A few weeks ago, when we were premiering the latest single from Infinity Shred, I mentioned the wide range of emotions which the track evoked. Little did I know that this was just the tip of the iceberg. Whereas earlier releases had a definite dark edge to them, focusing mostly…
Normally, lately, when I’m discussing the great music scene that Toronto has going on it’s to talk on and on about the tremendous well-spring of punk music that it has become. As with any scene hitting a creative spike, though, there are great things happening in that town across multiple…
While I hate to write a review for a band in context with other bands, it would be difficult not to mention our current sludgy overlords of Mastodon and Baroness with Horseburner. It’s interesting to see how a previous generation of metal darlings has a strong influence on rising musicians.…
There’s a very cool and underrated niche in which the psychedelic and the fantastic meld together. Instead of the Tolkien-esque aesthetic which has come to dominate much of our fantasy (an aesthetic I am a fan of but which can also get a bit too much), this kind of fantasy…
Envenomed have been positioned as the next big thing in Australian thrash metal for a while now. The Melbourne band offer a brighter and more melodic alternative to their often more extreme and aggressive (read: Slayer-influenced) brethren. They’ve remained an entertaining live staple within the Melbourne scene since their inception.…
There has always been the sense of the eerie and the weird to Kayo Dot’s music. Perhaps that is in the nature of all the disparate styles we often clumsily bundle up together under the guise of avant-garde or art rock. This eeriness is, naturally, hard to define; it is…
There’s been much written about both the quality of vinyl and the lack thereof. I’m not interested in wading into the fidelity wars, but I do want to cite a recent “
Look, you guys know by now what my deal is with death metal. I love that shit. Cannot get enough, ever. In many ways, it’s the perfect genre of metal: unusually tight stylistic constraints in terms of instrumentation, vocal style, production, and theme come together to form a musical, tonal,…
What I like best about getting my paws on a debut record is experiencing the twofoldness of the statement that is made on this introduction. The record simultaneously says “this is definitively us” and “this is just the beginning.” (Well, hopefully it’s not the end so soon, right?) Portland quartet…
There’s a fine line between consistency and stagnation, especially with a sophomore album. Whether an artist offers too much of the same or does a complete about-face, both approaches can easily turn off early listeners. After such a strong debut like last year’s Mental Wounds Not Healing, it’s a relief…
