Album Review: "Alma" by Löbo

Alma

Many people will tell you about how they love music.

That they only listen to good music or that they don't care about genre.

What makes a genre of music? What makes something music?

How can we define three simple chords to be a song, or millions of songs for that matter. G-C-D...that's an easy on isn't it?

There comes a time when people seriously are willing to kick off the shackles of genre and mainstream music, well not many people I suppose.

Löbo is a band from Libson, Portugal. Alma is their upcoming release. Exactly who and what Löbo are is something beyond my understanding.

Album Review: "Critical Hits" by Gygax

Critical Hits

Are you aware that I am  not cool?

Your friend and humble narrator has always been a nerd. Gifted, creative, and painfully awkward, even today.

To this day, I still while away the nights with online role playing games, Dungeons & Dragons on my Japanese Series II (white) Sega Saturn, Lord of the Rings/Hobbit on blu-ray.

There's always a book on my nightstand next to my phone. I can tell you far more about Star Trek (through Deep Space 9) than most people will ever want to hear.

My nerd level is pretty epic. Hell, I still dress about the same as I did in high school, jeans, black t-shirt, and sneakers. (I did switch to Chucks not long after high school.) Being a nerd is pretty awesome if you ask me. Like Hwill Hweaton said, it's about loving something so much, you just can't help it. Well, I love a lot of things....

Interview: Sharp Weapons, If You're Ever In KC and Want To Hear Some Good Music....

Sharp Weapons

I couldn't help but make the reference.

Really it has absolutely nothing to do with Kansas City's own, Sharp Weapons, but there are only so many different times you can make a reference to the seminal classic, Spinal Tap.

(Like at a maximum of 47/day.)

But hopefully my readers know this is the part of the article where I'm a bit irreverent and making someone smile...or groan.

But anyway...

Sharp Weapons is in fact, from the Kansas City metro area a short three hundred mile trip west down Interstate 70 from me.

They're also preparing the release of their debut, eponymous, album and I felt like I  needed to get to know a little bit more about them and here's what we learned!

Album Review: "Ride Forth" by Exmortus

Ride Forth

The worst part about growing older is watching your sacred cows die.

Nothing lasts forever.

There was a Tom Cruise and Tim Curry vehicle in the early 80's called Legend. I cannot tell you how many times I watched that movie.

Unicorns, demons, dwarves, magic, mystery, and more. I wasn't old enough to know that Tom Cruise was terrible at this.

About 15 years ago, I chose to watch this movie again while my car was being worked on. Oh my. I could not believe how terrible this movie had become to me. It still looked pretty good, but it didn't hold my attention at all and I was ready to shoot myself by the time we got to the climax of the devil being shot with an arrow.

The cover art  here...It really reminds me of the dwarves from that flick.

Album Review: "Blackened Visions" by The Lumberjack Feedback

Blackened Visions

There was a time when you could walk into a record store and see a logo and know if you'd have any interest in that band by just what label put it out.

For me...Elektra Records was a big one. Two of my favorite bands were on that label: Metallica and The Doors.

They were both there from a bygone age though. That was when there was an owner of Elektra, Jac Holzman. If memory serves, he personally signed The Doors.

Nowadays though, it's harder and harder to do that in a record store. Especially since the big labels are all about Adelle, Katy Perry, etc.

Recently, in the big store in my city, I looked for stuff I was interested in on vinyl from my favorite labels, and I didn't find a single record by any of those labels. That's why I buy them through their online stores I suppose....

Album Review: "Sins Remain" by Blackhour

Sins Remain

I love a story, an angle, an anything to get me the least bit interested in anything.

There are at a minimum of 478,753 different things of every single thing that you like.

What about a band draws you in away from the other 478,752? For me, it can be anything.

Today's subjects are from Pakistan.

In the past I've done music from Algeria, Pakistan, India, and even Iran. The aspect of a band playing western music, especially metal, from somewhere that we wouldn't expect makes me all the more interested.

