CD Review: “Cold Dark Place” by Mastodon
The Cold Dark Place EP bears the Mastodon moniker and the members of Mastodon are performing the songs, but this is only technically a “Mastodon” album. Fans still high on Emperor of Sand should temper their expectations. That’s not to say this is a ...
CD Review: “The Deviant Chord” by Jag Panzer
Jag Panzer storms the battlefield with its first album in six years. The Deviant Chord is replete with soaring vocals and stellar guitar virtuosity. I admit that power metal is my least favorite sub-genre in heavy metal, but Jag Panzer always possessed a ...
CD Review: “Deep Calleth Upon Deep” by Satyricon
Legendary Norwegian black metal duo Satyricon are back with Deep Calleth Upon Deep, its ninth studio album. “Midnight Serpent” opens with a rollicking guitar riff over a demonic circus of blast beats. It is evil black n' roll with Satyr's harsh vocals sou ...
CD Review: “Love From With The Dead” by With The Dead
The ear piercing, distortion on “Isolation” opens up the second slab of doom released by With The Dead. The lumbering riffs and plodding drums meander like a blind giant in a forest. It is a fitting way to kick things off on Love From With The Dead. “Egyp ...
‘Live At The O2 Arena + Rarities’ by Alter Bridge
Earlier this year, I had the honor to cover one of my favorite bands, Alter Bridge, at a concert they were playing nearby. When I arrived, the line was wrapped around the block, and that was five minutes after the doors had opened. And this wasn ...
‘Black Smoke Rising’ EP by Greta Van Fleet
In the village of Frankenmuth, Michigan, just North of Detroit, four young men calling themselves Greta Van Fleet are re-imagining the British Invasion. Not in the sense of Paul Revere (or Sybil Ludington, if you’d prefer), but the British Invasion of t ...
CD Review: “Profane Nexus” by Incantation
You can never underestimate the old guard. Incantation has spewed blasphemous, twisted death metal for 28 years. The band's blend of death and gothic sludge has placed it in the upper echelons of extreme metal. After a six year hiatus, Incantation showed ...
CD Review: “Ascension Gate” by Dawn of Disease
German death metal quintet Dawn of Disease unleash its fourth album Ascension Gate only a year after its predecessor, Worship The Grave. Ascension is an amalgam of melodicism, brutal blast beats and melancholic doom riffs. The Swedish metal influence is a ...
Album Review: Neil Young Returns with New Old Album, Or an Old New Album: The Hitchhiker
Though recorded four decades ago, this appears to be the work of an older man. Desperation and exhaustion come through with nearly every song.
Darling Waste turns “The Skeleton Key”
It's always refreshing when a band you've known and loved for years returns with new material, and even more so when that material is the best the band has ever done. The Skeleton Key is Darling Waste's fourth album since the band formed in Cleveland in 2 ...