Tag: USA

  • Nachtmystium – Not so black metal

    While the practice of genre blending is nothing new to the world of metal, few bands have taken it to the extremes that Chicago band Nachtmystium have. Built on a strong foundation of second wave black metal, that band have evolved progressively into a psychedelic, industrial and post punk fueled black metal behemoth, culminating in…

  • Dying Fetus/ Arsis/ Misery Index @ Mod Club, Toronto ON, May 31, 2010

    After tonight’s show we now know why Dying Fetus deserve to be a bonafide headliner. Holy fuck! What a ferocious machine these guys are live. They have the songs and riffs and you cannot get any tighter than they are right now.

  • Jon Oliva’s Pain – Festival

    Festival is not far removed from Savatage’s (likely) final album, Poets & Madmen. Inclined to a middling pace, the focus is on weighty, bludgeoning riffs wrapped in grandiosity and drama.

  • Maryland Deathfest 2010 Recap Part 1

    The great thing about fests like MDF is that the metal is simply overflowing. The bad thing about fests like MDF is that the metal is simply overflowing. If it’s sitting down to catch your breath, or grabbing a drink or a bite to eat, there are plenty of reasons causing one to miss one…

  • Slough Feg/ Funeral Circle @ Red Room, Vancouver BC, May 29 2010

    The inveterate Slough Feg are one of those bands that pulls it off so well live that they’re able to sound identical to what they do on tape, which I found pretty impressive considering how ornate their songs can get. Personally, I was there to hear songs from their latest, Ape Uprising!, and they did…

  • Early Graves – Goner

    If you like it mean, fast, crusty and hammering, check out Goner, it’s a housewrecker of a disc.

  • Portal/ Krallice/ Bloody Panda @ Mohawk Place, Buffalo NY May 24, 2010

    The energy that Portal projected, both in their music and their sheer physical presence, was overwhelming. Every gesture that The Curator made was impossibly intense. I spent the entire set staring wildly up at the band, certain that any moment something Very Bad was going to happen. They’re masters at wielding this carefully managed sense…

  • Godsmack – The Oracle

    It has been a Godsmack trademark to toss out allusions to material that is more interesting and more ambitious than their commercial hits would seem to suggest. As The Oracle offers up its share of such material, it will be interesting to see where the band continues to take things from here.

  • STAFF PLAYLISTS: May 2010

    BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Find out what HELLBOUND’s contributors have been listening to during the month of May. Almost every writer has submitted their Top 5 list and have an option to list a book and a film they are into right now too.

  • Soulfly – Omen

    The thing about Omen is that it feels like Soulfly is running through the motions in a lot of ways. The clue to that lies (again) in the Jeffrey Dahmer referencing; the cannibal was arrested and tossed in the can in 1992. He died in ’94; this was the best the band could do?