EP Review: "To The Depths" by Lucis Absentia

To The Depths

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.

In 2016, nearly every great band name, in English anyway, has been taken. This blog has reviewed several bands that have had to add and addendum to their name, a suffix, or the definite article in order to legally differentiate themselves from the other roses in the garden.

Today's subject, Lucis Absentia, is formerly known as Gomorrah, but not that Gomorrah.

This is the first time I have reviewed an album by a band who used to use the same name as another band that I have also reviewed.

In the end, bands are like roses in a garden. What sets them apart from the other flowers swaying in the breezes isn't how cool their name is, but how they make their consumers feel.

Album Review: "Bless The Earth With Fire" by Allfather

Bless the Earth With Fire

Guitar players in this day and age are buying instruments with fake aging. Many of them are even fake aging, or relicing, the instruments themselves.

This is done because everybody knows that a guitar that's been through hell and back is a world class instrument both in feel and sound.

Why else would Rory Gallagher, Stevie Ray Vaughn, or Ace Frehley play a guitar that's missing half its original paint job or more?

The same is true fos us civilians and our day to day items. For your regular joes, like myself, a t-shirt, a pair of Levis, or the Chuck Taylor All Stars that I just can't seem to throw out are the same as Steve Ray's #1, Gallagher's Fender Strat, and Frehley's Budokan Les Paul. It's something in our lives that we use everyday.

Album Review: "Sharp Weapons" by Sharp Weapons

Sharp Weapons

What's in a name?

Is being called Metallica what made them so metal?

What about Pink Floyd? None of them were named Floyd and they were a pasty lot weren't they?

I don't think Slayer actually goes put and slays things. Led Zeppelin was neither made of lead nor a zepplin, and their music certainly went over far better than a lead balloon didn't it?

Slaughter sounds like the name of a metal band full of ferocity, angst, and ripping guitar solos, but we're left wanting on all of those aren't we?

Sharp Weapons....today's subject is from the faraway land of Kansas City. I honestly don't know if we're talking about KCK or KCMO, so we're just going to leave it at Kansas City.

Let's get on with it.

Album Review: "Curse of the North: I" by Curse of the North

Curse of the North: I

This isn't stoner metal, but let's talk about that concept for a minute.

Awhile back, bands decided that the missing link between Metallica and Black Sabbath was lost, so they became that missing link.

They became the second generation Sabbath.

That's pretty cool. They created bands based on a place and time that no longer existed. The pretended years of metal evolution didn't take place and they went back in time to create a family of metal that never existed.

Our band today feels like they've done something very similar. What if The Misfits and Samhain never existed? What if the Mesa/Boogie sound wasn't standard in metal in the 80's....what if what if...

Wolf Council Vinyl Giveaway

The Wolf Council

Welcome to the first Glacially Musical music giveaway.

First and foremost, let's discuss today's subject: The Wolf Council.

I reviewed their debut album back in January ahead of it's February release. On Feb 24th, it was released through the usual outlets, CD and digital.

But there was a demand for this album to be released on vinyl and their label, Static Tension Recordings is doing just that.

The rub is that there are only going to be 500 copies total of this LP pressed in three colors. I've teamed up with Static Tension Recordings in order to give one test pressing away to a lucky winner.

Here are the particulars:

Start Time: NOW!

End Time: Friday 6/19/15 at 12pm Central Standard Time.

What do you have to do to win:

1) Follow myself @13blog and Static Tension Recordings @StaticTension

2) Tweet me @13blog and @StaticTension under #wolfcouncil.

Sample: "Hey @13blog I want to win #wolfcouncil from @StaticTension!!!!!!!! WOO!"

The random winner will be chosen at 12:30PM Central Standard Time.

Disclaimer: Winner must reside in the USA or offer up a USA mailing address.

There is no limit times you can enter because I won't be able to keep track anyway.

No purchases necessary and good luck!

Here's how I'm keeping track. I am favoriting each entry I receive. I have found a Random Number Generator and I will use it and tweet to pick the winner. No favorites!

Album Review: "Lobotomized" by Biotoxic Warfare

Lobotomized

What's in a label?

How many artists do we know that defy the commonplace pigeonholing?

Well, I'd wager that there aren't enough of them out there.

Today's album review is the debut record of Biotoxic Warfare from Heraklion, Crete.

Yes, that's in Greece.

This is a band that's the musical offspring of two distinct, though similar on the periphery. Biotoxic Warfare has two great loves: Bay Area Thrash Metal and Tampa Bay Death metal.

Yes, it's true that Death Metal was borne of Bay Area Thrash, but what happens if you put both elements into equal parts?

Album Review: "The Wolf Council" by The Wolf Council

The Wolf Council

From it's earliest days, metal had strong ties to blues and psychedelic music.

Black Sabbath is arguably the first metal band, but of course Led Zeppelin is also a part of this mix.

Aside from high gain guitars the only thing these two bands have in common is a deep love of the blues.

Well musically anyway, they both also had a deep love of achieving altered states of consciousness....

Looking at the path of metal from that point on, it's  hard to see the connection between Sabbath, Zeppelin, and Priest with Metallica, Cannibal Corpse, or The Black Dahlia Murder because there are about 45 degrees of separation between them, but let's look at a band that has one degree of separation from the originators...well maybe two.