
Announcing Our Year End Contest Winner!!!
You’ve been asking us by email, twitter, even a few people have called me on the phone to find out who won our big year end contest . Well, here is the information you’ve all been waiting for.
Fear Factory: Reborn To Mechanize
Yep, Fear Factory’s Burton C. Bell is reunited with the band’s original guitarist Dino Cazares. And it feels so good. Hellbound spoke to the influential frontman about Mechanize and its place amidst Fear Factory’s creative 90s triumvirate of Obsolete, Demanufacture, and Soul of a New Machine.
CONTEST: Blast Into 2010! Huge 40 CD+ Giveaway!
Let’s get 2010 underway with a bang! What better way to get your year off to a good start than with a contest. To help celebrate the end of 2009 and the beginning of both a new year and a new decade, we’ve asked some of our favourite labels to help us welcome 2010 and what a bang it is!
Trivium/Chimaira/Whitechapel @ Odeon, Saskatoon, SK, November 20, 2009
Trivium has talent up the wazoo. That’s never been in doubt. The problem with the Florida band is that Matt Heafy and his mates often try far too hard to impress, the perfect example being the bloated 2008 album Shogun, which threw everything at the wall, from thrash riffs, to hooky choruses, to tempo changes, to epic song structures, with very little sticking in the end. With this fall tour being one last go-round before the band takes a break to write and record their fifth album next year, it was interesting to see Trivium downplay the Shogun record as well as 2006’s The Crusade, instead focusing primarily on the breakthrough Ascendancy, as if they were openly conceding that it’s the best album.