Tag Archives: cd review

Whiskey Myers – Mud

Whiskey Myers fourth outing “Mud” follows up their acclaimed 2013 release ‘Early Morning Shakes’ however don’t expect more of the same. Dave Cobb is back in the production seat and as a result has pulled out some of their best work yet. Having entered the studio, and in addition gained two …

Read More »

Megadeth – Dystopia Album Review

Let’s not pretend – Super Collider and Thirteen were…questionable at best. This left me wary as I sat at my desk ready to hear the latest offering from Megadeth. Half the band had left in the last year, leaving Ellefson and Mustaine with what looked like nothing to continue the …

Read More »

Exmortus – Ride Forth

California’s power shred act Exmortus would have fit right in on Mike Varney‘s Shrapnel Records in the late 1980s, if not for the band’s double bass drum and extreme metal vocal styling. On 2016’s Ride Forth, the band proves there is beauty in all sorts of precision: the hyper-realist creates …

Read More »

Deafheaven – New Bermuda

Hailing from a decidedly unfrostbitten San Francisco, the blackgaze Deafheaven has released its latest five song album, titled New Bermuda. Ranging from a drain cleaner caustic to a gentle caress, the five long-playing tunes on New Bermuda weave experimental, varied, smooth tapestries of sound. Deafheaven is one of a select …

Read More »

Deceased – Cadaver Traditions

For Arlington, Virginia band Deceased‘s devotees and collectors, the new 2 CD set, Cadaver Traditions, is a treasure trove of uncommonly-heard cover songs. Featuring 53, yes 53! full length songs, this set incorporates 2 albums of Deceased’s which were out of print, plus a collection of 17 previously-unreleased tunes. The …

Read More »

Dalkhu – Descend… Into Nothingness

Slovenian melodic black-death metal act Dalkhu has released its latest opus, Descend… Into Nothingness. The album contains seven songs, which are an intense mixture of death, black, and even folk metal elements. Guttural, brutal death metal vocals permeate “Pitch Black Cave”, and the other tunes. Like Jeff Walker‘s famed vocal …

Read More »

Bandit – Playfastordie

Rough, raw, and reckless, Playfastordie by America’s Bandit is a crazy run through basement-ethic punk, powerviolence, grindcore, and hardcore. The entire presentation is ‘underground’, with a B level mix coupled to new-level punk musicianship. They’ve got the basic beats, chords, and screams down, but need a lot of work on …

Read More »

The Dead Weather – Dodge and Burn

Emerging from the shadows to release a full-length record for the first time in five years, America’s The Dead Weather has returned. The group’s third album, Dodge and Burn, finds a reinvigorated band which has embraced its scruffy rocker identity and strength. The quartet maintains a stellar connection, which is …

Read More »

Teenage Time Killers – Greatest Hits Vol. 1

Corrosion of Conformity‘s Reed Mullin and My Ruin‘s Mick Murphy decided, along with Jon Lousteau as producer, to create a star-studded, ever-changing group of guests that would convene, as Teenage Time Killers, and create an album. Given the celebrity status for about half of the guests, at first glance this …

Read More »

Shardborne – Living Bridges

Ireland’s Shardborne has released a seven song instrumental opus, titled Living Bridges. Formed in 2010, Shardborne released Aeonian Sequence, its four song debut EP, in 2011. Living Bridges is an odd, instrumental hybrid of progressive rock fusion, djent, atmospheric extreme metal, and regular thrash metal. Like listening to a great …

Read More »

The See See – Once, Forever & Again

A brilliant 13 song offering released in late 2014, Once, Forever & Again by London-based The See See showcases the band’s latest sonic journeys, and is the subject of this week’s Pop Focus. Once, Forever & Again, The See See’s third full-length studio effort, finally breaks some ground and gains a …

Read More »

The Toi- Water Into Wine cd

The latest cd I received via the postman was from a Glaswegian three piece rock band who I had never heard of before, however a quick look on their Facebook page gives me enough clues that this should be good, 4000 plus likes must mean they are doing something right. …

Read More »

The Crown – Death is Not Dead

There are some genuinely grinding, aggressive moments tucked away in the 11 tunes that comprise The Crown‘s early 2015 release, Death is Not Dead. These Swedish extreme metal veterans have reconvened to bring their fans some more fairly melodic, high speed death-thrash as only they can. Death is Not Dead …

Read More »

Nick Oliveri – Leave Me Alone

The hardscrabble, oft-bloodied bastard child of blues-based rock and roll and youthful angst, punk music has found a ready and willing audience with the disillusioned and disaffected for decades. A near-antithesis to virtuosity, punk’s raw edge favors instant consumption: quick composition, hard-hitting rhythms, and raucous riffing guitars. It’s common-man folk music for …

Read More »

Freak Kitchen – Cooking With Pagans

Sweden’s Freak Kitchen, featuring guitar virtuoso Mattias “IA” Eklundh, have returned with a ripping slab of musical whimsy, titled Cooking With Pagans. This 12-track, progressive rock album simultaneously “roasts” contemporary culture and explores new, quirky ways of musical self-expression. Neither pure “djent” nor pure progressive metal, this heavy music is …

Read More »

Goatwhore – Constricting Rage of the Merciless

Who can forget Goatwhore? From Sammy Duet‘s quip on the Relapse Records message board so long ago “I’m going to start a band and call it Goatwhore” to today’s mayhemic brutal machine, Louisiana’s purveyors of musical insanity have bluntly carved a well-deserved niche for themselves within extreme metal’s upper echelon. …

Read More »

Bloody Hammers – Under Satan’s Sun

“Bloody Hammers are a heavy rock band from Transylvania County, North Carolina.” Their latest ten-song disc, Under Satan’s Sun, was released in 2014 on Napalm Records. “Although commonly viewed as gothic rock, the band have incorporated elements of doom metal, stoner metal, and psychedelic rock.” By their name and the …

Read More »

Babylon A.D. – The Lost Sessions, Fresno CA 93

Formed in 1988, Babylon A.D. hail from San Francisco, California. Former Arista recording artists, they dredged up at EP’s worth of previously-unreleased material. Titled The Lost Sessions, Fresno CA 93, and released on Perris Records, this EP serves as the band’s ‘appearance at the final UK Firefest’ teaser. The material …

Read More »

Skinlepsy – Condemning the Empty Souls

Downtuned, digital, distorted, and defiant. That’s the first impression of Brazil’s Skinlepsy, who released their debut, Condemning the Empty Souls, on Shinigami Records. Nicely balanced, the recording is listenable even at low volume, but packs more punch “cranked up” a bit. This nine-song (with one intro) full-length album is nothing …

Read More »

Exmortus – Slave to the Sword

Exmortus are a four-piece band from Whittier, CA, the former stomping grounds of Richard Cee’s Wild Rags Records. The band formed in 2002, concocting a battle plan replete with apparent objectives: to spread the shred, pound steel and brew, praise the mighty Crom, and crush the craniums of many. While …

Read More »