All Reviews Posts
Review: The Melvins – Freak Puke
Leave it to the Melvins to rearrange their lineup again—temporarily, this time—for the sake of weirdness. On Freak Puke, vocalist-guitarist King Buzzo and drummer Dale Crover team up with Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn for what’s being dubbed “Melvins Lite.” They might be one drummer short of a full Melvins deck, but the resulting hand [...]
Review: Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators – Apocalyptic Love
In contrast to his 2010 self-titled disc, a diverse affair with a multitude of guest vocalists that sometimes seemed strained under the weight of its creator’s own grand ambition, here Slash and his band, fronted by Alter Bridge’s Myles Kennedy, let the riffs and hooks fly freely. Though there are enough left turns to keep [...]
Review: Royal Thunder – CVI
With their debut full-length, Atlanta rock quadrangle Royal Thunder deliver on the unlikely promise offered by their self-titled 2010 EP: deep Sabbathian grooves with a distinct Southern twang fronted by a female vocalist-bassist with a killer banshee wail. On CVI, frontwoman Mlny Parsonz leads her bandmates through a thick rock hurricane that spins soaring melodies [...]
Review: Kill Devil Hill – Kill Devil Hill
The obvious reference point for Kill Devil Hill, the sludgy new supergroup featuring Rex Brown (Pantera, Down) and Vinny Appice (Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell), is Alice in Chains, but, at its core, the their eponymous debut is a solid tribute to the old-school. There are the vibrato-laden vocals and mid-paced beats of Dio-era Sabbath, [...]
Review: Shadows Fall – Fire From the Sky
Back in the late ’00s, Massachusetts’ Shadows Fall seemed dangerously close to a mainstream breakthrough, releasing a Grammy-nominated album, Threads of Life, that is so catchy, they’re still trying to live it down. 2009’s Retribution was a return to their usual churning riffage and skyscraper harmonies; this, its follow-up, is more of the same, only [...]
Review: Cattle Decapitation – Monolith of Inhumanity
On their fifth album, vegetarian gore-grinders Cattle Decapitation prove they’re not just Carcass worship. Vocalist Travis Ryan fully comes out of his shell with his, ahem, “melodic” “singing” and the Jeff Walker–esque tone sounds great (see “Lifestalker”). Elsewhere, the band shred harder than ever but with lots of cool twists: The insane gravity beat–led grind [...]
Review: Storm Corrosion – Storm Corrosion
Storm Corrosion is the long-awaited collaborative project from Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson and Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt—but you might not guess it from listening to this debut album. Rather than playing the progressive metal associated with those bands, the duo crafts dark, cinematic orchestral music closer to the experimentation of Univers Zero or Scott Walker. Perhaps [...]
Review: Bleeding Through – The Great Fire
The melodic black metalcore churned out by Orange County sextet Bleeding Through once sounded fresh and unique. Sadly, in a world of Winds of Plagues and Abigail Williams, that is no longer the case on album No. 7, The Great Fire. The record is filled with 14 short tracks that reconfirms the band’s occasionally powerful [...]
Review: Sigh – In Somniphobia
In the anime film Paprika, a man’s dreams are invaded by a parade of moving inanimate objects, toys, and cartoon characters. This stampede of nonsense causes him to jump out of a window. The concept isn’t entirely new—H.P. Lovecraft always had people defenestrate themselves rather than facing the horrors of their minds—but it’s rare that [...]
Review: The Devil’s Blood – The Thousandfold Epicentre
The Devil’s Blood plays to a bygone era, cracking open the echoing, psychedelia-drenched annals of the ’60s and early ’70s. With the earthy production and impassioned female vocals of Coven and the relaxed groove and organic atmosphere of Black Widow, these Dutch rockers exude authenticity. This comes at a cost, however, as their sound can [...]
