FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
It was loud, it was sweaty and it was a hell of a rock and roll show from a band whose combined age is somewhere around 235. Three of the four may be of retirement age, but on this night the Blue Coupe rocked harder than most bands 1/3 of their age.
I haven’t listened to Manowar since I was about fifteen but from the first listen, I remembered what a kick-ass guitarist Ross the Boss is. His razor-sharp NWOBHM-era riffs, especially on “Death and Glory” have that classic Judas Priest Defender of the Faith-sound, and the songs are generally punchy but tight.
Summon is the latest from New York sludge doom band Bloody Panda, and it is hardly easy-listening material even by metal standards. It’s an album that is largely about the atmosphere it creates, and it doesn’t waste any time in getting to it.
Whether you’re a supporter or detractor, you have to feel for Dez Fafara and the big ol’ target on his back. No matter what he does, how long he grows his centre-parted hair out, how many bootleg Black Flag shirts he’s photographed wearing, how much ill-placed tattoo ink he coats his neck and face with or how often he spits out something approximating a death metal growl, he’ll forever been known as the guy who sang in Coal Chamber.
Now, Sleep is perhaps best known for Dopesmoker, the posthumous reissue of their Jerusalem record, with a more stoner-friendly title. Whether you
call it Jerusalem or Dopesmoker, the single-track, 52-minute platter is a noteworthy album. But Holy Mountain isn’t just an album, it’s a collection of SONGS, man!
And in this corner, with 12 years, five albums, three EPs and countless tours under their belts, NEBULA!
And in the opposite corner, with 3 years as a trio, touring in support of their first album, The Entrance Band!
Two of the most important American bands of the early seventies were ALICE COOPER and BLUE OYSTER CULT. Both bands had a string of successful studio albums, sell-out tours and even hit singles on the radio. Some of the key members of the original versions of both these bands have joined force in a new live band called BLUE COUPE, who are playing some shows in Southern Ontario this week
Misery Index is a long running death/grind outfit from Baltimore, Maryland. This album, their debut full length, was recorded originally back in April 2003 at Wild Studio in St-Zenon, Quebec and it is one of the most blistering technical, speed shattering, deathgrind cds of all time.
Todesbonden’s full-length album feels refreshing, which perhaps isn’t surprising given the images of breezy fields and mossy forests that Sleep Now, Quiet Forest conjures up within the listener’s mind.
As New York’s Bloody Panda concluded their final note, and began to pack up, the small crowd, who had gathered for their awe-inspiring performance, wasn’t sure how to react to the intensity that was just laid out before them. So instead of applause, cheering, or even conversation, the room filled with an eerie silence that couldn’t have been more fitting.
Adam Wills documents the recent Toronto performance by NYC doom collective Bloody Panda.