Music
Review: Wax Fang – The Astronaut
While you may roll your eyes at the pretense of a concept album about an astronaut emerging from a black hole as a limitless superbeing, it is hard to fault the ambitious scope of this project—two musicians from Louisville, KY scoring these massive, soaring, 10-minute-plus epics with symphonic scores, brawny psych guitar work and droning atmospherics. … read more
Review: William Fitzsimmons – Lions
Musically minimal and delicate, juxtaposed with dense lyrics, William Fitzsimmons manages to create an album that is both contemplative and intense without being dull or impenetrable. It is clean without being overproduced, emotional without being cliché and is personal while still being relatable. … read more
Review: Winkie – One Day We Pretended To Be Ghosts
Winkie’s inclination toward the melodic structure buried beneath the fuzz is what places them alongside their already established peers. Was mbv too full of love for your horizontal head? Eat at Winkie’s! … read more
Review: Wolves in the Throne Room – BBC Session 2011...
Ethereal as their studio recordings are, the BBC Session provides a different and equally as compelling experience. “Prayer of Transformation” is a slow and whispered black metal trek on Celestial Lineage, but in the live studio setting it shares a kinship with the patience-testing doom of Bell Witch and Samothrace. … read more
Review: Tyler Newman – Zonekiller (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
As I contemplate a robot apocalypse or a tyrannical future controlled by a mindless government, I take with me a soundtrack that gives life to these ideas. If you enjoy ’80s-infused dark electro comparable to the Quake soundtrack, I highly recommend this album. … read more
Review: Dethklok – Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem
Listen up for cameos by Jack Black, Malcom McDowell, George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, and Mark Hamill. This isn’t a death metal album, but if you have enough humor to enjoy the show, the album is worth it. It’s extremely well written, and epic as all hell. … read more
Review: Saffronkeira + Mario Massa – Cause and Effect
Caria and Massa have succeeded in creating a sequence of tracks that functions as a single volume, each supporting the other. “Umorale” is recommended for an idea of Cause and Effect’s general sound: intertwining melodies and drifting percussion traveling beside fluctuating drones and static elements. … read more
Review: Young Turks – Where I Rise
“I don’t give a shit, your music means nothing! Your actions speak even less,” yells Matt Koenig at the beginning of “Territo(royally) Pissed.” … read more
Review: Windhand – Soma
Soma echoes the smoke-wreathed incantations of Electric Wizard with their heavy, powerful riffing and foreboding atmosphere. However, Windhand tones down the grooviness of the British black wizards, aiming instead for something closer to a traditional doom sound. … read more
Review: Vastum – Patricidal Lust
I’ve mentioned before that death metal is getting a weird reputation because of new bands mixing in stuff that doesn’t make sense just to be different, and that old bands that should just give up putting out lousy albums. Breathe in the putrid air of Vastum—it’s a bit newly putrid and just as properly old school putrid. … read more
Review: Ultra Bidé – DNA vs DNA-c
Ultra Bidé have long been a source of aggressive music that could be described as noise rock mixed with artsy post-hardcore. … read more
