These posts are written by: Karlo Doroc

Connecting the Dots – Mastodon

written by

Welcome to Connecting the Dots, the column where we give a brief rundown on a central band along with a host of other projects their members, both past and present, have been involved in. Today we’ll be focusing on progressive sludge powerhouse Mastodon and the myriad of projects they’ve been involved with.

Hey! Listen to Fleshmeadow!

written by

December is a shocking month to release music in. If you’re thinking about doing so, don’t. Most publications have already settled on their end-of-year list, and if they haven’t been published yet they’ll be coming soon. Music journalists are going into shut-down mode as they give themselves some time off and try to recover from the mountain of listening they did in preparation for their end-of-year list. Listeners are on holidays and are enjoying their time off with loved ones. If they’re listening to music it’s going to be their personal favourites and not some new record that’s dropped. What this all means is that albums released in December are likely to get lost, falling into an abyss from which escape is near-impossible even for those with a formidable PR machine behind them. When you’re independent you’ve almost got no chance. That’s my theory for how an album as great as Fleshmeadow’s debut Umbra slipped through the cracks in late 2016 and why they’re still a largely unknown quantity. But we’re trying to fix that because these blackened death metallers are ready to rip your face off.

Mike Shinoda – Post Traumatic

written by

Today marks around 12 months since the passing of Chester Bennington, another all too frequent day that sends shockwaves rippling through the music community. In this instance, more so than most, the sadness and anguish weren’t contained to the metal or rock communities, but the music world more broadly. Yet, as difficult as his death has been for countless people the world over, few would have felt his loss to the extent that friend and bandmate Mike Shinoda has. Our words couldn’t possibly describe how he would have been feeling, for grief is such a personal emotion, and so we won’t even try. But we can touch upon the various motivations that may have been at play when deciding to write, record and release Post Traumatic, a 16-song LP released in June.