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Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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Album Reviews

Album Review: Hierophant – Death Siege

A handful of albums over a dozen years of recorded history is nothing so scoff at for any band. And when said band – in this case HIEROPHANT – has the gumption to cover a band as staunch and without compromise as BOLT THROWER, one can only assume that band fancies itself as dedicated. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a fan of intro tracks whatsoever, but ‘Mortem Aeternam’ is less an intro than a barrage of sonic violence assaulting your ears, all instruments and voices caterwauling, haranguing, defiling and dismembering into ‘Seeds Of Vengeance’. More Metal ™ than […]

Music News

FORLESEN Premiere New Album Black Terrain At Decibel Magazine

FORLESEN are streaming their album, Black Terrain, in its entirety over at Decibel Magazine. The album is out now via I, Voidhanger Records. The band draws from dark ambient, epic doom, black metal and slowcore, subverting traditional songwriting. The band comments: “Black Terrain coheres around themes of dissolution and entropy, traversing and overlapping the intimate and personal with the metaphysical and cosmic, and in doing so, seeking the transcendent. However high-minded this might sound, heartbreak, things falling apart, death, transcendence — these are universal themes. So our muse dances or lurches in perhaps seemingly disparate places that sing with this […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: R.A.M.B.O. – Defy Extinction

I remember first hearing the name R.A.M.B.O. from a friend of the band while hanging out in Philadelphia in the mid-‘00s. What? Costumes at shows? Political lyrics? Sorry, if you need me I’ll be here in my utterly original EMPEROR shirt and equally individualistic corpse paint, thanks. Then I listened. Wall Of Death The System sold me, elements of SACRILEGE demos, a smattering of AGNOSTIC FRONT/SOIA and even a dash of MENTORS when it came to the sense of skewed humor reminding that there are things to be taken with a dead seriousness as well as to be mocked because […]

Music News

Pioneering Metal Band, XYSMA, Ends 25-year Hiatus! New Album Announced via Svart Records

Since the late 1980’s when a new form of metal started to emerge from the ashes of the speed and thrash metal movements, XYSMA were there making a racket. They’ve gone a long way from the pus-oozing grindcore of Swarming Of The Maggots (1989) to the death rolling groove of Deluxe and Lotto a few years later, becoming an internationally revered cult band over the years. Recently the band thought it best to end a 25-year sabbatical and announced that there’s a new album in the works! Titled No Place Like Alone, the album will be released on Svart Records […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Metalian – Beyond The Wall

Hailing from Nova Scotia, this band really knows how to deliver some true metal thunder! Here they’ve dished up a metallic poutine of NWOBHM, JUDAS PRIEST and early speed metal influences that get the blood pumping. This is one of my favorite “true metal” releases of 2022! ‘March To the Death’ is a rather deceptive opener, as it starts slow and gradually builds up layers until it finally cuts loose with a track reminiscent of Stained Class-era PRIEST. Band leader Ian Wilson has got a strong, sharp voice that can occasionally cut loose with some really high-pitched screams. And he’s […]

Music News

PHILLY HARDCORE PUNK LEGENDS R.A.M.B.O. SHARE NEW SONG ‘NEW WORLD VULTURES’

Philadelphia hardcore punk legends R.A.M.B.O.’s first album since 2006, Defy Extinction, is out November 4th on Relapse Records! R.A.M.B.O. shares the third single ‘New World Vultures’ from Defy Extinction! Listen to the full song on YouTube Physical Defy Extinction LP/CD/CS pre-orders are available via Relapse.com. Digital Downloads/Streaming/Pre-Save HERE To say that R.A.M.B.O. occupies a singular space in punk history is an understatement. During their initial run from 1999 to 2007 the Philadelphia band took influences from thrash, anarcho-punk, d-beat, crust, and hardcore and combined that with intelligent but very fun – and at times downright ridiculous – lyrics to create […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Coffin Torture – Blennoid

From the unexpected environs of South Carolina, land of Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head and a multitude of other lures for lovers of sun and beaches, Thorfinn and Blind Sampson return with their second full-length under the COFFIN TORTURE moniker, hoping to disgust our eardrums with Blennoid. ‘Ükhsen Uul’ begins this self-described “death sludge” effort with gooey riffs and a near industrial clang ‘n’ clamor to the rhythm section, but the whole affair seems processed, effects-ridden, and with neither the rabid ferocity of death nor the crawl through the sewer-swamp of sludge. While I’m sure the elongated intro to ‘Budo’ was […]

Music News

MONSTER MAGNET ANNOUNCE TEST PATTERNS: VOL. 1 TO BE RELEASED NOVEMBER 11TH VIA GOD UNKNOWN RECORDS

Born in Red Bank, New Jersey, the early days of MONSTER MAGNET were a cosmos away from the major-label, alternative rock boom that would suck the band into the shiny MTV world of the early to middle ’90s. Originally formed by Dave Wyndorf, John McBain and Tim Cronin, MONSTER MAGNET came into the world with a lysergic ooze in 1989 with two demo tapes – Forget About Life, I’m High On Dope and I’m Stoned, What Ya Gonna Do About It? – making it perfectly clear from the start where they were coming from. This was a band reveling in […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Caustic Casanova – Glass Enclosed Nerve Center

CAUSTIC CASANOVA’s decision to augment the long-standing trio by adding Jake Kimberly on guitars bears fruit from the start, opener ‘Anubis Rex’ robust and invigorating/-ed, kicking off with some hybrid of spaghetti western, cock rock and surf, a dual-string attack clearly suiting the band. Add to this the trident-pronged vocals, and the D.C. act arsenal’s chock-full o’ ingredients that should guarantee success. But can they put their tools to good use over the course of Glass Enclosed Nerve Center without wandering in the process? If ‘Lodestar’ is any indication, yes, and since the band’s always had rather an “everything up […]

Music News

LACES OUT: New York Post-Hardcore Trio To Release Here At The Ashram LP Through Nefarious Industries In November; ‘Kick And Scream’ Streaming + Preorders Posted

Orange County, New York-based trio LACES OUT has been writing steadily throughout the pandemic, cranking out angular ‘90s-influenced post-hardcore. After making their comeback in July with the noisy and turbulent Roger Podacter EP, the group is ready to unleash their full-length debut, Here At The Ashram, a collection of nine juicy tunes picking up where the short and sweet EP left off. Prior to forming LACES OUT, drummer Steve Delucia and guitarist Ed Ciarfella had played together in various projects for nearly twenty years, including Warwick-based post-punk quintet Pigeon of which bassist Ray Wasnieski was also a member. As with […]

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