Album Review: "Blue Funk" by Labors

Blue Funk

What is music?

It's basically the same question as to what is art?

Art is an interesting thing, because we find the need to compartmetalize everything. This band is death metal. That one is in country.

That's a Western band, but it ends up getting all crazy and silly when it becomes entirely too specific.

In the introduction email I received from Labors, they told me that they're a band that plays Midwestern Americana. Now, I'm not making fun of the label they chose.

Like many bands in our modern world, what's old has become new and what's new has become old, and what's brand new is what happens if when you combine the old and the new and get this new kind of pudding....with Snickers in it.

Album Review: "Stakes is Low" by Protovulcan

Stakes is Low

There is a lot you can tell about a band by their name.

Metallica is metal. Rifftera likes to riff. Deicide is decidedly anti-religious. KISS is...well I don't know about that one.

So, let's try a new tact here at Glacially Musical.

I'm going to interpret the name of the band and the cover photo and see how accurate I am with just guessing at things.

Protovulcan.

Proto, we all know this well known prefix. It's the first one. Sometimes used to refer the one that came before the one you use now. OK.

Vulcan...now...wait. Vulcan like Mr. Spock or Vulcan like Hephaestus?! Thinking a little more, it couldn't be like Mr. Spock, as he was not a prototypical vulcan, but half human, and proto could be something else too... OK I got nothin'.

Album Review: "Come Back Shane" by Samson the Truest

Come Back Shane

Today we're reviewing the new album by Samson the Truest out of New York City, by way of Boston (originally).

It is an interesting choice of moniker for our new hero.

It's seemingly rare when an artist chooses a Biblical name for their creation. How many times has that really happened?

Well perhaps I'm enjoying far too much heavy metal where Biblical heroes' names aren't typically chosen...

 It creates an interesting symbolism, at least in my mind. It certainly made me take notice of him.

But all in all, the artist's name is seemingly meaningless, and I mean "the artist" in the general sense. I mean, Kiss isn't exactly a great  name and Megadeth isn't even spelled right, or even a word....

Album Review: "Grim Love" by Grim Van Doom

Grim Love

Music is the great healer and it always stirs a memory or seven.

Just hearing the name of a metal sub-genre, like Doom Metal, will immediately open all sorts of locked doors in my mind.

I will then begin to reminisce over several different times in my life. Like once talking about Black Sabbath on the side of a small pond fishing, and how we decided they were more Acid Rock than Heavy Metal.

You have to remember that this was before the factioning of heavy metal. During these days, it was just heavy metal. Thrash Metal existed of course, but it hadn't made it into the lexicon yet.

Today's reviewee is Grim Van Doom all the way from Germany. As our friend and spiritual leader, Bender B. Rodriguez would say, Grim Van Doom transcends genres as they reinvent them.

Album Review: Gateway's Self Titled

Gateway

Today, all the way from Belgium...

We have the self-titled debut of Gateway.

This is a solo project, just one fellow who handles all the stuff here...top to bottom.

That's an idea I never really had to do that, but I've always felt that personally I benefit from musical collaboration as I'm quite limited.

I suppose our new friend, and some old ones, feel quite liberated with being able to make the precise album they want to make.

This album comes from the label, Hellthrasher Productions, yes, in Europe. One of the coolest things about journey of mine is learning about all of these smaller labels....

Album Review: "Invoke The Bizarre" by Bevar Sea

Invoke the Bizarre

A bit about myself today, I have been suffering under the duress of a nasty chest cold.

I have been taking medication to knock this out.

I might say something strange, or bizarre in this review due to my heavily medicated state. NyQuil, Cough Drops, and Mucinex are nothing to mess around with.

However, as this review won't be published until over a week from this very moment, it's hardly going to matter anyway is it?

So...let's get on with it.

Bevar Sea is an indie doom metal band out of the sub-continent of India. They're based out of Bangalore, if you'd like to be a bit more specific. Invoke The Bizarre is their sophomore album.

Let's dig in.

Album Review: "Anareta" by Horrendous

Anareta

It's time to once again be metal.

Once again we must take up the mantle of the disaffected youth and those who must clearly worship the devil.

Stick to the religious right and the PMRC types!

What...it's 2015 and no one listens to those people anymore? And no one cares about disaffected youth anymore?

Damn, I guess the world passed me by when I wasn't paying attention.

You might recall Horrendous from my review of their previous record, Ecdysis. This trio of death metal fury certainly has a flair for very, very metal album titles don't they?

Album Review: "Slaves Beyond Death" by Black Breath

Slaves Beyond Death

Metal.

Pure. Glorious. Jurassic.

Rob Zombie once said that metal is like an unchanging dinosaur, but in a good way. I suppose we could divine from that statement that surprises are gone...

Today we're taking in the third album by Black Breath. This record will be released on vinyl as well as the standard methods. (Check the bandcamp link for information.)

This band isn't familiar to me.

None of their records are in my collection, and in fact I didn't even want to write about death metal today, but here we are and I cannot escape it. So let's get metal.

Album Review: "Show The Blood" by Alone At 3AM

Show The Blood

Let's talk roots rock.

What is roots rock?

Well it's music that harkens back to a simpler time, when music wasn't so difficult.

Back when you went into the studio, it's possible that Les Paul had yet to invent multi-track recording, so when your band started playing and the red light went off....

What you had was what you had. There weren't any overdubs, retouches, or Pro-Tools.

Everything was simpler and more confused, but the music was honest, raw, and a bit sloppy. I think that's how rock music should be, a bit sloppy and well, somewhat naive.

Album Review: "Gruesome Twosome" by Level & Tyson

Gruesome Twosome

Am I the only one that has a hard time not stereotyping music from Scandinavia?