Not as a forbidden fruit aspect, but how do they envision this music? How do they make it?

Well, Blackhour is from Pakistan. There's very little I can tell you about this country besides that the capital is Islamabad. I know they're a Middle Eastern country and often involved in a border dispute with India...

Album Review: "Black Blood" by Black Blood

Black Blood

How many wolves have you killed?

What about the Mountain Trolls?

Is Mount Doom near Turku?

This is my imagining of Finland. This is wholly ignorant and inappropriate I know. Sweden is a wonderfully modern, urban, civilized, and sophisticated society...


It's fun to think about all of the bands that have come out of Scandinavia and Sweden especially, but what I picture in my head is what my friend posted from his trip to watch the Blues open the season against the Detroit Red Wings there because those teams had about forty seven Swedes between them....

Interview: Let's Get To Know Gomorrah's Bowen Matheson

You know that death metal has been around for over 30 years now?

I think the most accepted as the first death metal record was Seven Churches by Possessed, featuring Larry LaLonde, later of Primus of all people.

It's funny though, the acts that were big back in the old school death metal days are still playing the same clubs they were then.

The new school death metal bands are also playing the same clubs as the big bands too.

Extreme metal is something hard for most of the uninitiated to really want to appreciate. The drums are overbearing. The vocals lack any sense of melody. The guitars are abrasive and sharp.

It's just such an awesome sound, I can't figure out why it's not catching on in the wider world! Today, a band that straddles the line between new school and old school death metal took some time out of their schedule to give me some background information.

Please meet Bowen Matheson of Gomorrah.

Album Review: "Kemerov" by Kemerov

Kemerov    

You know what?

I missed my calling.

No, I don't mean I should have come of age in the Seventies and worked on Rolling Stone when it was cool (shots fired!), but I should have been born in the pre-dark ages.

Being a smart guy that understands things sometimes go together when everyone says they don't, like red miso and pot roast for example, I would have been the best damned alchemist in Europe.

I tell you now, I would have turned lead into gold, unlike the long, long line of failures that didn't see how far they had to go in order to get it done.

It seems like all those alchemists now are all into heavy metal and about every genre of music out there. Heavy metal is always the start though. Kemerov, from Serres, Greece, is no different.

Album Review: "NOMTOMBOT" by Dildo of God

NOMTOMBOT

Hip-hop, rap, all that stuff.

Frankly, it's criminally underrated on this blog.

I've been listening to the blues's nephew for as long as I can remember. I was a fan of the Fat Boys, Run DMC, The Beasties, Grand Master Flash, Eazy-E, and more back in the early, middle, and late 80's, much less the 90's.

In the 90's, I learned about nerd rap and it just went off. MC Chris, MC Lars, Adam WarRock, Richie Branson, Megaran.

Here though, I probably only review rap once or twice a lifetime. I'm not sure why I don't get any sent to me. I try, but no one submits it. Today, we've got a band called Dildo of God.

They're a space rap super group of sorts that are on the cusp of releasing their debut record, NOMTOMBOT.

Album Review: "Peace Killers" by Peace Killers

Peace Killers

Probably the most oft used phrase I see in my email nowadays is "related if you like," typically abbreviated to RIYL.

Why do we need this?

I'd say partially because as music fans, consumers, and writers, we want in immediate picture of what we're going to hear when it comes out of the speakers.

I can dig that, but what if you forgot what you'd read when you wrote down to review an album and what came out was one of the most off the wall records of 2016? (Well I guess 2016 really.)

Peace Killers are a brand new band made up of veterans of the West Coast scene. There's a collective experience of forty years between the four members.

RIYL: D.R.I., Rory Gallagher, Metallica, Death, and Black Flag.

Album Review: "The Haruspex" by Gomorrah

The Haruspex

Well, I already used my cyborg story this week.

So, let's do an old fashioned meet and greet.

Gomorrah is from the not so very metal Canadian province of British Columbia, Kelowna to be exact.

I wonder if they are Kelowna Rockets fans?

