Reviews
THE USED – Heartwork – album review
The golden age of emo music has long since passed, but 2020 is seeing a massive resurgence of the post-hardcore subgenre that has taken fans on a nostalgic journey. Fall Out Boy started touring again, My Chemical Romance got back together, and just like that it feels like 2004. But what would an emo music… Read more »
METAL CHURCH – From The Vault – album review
It’s hard to believe that Metal Church’s debut album came out in 1984. That’s coming up on 40 years of massive metal rockitude (that’s a word, right?). As is the case with almost any band that has been around that long, there have been multiple line-up changes through the years but Mike Howe returned on… Read more »
Ted Templeman A Platinum Producer’s Life In Music – Book Review
If you grew up spinning vinyl records on a turntable in the 1970’s, you’ve seen the name. Like so many did, you would arrive home with the coveted new Van Halen record. Frantically biting the corner of the celo-wrapping, unable to pick the lock of this treasure chest fast enough, you were finally able to… Read more »
THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER – Verminous – Album Review
High octane death metal juggernauts The Black Dahlia Murder are set to release their ninth studio album, Verminous. The Detroit, Michigan quintet will be releasing their new album on Friday April 17, 2020 through Metal Blade Records. With ten pulse-pounding songs and definitive melodies that are sure to seep into your brain, Verminous is likely… Read more »
LUCIFER – III
The Ides of March brought us the third offering from Stockholm’s soothing cult rock outfit Lucifer. This is a band producing music that is subtle in sound but like any good spell-caster is potent in effect. III pulls in your ear and maybe even your soul, hooked by the sorcery of Johanna Sadonis delivery and… Read more »
TESTAMENT – Titans of Creation
For the superstitiously inclined, 13 is a somewhat plagued number. For Testament it stands for another landmark album of loud, Bay Area thrash with a namesake defining longevity, with time speaking for them. Their new onslaught incorporates all major earth bound elements, staying loyal to traditional ingredients while tossing some new additives into the eternal-bubbling… Read more »
BRIAN FALLON – Local Honey – Album Review
Local Honey, is Brian Fallon’s third solo release to date. For those who haven’t been privy to the New Jersey troubadour’s solo career, we have been presented with Fallon’s most simple, truthful and introspective album thus far. The former front man of The Gaslight Anthem (TGA)–a band living in musical purgatory–has since his first solo… Read more »
POLARIS – The Death of Me
Australian metalcore phenoms Polaris have followed up their successful debut album, The Mortal Coil with the highly awaited The Death of Me. As might be expected by the name, this isn’t a peppy, upbeat record. Instead it is a heavy, highly emotion-filled outlook on the world that will most likely speak to many people at… Read more »
BLUE OYSTER CULT – Agents of Fortune 40th Anniversary
On paper it probably seemed like a good idea. For the 40th anniversary of Blue Oyster Cult’s breakout album Agents of Fortune, recreate the album by playing all the tracks in front of a live audience. That concept came to fruition with the performance and recording on April 18, 2016 at Red Studios in Hollywood…. Read more »
BREAKING BENJAMIN – Aurora
Multi-platinum rock band Breaking Benjamin released their seventh studio album late January via Hollywood Records titled Aurora. The record is a reimagined acoustic album comprised of nine tracks from Breaking Benjamin’s seemingly endless catalog of chart-topping hits and one new song titled Far Away, featuring Scooter Ward from the band Cold. The album seems to… Read more »
THE AMITY AFFLICTION – Everyone Loves You … Once You Leave Them
Australian metalcore quartet, The Amity Affliction, wants you to know that “mental illness is uncompromising and indiscriminate,” and if “you peel back the layers” you’ll find the truth and underlying message in their seventh full-length and debut album on Pure Noise Records, Everyone Loves You… Once You Leave Them. The band members, Joe Birch (vocals),… Read more »
BEHEMOTH – I loved You at Your Darkest – Tour Edition
Behemoth frontman Nergal has spent a very loud career taking spiritual iconography to the deepest and darkest corners of his mind. Many (if not most) of their videos feature deconsecration of many things, especially those religiously sacred. Though they’ve thrown the holiest of holy’s straight into the fiery depths, they’ve done so with their own brand… Read more »
