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Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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Music News

Stoner/Doom Metal Powerhouse, THORNDALE, Announce New Album, Spiritual Chains

THORNDALE, the Netherlands-based stoner/doom metal powerhouse, is thrilled to announce the September 12 release of their sophomore album, Spiritual Chains. A music video for the album’s first single, ‘Veins Of The Phoenix’, is available HERE This highly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2024 debut, Lightning Spawn, promises a darker and more mature sound, showcasing the band’s evolving artistry and the addition of a second guitar player to their lineup. Comprised of seasoned musicians from notable acts such as Adarrak, Killing Darlings, Embers Of Oblivion, Epinikion, and Primal Charge, their unique blend of heavy, stoner, and doom metal has resonated […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Walking Bombs – Blessings Bestrewn Part 1

While being extremely new to shapeshifter(s) WALKING BOMBS, courtesy of the January 2025 mixtape Bong Hits For The Death Of Imperialism, I quickly realized there was something possibly fantastic to be discovered. I mined the Brave Hours record of 2017, surprised to find more of a “true” band setup (whatever that is anymore), and found the indie-folk of ‘Loveislove’ childlike that best way, simple and strong enough to be. ‘Flower Punx 4ever’ became a memory trip through my own days of coming up in that glorious era of skaters/BMXers who jammed RUN DMC, CIRCLE JERKS and HUSKER DU on the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Medea Project – Kharon

THE MEDEA PROJECT lists its beginning as 2003, however, the UK duo’s first long-player didn’t arrive until 2020’s Sisyphus. Enjoyable, succinct, thinking neither too highly of itself, nor too headily about the sound it was crafting, the band – while not going leagues beyond in a search for a singular sound – used economy to its advantage on the debut. EPs Southern Echoes (2021) and Reflections (2023) acted as sonic travelogues, showing that THE MEDEA PROJECT was beginning to search its own heart to discover what blood flowed through. Anguished vocals submerged in a wet fog moan/cry from behind the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Rum Runners – Wreck And Revere [EP]

Well, ALESTORM’s gone to shite long ago, SWASHBUCKLE’s last yawnfest was a song about the movie Starship Troopers, and YE BANISHED PRIVATEERS – while fantastic – aren’t what I’d call metal, so it’s about time for another pirate-themed crew, aye? RUM RUNNERS think so, returning after 2015’s The Quest For Mead with Wreck And Revere, new crewmates aboard, and ready to (hopefully) hoist my not so Jolly but quite formidable Roger. ‘In Sirens’ Wake’ eschews the trappings of for a feisty, thrash-injected thrust of the prow into the open seas, a bit of EDGUY (sans comedic tomfoolery) in their delivery, […]

Music News

Phoenix Psychedelic Alternative Rock Act, Media, Releases Eponymous CD Collecting All Three Parts Of Sixth Mass Extinction Concept Trilogy

Phoenix, Arizona based psychedelic/alternative rock trio MEDIA presents an eponymous CD collecting the three parts of their concept trilogy documenting the Sixth Mass Extinction in one album. MEDIA was founded by Billy Tegethoff (The Oxford Coma) and Richard Wnuk who performed this first piece of the triptych, with Tegethoff handling guitar, bass, and vocals, Wnuk playing drums, and both contributing various synthesizers and electronics throughout the release. Wnuk had a very clear picture of how he wanted the record to sound, so he wore the producer hat throughout a very meticulous mixing process. Following the recording of Influence, the duo […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Turkey Vulture – Dead To Me [EP]

Ya just gotta give Connecticut’s TURKEY VULTURE props for doing it the right way – honing its sound over 4 EPs and a smattering of singles since 2019, not over-anxious to jump into the album format, when it may never suit them. ‘Jill The Ripper (Heavy Take)’ doesn’t come with the promised “doom’s crushing weight”, but the snarl in the vox of drummer Jim Clegg more than suffice, the tune rampant with dirty punk ‘n’ roll ala VANDALS and CIRCLE JERKS (VI era). The title track finds guitarist/bassist Jessie May joining on vocals and boasts a chorus as catchy as […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Royal Blunder – Only More Is Enough [EP]

You’ve got four songs and I’ve only got 120 words, ROYAL BLUNDER, so let’s cut to the chase. Where do you get off cranking out a syncopated rocker like ‘The Clock’ right from the start? I’m hearing DANIEL AMOS here, but sweetened with just enough sugar to make the whole thing go down oh, so smooth. And that title track, the fiery guitar lead-in, that’s just uncalled for! Give us a minute to catch up, fellas, our media-addled brains can’t take all these goodtime grooves and positivity at once! The psych/pop of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ bleeds XTC, and ‘Blink’ capping this […]

Uncategorized

CLAMFIGHT: New Jersey Sludge/Doom Metal Quartet Prepares To Release Eponymous Fourth LP On May 16th; ‘The Oar’ Streaming + Preorders Posted

New Jersey/Philly sludge beasts CLAMFIGHT are prepared to self-release their eponymous fourth full-length release this Spring, unveiling the cover art, track listing, preorders, and lead single, ‘The Oar’. The members of CLAMFIGHT are childhood friends who played their first show together in the Fall of 2005. The band’s lineup has remained the same ever since, with bassist Louis Koble, guitarists Joel Harris and Sean McKee, and drummer/vocalist Andy Martin. Over the past twenty years, the band has played shows along the entire East Coast and beyond, having shared a lot of laughs and shenanigans as well as loss and heartache […]

Short Sharp Shocks

ASASARA – 777 [EP]

Massachusetts duo ASASARA returns with its second EP. ‘Myself Made Perfect’ is fluid in execution, rhythms at a just-below-mid-paced tempo. Stellar soloing greets us soon enough, a SACRED REICH vibe in both riffery and Niko Galanis’ vocals. ‘The Jaws Of Life’ begins in much the same way, and ends in…yep, you guessed it. I’m sensing a pattern, and the gymbro hardcore gang shouts in both this and ‘Limitless Vision’ only add to my ears’ misery. A traditional Greek song ends 777, and, sadly, it couldn’t have happened soon enough. Obviously talented are Galanis and drummer Emidio Alexandre; the problem is […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Negative 13 – Recover What You Can

‘The Desolate’ does the rare thing that intros actually do, which is set the listener up for what’s in store. In this case, a plodding rumble/riff join forces to tumble us headlong into the SIXTY WATT SHAMAN-ic swinging groove of ‘Casket Trail’ {Scott] Fisher retains the hardcore-tinged snarl that’s suited him well as far back as the NEGATIVE THEORY days, and the band has more than a bit of My War-era BLACK FLAG in its sense of the disjointed when it comes to putting a song together, then nearly wrecking the whole thing so as to make it seem it’s […]

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