Originally started this modern death metal duo of Jeff Bryan and Bowen Matheson began life as a black metal duo. I think that my personal tastes regarding black metal are well documented, so this will just be mentally noted as a good change.

The Haruspex is Gomorrah's fourth released, but only their second full length. They've certainly been around the block and played with some big bands and some nice festivals, but let's see what their new work is all about....

Interview: There Is No Mountain

There Is No Mountain

Recently we checked out the latest album from a young married couple who feel like that the best thing they could do is be in a band together.

I don't know what to say about that.

I play music, when I do anyway, in order to have a little me time, but here we have two kids that felt otherwise.

How many times have we heard on Behind The Music that being in a band is like being married to three other people?

Well, at least we're not talking about a bigamous marriage here, because the married duo is also the entirety of the band.

So, there won't be any crossing of the streams.

Album Review: "Jet Plane and Oxbow" by Shearwater

Jet Plane and Oxbow

I have been into watching Science Fiction for as long as I can remember I suppose.

The first movie I can say for certain that I saw in the theater was Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. I also recall seeing E.T. in the cinema thrice.

Space travel, alien beings, robots, and the like. These things greatly appealed to me.

I suppose we're always looking forward and wondering what lies ahead.

One concept that always really stuck with me though was the cyborg. Kryten in Back To Reality, Arnold in The Terminator, and countless others in film and comic books. This idea thrilled me to no end.

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: "Oak" by Oak

Oak

Sometimes I get emails.

When I was younger, I used to have a song for when I got an email. It was a short song, very short.

(Please keep in mind that I began emailing in 1992...so I wasn't getting a whole lot of them at that time.)

Recently, I got an email from London. Apparently, there's a stoner/desert rock band in London named Oak.

I frankly couldn't tell you much about them, even now when I'm writing this post. The final strains of their eponymous EP debut Oak is finishing up and ringing in my ears.

But I don't have much else to say about them. So instead I'm going to ask the question, where in the world did the moniker desert rock come from? As a follow up, I'm going to further posit, did we really need another term besides acid rock?

Album Review: "Heaven's Gate" by Eternal of Sweden

Heaven's Gate

Growing up, Scandinavia was this place very far away.

Taking Social Studies as a young lad, I remember hearing about the midnight sun and the northern lights.

I still desire to see the Aurora Borealis.

As I've gotten older, our friends of the fjords have grown more and more interesting. Their exportation of hockey players comes to mind.

Think of the first Euro NHL player, he's from Finland or Sweden isn't he? Russians don't count. They're Russian players.

Sweden, Finland, Norway, and maybe that little bit of Russia, are very, very metal. From black metal to power metal to thrash metal to the Gothenburg scene, they have given us many more great metal bands than great hockey players.

Interview: New Orleans's Own, Miss Mec

Miss Mec

I can't ever really tell you how music arrives to me, at least not for everything.

I received an email asking if I would be interested in checking out the debut EP of Miss Mec, from New Orleans, LA.

Well, I was interested and I found an artist who collaborated with a few other musicians in order to create an EP that was both highly original and very classic sounding.

I was also pleasantly surprised by how the sounds sounded, and I'm not talking about the quality of songwriting or the liquidness of the fingers of the guitarist, but the songs just popped off of the CD.

It's very rare to get that warm and organic sound out of a piece of digital music.

It does make me wonder if hearing their songs in iTunes would have the same effect, but who knows right? The EP was long enough for us to meet her and short enough to leave us wanting more.

Album Review: "Purified Through Devastation" by Against The Plagues

Purified Through Devastation

Do you ever think of lost art forms?

Besides artisanal toast, how often do we think about artisans?

I was reading an article on trains and the original steam engines were ornate and beautiful instead of the spartan designs that came later.

In this day and age, if a new industry suddenly emerged, I can pretty much guarantee that it would not be counting any artisans among the new folks in said crazy industry.

So don't expect our transporter tubes to look cool I guess.

