I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a Bob Dylan fan, but I’ve listened to a fair cross-section of his career. Portions have been steeped in mystery and controversy, and while I don’t much care one way or another about his acoustic-versus-electric thang, his born-again Christian period is most intriguing. It’s not like religious songs are inherently bad, but when your ears...
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A great sense of shame and embarrassment washes over yours truly as this next statement is typed: I’ve never been to Maryland Deathfest. Every year, arguably the biggest and most important festival in North America comes and goes, and every year brings another excuse - bills are too tight, I haven’t had a job in six months, it sold out already, the dishes need doing. You name it, I’ve said it aloud. This puts personal experience right out the window in terms of an explanation...
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Though many hate to admit it, punk has always been pop's remora. When mainstream tastemakers turn sour, more often than not, punk will devour the leftovers, digest the remains, and re-release it as a gritty re-imagining until the time is right for the food chain owners to chow down once again on chummed waters. I'm not sure why this happens. Maybe it's the always-in-opposition...
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Experimentation is a double-edged sword – on the one hand, it’s a trait most often praised by critics, if not always loved by fans, and its converse, static repetition, is as sometimes decried by both as a lack of new ideas, or a lack of artistic impulse, or simply an unwillingness to try. But then there’s the age-old truth of not fixing what isn’t broken. And for all the rightful focus upon opening new boundaries, both genre-wide or simply personal – art is a shark,...
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The Joutsen-fronted era of Amorphis is certainly consistent, even if these Finns haven’t released anything that truly captures the groundbreaking and game-changing magic of Elegy since... well, Elegy. After swapping Pasi for Tomi some eight years ago, Amorphis has released five full-lengths, plus the unnecessary re-recordings on Magic And Mayhem. Each of those discs exhibits only...
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Dream Death was one of those bands that didn't fit neatly into any particular metal scene or sub-genre. Even in the less rigidly subdivided metal landscape of the late 1980s, Dream Death was a square peg. The band was too slow and dark for thrash, not quite extreme enough for death metal, and a little too extreme for doom. Consequently, the group spent its brief career toiling in obscurity. The band released one LP, 1987’s Journey Into Mystery,...
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Some might balk at reducing an album review to Six Thoughts, but believe me; it's due not a lack of effort on my part. Okay, I'm lying. I’m being a little lazy with this one. But at least I'm putting more effort into these Six than The Resistance did in packaging their debut. One “Whatchoo mean, Rev?” Well,...
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I can imagine the band meeting that must have taken place when Howl formed: Member 1: “So, what kind of music shall we play? You all know I’m into Swedish death metal.”Member 2: “Well, I like Lamb of God and Black Label Society.”Member 3: “I’m into doomy stuff like Electric Wizard and Candlemass.”Member 4: “I think it’s cool how bands like Celtic...
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Normally, a quick two-song EP probably doesn’t merit much more than a blurb, but, when Lair Of The Minotaur is concerned, an exception should be made. A loud and abrasive combination of sludge, thrash, and very rough death metal, Lair Of The Minotaur not only sports one of the best names in metal, but is ornery as all hell to boot. Witness the band’s finest hour, the album War Metal Battle Master from 2008, and the DVD that...
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One Of Us Is The Killer is a commendable continuation of the experimentation from Irony is a Dead Scene turned into a full-length, an improvement upon Option Paralysis, and rife with plenty of the poisoned pop hooks Dillinger created on Ire Works. The guitars are blistering, virtuosic, and razor-sharp; Puciato contributes volumes to the album’s dynamics with his one-of-a-kind...
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