Tag: UK

  • Porcupine Tree @ Sound Academy, Toronto, ON, May 8, 2010

    Were this simply an auditory barrage (which I am more than familiar with), I might have had more resistance. But it was much more than that. This show was a carefully orchestrated, beautifully curated performance. The video accompaniment interesting and tasteful, and varied enough that I was never able to settle fully into it or…

  • Sectioned – Purulent Reality

    Purulent Reality is best compared to an unstoppable force that can take a great deal of abuse, simply shedding off its damaged layers while continuing the charge. The album makes no apologies about the fact that it demands to be played from start to finish and allowed to burn itself out.

  • Uriah Heep – Celebration

    Despite having only one original member, the band’s brand new album Celebration delivers to all their fans a fourteen track collection with an absolutely crushing set list. This celebration of forty years of rock is an album that has it all!

  • Overkill / Vader / God Dethroned / Warbringer / Evile / Woe Of Tyrants @ Dos Amigos, Odessa, TX, April 24, 2010

    Overkill focused upon their latest effort, Ironbound, clearly one of their best albums in years, and one of the best albums of the year thus far. And they did justice to classics like “Hello From the Gutter” and “Elimination.”

  • The Pineapple Thief – 3000 Days

    For those who are not familiar with The Pineapple Thief, this UK band is classified as a crossover progressive rock band. The four piece band’s most recent release is 3000 days, which is a double CD compilation which collects tracks off of The Pineapple Thief’s first few albums

  • Cathedral – The Guessing Game

    Modestly experimental and incredibly grandiose by their standards, this double album (their first ever) clocks in at an ungodly 80-plus minutes, way more than it should but, hey, it’s Cathedral. You know the fuzz-pedals were particularly gritty one day and writing got out of hand.

  • Raven – Walk through Fire

    By Albert Mansour Receiving this new Raven CD I raised a worried eyebrow thinking that this was going to be one their Stay Hard or The Pack Is Back specials: that many things will probably be going wrong on this album. The trio has proved me wrong by possibly releasing one of their best albums…

  • Kreator, Voivod, Nachtmystium, Evile @ Opera House, Toronto, ON, March 9, 2010

    KREATOR, of course, positively destroyed The Opera House. “Hordes of Chaos” raised the energy level in the room to near-riot level early on, and “Enemy of God” and “Extreme Aggression” kept it there. Whatever chilliness I’d initially felt evaporated almost immediately, and there was rarely a moment when my fist wasn’t in the air and…

  • MARILLION? D.I.Y. KINGS? YOU BETCHA!

    I was surprised as shit to find out that one of the two bands currently ruling the world of DIY (since Fugazi broke up, anyway) is Marillion. Portland, OR’s grind-punk heroes Tragedy are the other, but since they seem to love their privacy and isolation as much as I love their music, let’s focus on…

  • Wolfbane – s/t

    Shadow Kingdom Records is like the Energizer Bunny. It keeps going and going and going with great releases one after another. One of their newest gems is this compilation by Wolfbane.