Today's artist (artisan?) is Against The Plagues. They are an internationally peopled band based out of the midwesteren city of Chicago. That's only 280 miles north of St. Louis...in case they need a map for their next tour.

Album Review: "Luna" by There Is No Mountain

Luna

I still don't see it.

I can't help it and I refuse to try, because the name of this band reminds me of a (classic?) Monty  Python sketch wherein Eric Idle cannot see the mountain the rest of the group sees.

I suppose Philip J. Fry did something similar in Futurama when they were headed to the Great Stone Face of Mars.

So, this band's name really does bring me some good memories, but let's get some housekeeping out of the way instead of my waxing nostalgic about canceled TV shows.

Portland, Oregon's own There Is No Mountain is a duo, who get this, is married! So all those times you hear about a band being like a marriage, do you think they thought their marriage was like a band...so then they said what the hell?

Album Review: "Anxiety Never Descending" by Kult Mogil

Anxiety Never Descending

When I was very young, I was watching an episode of Solid Gold or Star Search, and the host was talking about a talented young artist up next.

I was confused.

To me, artists drew pictures, painted, sculpted, etc and then I saw it was a singer. So, I rightly, assumed they painted on the side.

I didn't know then that music is an art form. It's kind of funny, music is the only art where saying it's artistic is a compliment.

Kind of like how in American Football it's the only place were calling an athlete athletic is a compliment!

I suppose it has something to do with how many more people make a living off of music, or at least used to. Music, like all art forms, is a method of expression and Poland's Kult Mogil has a lot to express.

Album Review: "Triumvir Foul LP" by Triumvir Foul

Triumvir Foul LP

Metal is one of those things that never ceases bubbling up from the slime and the muck.

It's been over 45 years since Master Tony Iommi first played the Devil's Tritone on Black Sabbath.

It continues to grow, and in some cases just fester. Metal is the blues of the blues of the blues, if it were all based on anger.

It's the scab that won't go away which is part of what makes it pretty damned cool, but Rob Zombie was quite wrong about metal being an unchanging dinosaur. It's never stopped changing.

Today we have in our claws, the debut album from Triumvir Foul that's appropriately titled the Triumvir Foul LP. It has a split release date. The CD and digital release happens on 12/11 and the vinyl release is on 2/16.

Interview: Adrenechrome

Last week, I published my review on a newer band from The Fabled Canadas, Adrenechrome.

From the moment the CD started, it was clear that this band was different, unique, and on fire.

There is so much I would love to know about this band, but for the record they are from Orillia, Ontario and Tales From Adrenechrome (order here) was released this past week on November 27th.

It's their third release.

Thankfully, I was lucky enough to get one of the folks in the band to take some time out of their busy schedule to answer the goofy questions I was able to pen.

Album Review: "Vol. 1 & 2" by Seer

Vol. 1 & 2

Today we have another opportunity to discuss a debut release.

Seer has only been in existence for just about a year and here we are consuming the first, in hopefully a long line of albums.

I'm not going to make a big deal about subgenres today. They are what they are and that's what they are.

Once again though, we have that, that bit of a residue, a glimmer, a stain.

Seer is stained by their homeland. They live in the Pacific Northwest of Canada.

Vancouver, British Columbia. That's the sort of thing that influences a band more than anything else can. The homeland...

Album Review: "Ei valo minua seuraa" by Vorna

Ei valo minua seuraa

Translated from Finnish: No Light Follows Me.

Did you watch that show Metal Evolution or whatever it was called on VH1 where the guy from Canada did crazy research and interviews with all the metal guys?

He also went way deep into the various subgenres of metal.

Well, he left one out!

Orchestral Pagan Metal.

I know, I was shocked that he left this very large and well known subgenre out as well. If you think about it for a few minutes, I bet you could name about 15 to 20 different Orchestral Pagan Metal bands...no?

Well, let's dive right in with the first time I've heard any music referred to in this manner, Vorna.

Album Review: "Moving Monoliths" by WILT

Moving Monoliths

What is in a genre?

When the term black metal is uttered in your presence, what comes to mind?

