LP Review: "Blades, Chains, Whips, & Fire" by Magick Touch

Blades, Chains, Whips, & Fire

About five years ago, this guy was standing inside of the Firebird for the first time.

Kill Devil Hills, featuring Rex Brown, was headlining the venue that night. It was actually a large night of firsts for me.

My first interview with a legitimate star, first show in the firebird, and the first time that friend stood me up.

But the point of all of this, isn't Brown, KDH, or whatever, but the fact that this band came out and went crazy town on me for about 45 minutes...they also sold me my first new vinyl record.

Crobot was funky and chunky, lean and mean, surf and turf, and most of all, they were sharp and tarp. I'm also given to understand they have a hot sauce that could be quite tasty.

What they showed me that  night is that we were all missing out on new rockers. If you huck a penny at any of our night club districts, you'll probably wing about fifteen national metal bands....but how many rockers?

Album Review: "Perennial Void Traverse" by Reptilian

Perennial Void Traverse

There was a time in the not too distant past when Metal was considered too nerdy for some folks, like Kim Thayil, to relate to.

Personally, as a nerd the Dungeons & Dragons imagery really spoke to me, because that's basically where Black Sabbath started anyway.

After that was considered hokey, metal refocused and became very, very angry. Kirk Hammett's done interviews where he discussed whether or not he was still angry as he's gotten older.

But  more and more metal is finding new inspiration and the howls of anguish, which are ever so prevalent, are now even beginning to give way to the screams of the insane.

If nothing else, this seems a pretty rational progression if you ask me. In 1975, metal guys were all nerds. In 1980 we got angry for not being accepted. Later on, we became sad because we still didn't rule the world. Now, we've been driven insane.