Perhaps I've watched too much "Metalocalypse," or maybe I've attended too many Iron Maiden concerts, but when I think of that area of the world, I picture five very blonde, very bearded young men huddled around more Marshall stacks than one can count.

Of course this isn't remotely true, but just my interpretation.

Level & Tyson....they are nothing even remotely similar to what I just described, except that they have about the right number of people to make that happen.

They are part of the fuzz rock revolution. I can remember a time when no one remembered what fuzz tones even were, but here nowadays, it's come back and on purpose, unlike many of the fuzzy instigators like Buddy Guy who just happened to achieve the sound....

Album Review: "#3" by Archi Deep & The Monkeyshakers

#3

Archi Deep & The Monkeyshakers.

I can't stop thinking of Hot Daddy and the Monkey Puppets. You know that band Uncle Jesse had in the latter seasons of Full House?

I remember that instead of playing guitar and singing, he played drums and sang, but did it standing up...

Oh the hilarity that ensued. Those classic sitcom moments like when they had to play polka instead of rock'n'roll, and who could save the day, but the young man who was fired from the band that same day...ahh.

Thankfully, Archi Deep & The Monkeyshakers are not a cover band from some awful sitcom from my youth that I cannot get out of my brain. They're a real band from France.

Album Review: "III: Eternalism - The Psychospherical Chapter" by Stellar Master Elite

III: Eternalism - The Psychospherical Chapter

 It's always fun discovering new music isn't it?

I recently made the point that I don't care if people do or don't know the artists I enjoy, but being as I listen to so many different artists along such a wide spectrum, it's pretty easy for me to say that don't you think?

As for today, I'm listening to the new release by Stellar Master Elite all the way from The Rhineland in Germany.

They have been at the music game since 2010. Obviously we are considering their third album.

The first two albums were released in 2011 and 2013. That puts these Germans on a good two year cycle between albums. They're listed as Death/Black Metal, but I wonder if that's the same as Blackened Death Metal?

Or Blackened Chicken?

Album Review: "Darkness Evermore" by Nightfell

Darkness Evermore

More and more I find myself getting into this funeral doom metal thing.

Over the past 18 months I have been seeing a shift in extreme metal to take elements of black metal, stoner metal, and death metal and place these into a singularly metal sausage.

I often times feel like the biggest hypocrite when it comes to discussing these genres, but here we are and this music sounds different than standard doom metal, like Sorrows Path.

Nightfell is a happy little group working out of Portland, OR. I can only assume that they are Portland Timbers supports. I mean...how could you not be?

As a band, they're primarily a duo, but I suspect they're a duo like the Black Keys are a duo... Darkness Evermore is their second album and a follow up to last year's The Living Ever Mourn.

Album Review: "Crucible" by Drew Worthley

Crucible

I received an email that simply said he needed an address to send off a review copy of his upcoming album.

OK.

That's all I knew really. It could have been anything. The title is Crucible, which is very metal. It's the type of pot they used to burn witches in and the name of an old thrash metal band from St. Louis whose indie cassette tape I recently found in an old box of stuff.

Well, Drew Worthley is not metal in the slightest.

The East Londoner plays well, a sort of retro pop made new again. I will get more into that as we go on. He's on the cusp of releasing his second album independently and was good though to think of me

Album Review: "Static" by Huntress

Static

Huntress is in a very small and exclusive club.

They are the only band whom I've reviewed all of their albums.

The first two albums never really struck me very hard. Their debut was good enough, but their sophomore record doubled down on some of the aesthetic elements of the band I found to be a bit distasteful, shall we say.

Huntress has been billed as the next King Diamond or Mercyful Fate.

That's a very good thing because we need a new one. The King is getting up there in years and needs an Heir Apparent.

Unfortunately, they had not lived up to that title in their previous efforts. All of the ingredients were there, but something was always missing....

Album Review: " Our God Is A Possum God" by Silvertron Youth Choir

Our God Is A Possum God

Music, and many other art forms, make me smile due to its flexibility.

Just the word music means so many things.

When we look at how many different genres, styles, and all of that, the word music is hardly descriptive because it simply means some sort of sound that is pleasing to someone in the world.

Is it pleasing to you?

Well, it takes longer to figure that out I suppose.

Let's talk about Silvertron Youth Choir.

They're a duo, of some sorts from somewhere in Oregon. I feel that finding out more information might take some of their shine away. I'll tell you they're a music group.

Album Review: "Brace The Wave" by Lou Barlow

Brace The Wave

Is this a for real Barlow knife?!

I can't get that line out from Huck Finn out of my head when I think of this man's name.

I mean, I'm sure that Barlow is a perfectly normal family name and can be traced back generations all the way to Europe, but to me, I'm just reminded of that vagrant hero, written by Mark Twain.

Missouri's own by the way....

As I can't even think of this man as whom he is when I hear his name, it's most likely quite clear that I'm not familiar with his body of work, but if I'm honest, the cover did intrigue me a bit. Ah...he's from Dinosaur Jr.

The press release didn't mention any of that....

Album Review: "Inversum" by Dark Buddha Rising

Inversum

Welcome to a day of something a bit off the wall.

Being the author of a non-specific music blog who answers to no one means that you can just write about whatever crosses your desk that you find interesting.

I've been trying to shuffle around what I do here in order to have a wider array of music and I've there have been some very cool things to come our way.

Today we're going back to Finland. It seems that about half of what crosses my desk these days is Scandinavian.

Interesting how that has come to be.

Meet Dark Buddha Rising. They're from Finland, obviously. They've been at this for a little while, but they still seem quite mysterious...see photo. They're about to release their fifth album of progressive psychedelic doom....we're just going to call it prog.