For me...it's people painted up like Kiss, but less cool, extremely vicious vocals like death metal, but less cool, and pounding rhythms that are bolstered by keyboards.

If you're a black metal devotee, you'll probably realize that I'm not a fan of the genre personally.

But perhaps I think of genres as steadfast rules rather a mere set of unwritten guidelines. It's also interesting to see sub-sub-genres of metal...like today...let's talk about atmospheric black doom metal.

Album Review: "Death Poems" by The Fifth Alliance

Death Poems

When people ask me what kind of music I listen to....

Well, I think of myself as a metalhead, because once you go metal, no one else will accept you. So, hopefully my little piddle patch here will show some others that just because we listen to extreme metal doesn't mean we can't rock out to some dance pop too.

But anyway, I didn't want to talk about that. How do you define metal?

Black Sabbath has zero in common with Metallica. Metallica has zero in common with Napalm Death. Napalm Death has zero in common with Ahab. Ahab has zero in common with Babymetal.

Metal has wound itself around so many things that it's created a forest of sub-genres, many of the devotees even see these as separate genres unto themselves.

So, today I'm telling you about an upcoming metal album that I find has zero in common with any of the aforementioned bands.

Album Review: "Tales From Adrenechrome" by Adrenechrome

Tales From Adrenechrome

Canada is one of my absolute top countries in North America.

If I was able to choose in which country I wanted to live and Japan, The United Kingdom, and Spain were crossed off the list, I would say I want to live in TO. (That's Toronto, Onatario for those of you who aren't up to the latest Canadian slang that Degrassi Junior High The Next Generation, shout out to Jimmy "Drake" Brooks, taught me.

Canada has healthcare, trains, hockey by the hockey bag load. I mean you can't go anywhere in Canada without seeing all sorts of those things.

To top it off, they even have my favorite brand of outdoor football, The Canadian Football League. I mean really, they just have it all up t here.

They've also got more metal than you can shake the whole Sherbrooke hockey stick factory at. So let's snow the goalie and get on with it.

Album Review: "So Damn True" by Miss Mec

So Damn True

Could you imagine twenty years ago, back when I was in high school no wait just graduated, how much different music, and the music industry would be?

Back then it was all blow parties for the labels and the A&R men.
The idea of supporting independent music meant you caught your cousins' friend's band at Metal's Edge on South Broadway opening up for Agnostic Front.

Back then, no one wanted to be an independent artist. The idea was to record something, get it put out on cassette or CD and get picked up by an indie label and then a major. The final goal was to be invited to the blow parties with the A&R men as you were handed a gold record.

Well, we've come a long way, baby.

Album Review: "And When the Sky Was Opened" by Serocs

And When the Sky Was Opened

Years ago, I was sitting in American Literature 1 with one of my best friends from high school, Lisa.

We were discussing how Morbid Angel was the heaviest god damned band in the world. Then we moved onto how just a few short years ago, Iron Maiden was as heavy as it got.

How in the world could it get heavier than, what we now today as, Tampa Bay Death Metal?

That's one of the things that routinely goes through my head when I'm listening to modern metal, because it is much heavier and much the same as their forebears, but also much different.

Serocs, the multinational death metal collective that recently picked up a Canadian as a full fledged member, is on the cusp of releasing their sophomore album that's lyrically and thematically cohesive.

Album Review: "Antinomia" by Psychotomy

Antinomia

One of my absolute favorite anime is Rurouni Kenshin.

It's the tale of an ex-Samurai in Meiji Era Japan after the Samurai class was outlawed. It doesn't follow the story line that I would personally conceive.

Akira Kurosawa could never have written this tale.

Kurosawa-sama was a teller of traditional tales in the mold of the Samurai, even when telling western inspired tales, like Throne of Blood, but I do go on don't I?

Today I'm looking at a new band from Italy, Psychotomy.

I'll be honest. It me about two or three passes on that name to figure out how to pronounce it. Formed in the heady days of 2010, Antinomia is their debut album. It was preceded by only an EP in 2012.

Album Review: "Zealots" by The Deadline Shakes

Zealots

Sometimes music comes to me and I just find myself thinking, you know I really need to check this out.

Today it's The Deadline Shakes.

They're from my family's ancestral home of Scotland. Glasgow to be precise.

As I'm oft happy to do, I'm introducing them partly because they are a brand new band on the cusp of releasing their first album. Zealots.

I have them on my list of bands to check out. I wrote their name down about a week and a half ago, and I honestly cannot remember why I chose them, just did. As I couldn't remember why I chose this particular album for review, I was not prepared for what came next....

Interview: Sam Gleaves "I'm a Fabu-lachian!"

Sam Gleaves

Music is a must have for me.

I think everybody knows that, but sometimes I like to wax poetic about this amazing medium we have in the world.

Music is truly a universal language.

I can listen to Baby Metal in Japanese, Malady in Finnish, and Deicide without having to worry about what they're saying.

I can feel the emotions they're conveying.

All that being said though...

Sometimes it's really nice to hear someone speak about something through music...in a language I understand well.

Sam Gleaves has done just that on his debut album, Ain't We Brothers. On the title track, he told the story of a gay coal miner who was ostracized by his co-workers. Powerful stuff. How am I supposed to ask questions of someone dealing with such large issues! Well I tried....

Album Review: "The Tomb of All Things" by Un

The Tomb of All Things

Welcome to the world of the dying, Un.

Seattle, Washington's newest Funeral Doom Metal band is now releasing their debut album.

Another genre to talk about or to shake my fist angrily at the sky in defiance screaming we only need metal...but you know I'm  not going to do that.

In the past few years, there has been a fissure in the metal community. Until recently, metal has been focused on anger and rage. Dee Snider said as much when discussing why rap fans and metal fans don't have nearly the crossover they should.

But now, there's something else. Metal has found another negative emotion on which to base their songs. Sadness is just as powerful as the anger. Edgar Allen Poe knew this all too well....

Album Review: "You Lived, Now Die" by Diavolos

You Lived, Now Die

Personally...I consider myself old school.

Back in the day it was one of hundreds of nicknames my friend gave me and it was stenciled onto my bright red Ibanez Super Strat.

Of course, at the time I was 19 and anything but old school. I was too young and dumb to even know what old school was.

Today we're looking at an old school death  metal band, but we're not talking about early to mid 90's death metal, but even older than that.

The type of music contained herein was forged in hell before Chuck Schuldiner of Death ever released a note. This goes back to when death metal became something more than thrash  metal, but before the formula was created.

Album Review: "Final Days" by War Curse

Final Days

Who remembers those heady days when Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Exodus, and Testament were giving birth to the music that would later be called thrash metal?

I don't, because I was a touch too young, but I can tell you who's been affected by it?

War Curse.

Fun fact: Final Days is the strangely titled debut album from War Curse.

I dunno man, I don't think that's what I call my first record, but War Curse is like that I guess.

They've only been in existence for just about two years and they're already on their third bass player. I find that interesting. It's like the Spinal Tap rotation, but with bass players. Well, good luck Eric Payne. I hope you don't spontaneously combust.

Interview: Twingiant's Nikos Puts Up With My Inanity

Nikos Mixas, second from left.

For the past forever it would appear....

There has been this idea that decades of metal progression has been wrong and that something was lost in the translation from Black Sabbath's unholy teachings.

Most metal bands today bear no resemblance to them.

Though he is still a huge fan, I can hear nothing of Tony Iommi in James Hetfield's playing.

If you picture Black Sabbath in your mind, likely you will see the four of them, dressed in all black, wearing giant metal crosses, but that is their revisionist history of themselves.

Black Sabbath started out as hippies. They were as much acid rock as Jimi Hendrix, but so many bands took off, in their preconceived footsteps. Nowadays though, we have bands that have hit the reset button and brought back the wah wah into heavy metal.

So, I told you all of that so I can introduce you to Twingiant's Nikos Mixas.

Album Review: "Boroughs EP" by Boroughs

Boroughs

New band.

Old timey music.

Boroughs are a self described Americana roots musical collective from the sunny state of California. (Where else right?)

As we all know, nearly everything under the sun has been done and done many times over. What I'm seeing in the music world these days is a great many bands returning to the roots of music.

Be it 90's Death Metal, 50's Rock'n'Roll, Delta Blues, and so on and so forth, what's old is now new again. As it once was, it always will be.

So, let's check out our new friends. They've only been at this for a year.

Album Review: "Revocation of the Blood Elect" by Rex Shachath

Revocation of the Blood Elect

Is there anything more unifying than Death Metal?

There is nothing else I can think of that unifies the populace like this tiny genre of music.

Granted, about 98% of the entire world think it's terrible and horrible noise. It could be argued that those people are just wrong and don't know how to hear the music...

Then we get into some very real unification.

Today's band comes from Northern Ireland, UK.

This is the follow up to their debut EP, Sepulchral Torment. After the end of 2014, they have done little beyond working about this album. As I've not heard the first record....let's just dive into the second.

Album Review: "Chiaroscuro" by Vingulmork

Chiaroscuro

The double metal.

Vingulmork is a band that's too big for a single metal subgenre. Their music transcends the boundaries of death metal, thrash metal, and black metal to create a new thing.

Blackened Thrash, or Death Thrash, or whatever other permutation you can come up with.

I'm going with Death Thrash, because it just sounds so much cooler than blackened anything , besides chicken.

Perhaps I'm just being a silly writer, but damn it it's my space to write in.

Vingulmork have been at this a few  years and today's album is their first full length album, a follow up to their self released EP, The Long March, from 2013.

Album Review: "Malady" by Malady

Malady

One of the reasons I started this blog oh so long ago now, was because I no longer would allow myself to be closed off from new music.

In the three plus years of Glacially Musical, we've done what I'm about to do probably at least 30 times....

DEBUT ALUM!

Finland's Malady had a goal, they were going to write and record an album before the band members turned fifty. Well, a full score and 3 before reaching the half century mark, our new Finnish friends are releasing an album, this one.

When it comes to Finnish music, I think most of us are more familiar with bands like Children of Bodom and black metal in general, but Malady are quite far away from there.

Album Review: "Ain't We Brothers" by Sam Gleaves

Ain't We Brothers

Meet Sam Gleaves.

He hails from Appalachia.

It's not often that I do anything with people from this part of the country. They're not normally associated with my channels, but from time to time things happen, slip through, and here we are.

I can't say I normally listen to music with banjos.

I'm not really a KDHX listener, bluegrass doesn't tickle my fancy too much, but I stop and toss a few coins into the bucket when I see the old men at the local farmers' market playing...

Gleaves though isn't like the normal kinds of folks that most Americans would expect from this part of our country. He's gay and makes no bones about it.

Album Review: "The Peace of Solitude" by Arrant Saudade

The Peace of Solitude

Frankly, is there any better holiday than Halloween?

It starts off with the dreadful heat of St. Louis cooling into a brisk autumnal chill. Then we get to dress as anything we want without (much)  judgment.

Best of all, the veil is thin. There's more to that chill than just the drop in temperature....

But let's get on with what we've got shall we?

This one of those albums that the average person would call atmospheric, esoteric, mood music, and any and all other sorts of qualifiers to basically tell you that if you're looking for verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus...

Well you're just not going to find it here. It's nearly Halloween and let's pull back the veil.

Album Review: "Visions of Apocalypse" by Insanity

Visions of Apocalypse

BONUS REVIEW!

I decided to add an extra death metal review as a present to the month of All Hallow's Eve or Samhain if you're of the pagan bent.

It's the second best month of the year. So it deserves a little extra death metal. I hope the congressman trolling me on twitter sees this post, as Pink Floyd wasn't to his liking.

Insanity is a band that's come back from the void. They are proving that there is life after death metal, but old death metallers always come back.

They always thirst for more.

Visions of Apocalypse is the first album from Insanity since 1994. There have been nearly three complete presidential administrations since their last album. The Sega Saturn was still a going concern when this album came out....

Album Review: "All Is Left To See" by Moloken

All Is Left To See

Well, it's still October.

The chill is still in the air and the summer is still sometimes mounting a principled stand against beautiful weather from time to time, though we all complain about you now.

So, I suppose we're in Pumpkin Spice-Post Summer as opposed to proper autumn.

Well, that's a funny way of saying that I'm reviewing another post-(blank) album again.

In this particular instance, I didn't notice the genre listed when I went to spin it. I just looked it, the cover, and the title.

I then figured Moloken would do very well in my month long ode to Halloween, the fall, and everything that's good and holy in this world....and I was right about that!

Album Review: "Disciples of the Inferno" by Abysmal Lord

Disciples of the Inferno

It's October 27th and I'm closing out October with some more brutal death metal.

There will even be an added seriously scary metal album this week, because:

1) It's Halloween.

2) I love death  metal.

3) I took my daughter to the pumpkin patch to get a pumpkin that we can decorate like Darth Vader.

But enough about me....let's talk about Abysmal Lord for a bit shall we? They are releasing their full length debut on vinyl and digital and it comes as the follow up to last year's EP, Unholy Black Mass.

Album Review: "Shift and Shadow" by XIXA

Shift and Shadow

It's October 26th.

Who else is really thinking about Halloween? It's on the weekend at this point...after having a kid, I've only dressed up in a costume once!

Who cares.

It's still the best holiday there is. So, perhaps you've noticed that this month, I've been working a theme towards the big day. The day when the veil between the spirit world and the human world is thin...and perhaps that's why I read so much about Coheed and Cambria...

So, I've been trying to supply everybody with the perfect soundtrack for all the Elsas that will be  showing up at your doors trying not to scare you. Let's bring Halloween back! Frankly, this CD has been sitting on my desk for a few days now...I've held off.

Album Review: "The Hatred Inside" by Bleed

The Hatred Inside

It's always fun for me to take a look at where a band is from and see if I can hear that in their music.

Bleed is from Edmonton, AB Canada.

This is, obviously, the rich oil country of the Great White North. I've spoken a goodly deal of Albertans and they're a pretty happy lot.

When the oil industry is going well, they get checks from the government. They have NHL, WHL, AHL, and more kinds of hockey than you can shake a stick at.

This is their full length debut, so there's not much in the past I can base this on, so I'm going to assume that they're a bunch of happy go lucky Edmontonians who're more than happy to see Connor McJesus play for the Oil all year...let's look at their promo snap...

Album Review: "Shattered Shores" by Silent Line

Shattered Shores

All hail the concept album!

Well, at least I do anyway. On these very pages I have sung the praises of many a great concept record. Steve Vai, Coheed and Cambria, Chappo, Ahab, High On Fire, Wax Fang, and more.

There is a part of me that always gets very, very excited at the idea of an album that's more than just a collection of songs, but something that the band has really looked at, not as a collection of songs they wrote, but a piece of music.

What can I say...Pink Floyd and King Diamond sure did a number on a very young me.

Today's artist is Silent Line. When we say support independent music, Silent line is someone you should be looking at. Originally from rural Alberta, they've made their way into the second coldest city on earth, Edmonton, to ply their metal trade.

Interview: Robert Kersey of Psychostick Will Shank You

Psychostick

Some days I get that little old me is doing this kind of thing.

Especially for interviews...but really what do you care?

This is kind of an introduction to a band, Psychostick.

They put out and album last year and I didn't get the chance to review it when it was new. They've just played a show in my hometown of St. Louis, and I'm curious about some things if I'm being totally honest.

How many comedic metal bands do you know? They've been described as Weird Al on steroids and for fans of D.R.I...and that made me miss D.R.I. In the end, let's not take life so seriously.

Am I right?