EP Review: "The Apothic Gloom" by Skeletonwitch

The Apothic Gloom

Would it bother you terribly if I waxed nostalgic just a little bit and tell an anecdote?

In October of 2014, nearly two years ago, my introduction to Skeletonwitch was finally made. Their name was familiar as was their aesthetic, but not their music.

As months until the show became weeks which became days, something happened. It was announced that vocalist, Chance Garnette, would not be appearing with the band for the remainder of the tour.

So, St. Louis was only to get 80% of Skeletonwitch.

No one in the band could sing or sing and play it would seem. This was the first time I had ever seen a band do this. Their riffy, shreddy, and thundery music played well as an instrumental quartet, even though something was clearly missing.

Double LP Review: "Beyond The Veil" by Dark Forest

Beyond The Veil

This year, there has been much travelling in my life. Chicago, Joliet, Buffalo, San Francisco, Honolulu, Birmingham, and more I'm sure.

What all of this consistently reminds me of is how small I am in comparison to the rest of the world.

Not even the world, but just the United States of America.

When people emigrate here, they're typically astounded by the size. The great expanse of our country is something to truly behold.

But take that one step further.

In terms of geographic size, we are a small part of the planet earth and we only have five percent of the world's population. There is a giant universe that we have not even scratched. The immensity of creation can be something terrifying if looked at in the wrong context.

LP Review: "Conductor of Storms" by Medevil

Conductor of Storms

Do you remember when the world was young?

There was a time in my life when Heavy Metal was just looked at as a fad, a passing thing, and that it would soon die.

In those days, we had such monster bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath fronted by Dio, embryonic Metallica, and Mercyful Fate all in their primes.

In 2016, the cool kids call this type of music Traditional Heavy Metal....there's no reason to add traditional to that, but whatevers, man.

What was a fad, or a passing thing was that specific kind of heavy metal. The seeds were already sewn in that list, Metallica came along and the world changed. The modern era still sees a fair few releases of NWOTHMTDUDBD (New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal That Doesn't Use Double Bass Drums), but it is not the vibrant scene it once was.

Interview: Alexei of The Company Corvette Touching Chickens Is Fun

The Company Corvette

Back in the good old days, kids who didn't want to have real jobs would form a band.

Often times they would come up with some ridiculous name, start playing covers, then move on into original tunes, and then before you knew it, they were snapped up and their interesting name was then replaced by something far more palatable.

What if in 2016, a band chose to keep their own name?

What if said band loved chickens, fast cars, and the wah wah pedal?

Most likely, we'd be talking about The Company Corvette, whose debut album drops on 8/5/16 on The Company Records. Alexei was good enough to hear me out and even answer my silly questions about chickens and names....

LP Review: "Predatory Light" by Predatory Light

Predatory Light

The other night, we were assembling a shoe rack for our house.

This is the true tales of a music writer.

There are too many shoes in our house, so we got (another) new shoe rack to clear up some of the clutter. Though it only took us twenty minutes to put the entire rack together (not IKEA), it was certainly a chore.

Counting the pieces, making sure it's not wobbling, and bashing the whole thing together with the flat of my hand.

Though our project could have certainly been worse, it serves as a great example.

Because it hurts to create things. Watch as our children grow. My daughter experiences serious growing pains during her spurts. Let's not even talk about losing teeth, because we haven't reached that stage yet and I'm not prepared to think about it.

LP Review: "Chained To Oblivion" by Spirit Adrift

Chained To Oblivion

How often do you think about your education?

There are many things that we receive from our formative years spend in institutions of learning, and some of us in our later years in institutions of higher learning.

Speaking only for myself, my education helped me find my voice. It's very easy to have ideas, morals, and hopes, but being able to speak to them is a very different concept.

Being as my education was comprised of many writing courses, literature courses, and other such liberal studies, what really helped me was the essay test.

Essay tests are when students really show what they have learned and how they can apply their knowledge. They're typically best when application of the material is covered over the course of a few questions.

LP Review: "Paramnesia" by Destroying the Devoid

Paramnesia

My preferred mode of travel, be it commuter or long distance, is by rail.

Riding a train, well there's just something majestic about that. It's easy to think about the people who laid those tracks across the country or how easy it is to get around in Japan by Bullet Train.

Here in the United States we don't have the relationship with trains that other nations do, but part of that is probably due to our great (already) country being so vast.

Most European nations are the size of one of our states, so it's much easier to travel by rail that way.

Spending time in Philadelphia and San Francisco, I saw just how awesome commuter travel can be in other cities not named New York. But what's great about travelling by rail is that the next stop is going to change everything.

EP Review: "On The Outskirts of Hades" by Paganizer

On The Outskirts of Hades

When I go to certain restaurants, ordering the same thing each time is a common occurrence for me.

Like Dante from Clerks, I'm not always ready to risk my comfortable situation for the fabulous prices. At Crusoe's, the fried chicken is always perfect.

When the family is at Culpeppers, the Stake Sandwich never failed to create cheers.

What's all that matter?

Though many of us are fans of avant garde music the likes we have never heard before doesn't mean that adherence to convention is a bad thing.

Take the most avant garde music from 2016 and deconstruct it. You'll be left, most likely, with several different conventions from several different types of music, but it's not normal for doom metal to be laden with blast beats....see?

LP Review: "Divination" by Vukari

Dviniation

Have you ever seen Game of Thrones?

Between that show and The Walking Dead Twitter can be absolutely unreadable at times with all the oohs and ahhs about that show.

There's a person in my life who continually texts me, have you started watching GoT yet??!

No, to this day, I have not seen a single episode of Game of Thrones and no matter how hard you try, Heather, it's seriously doubtful that I ever will.

The thing about that show that I am familiar with is the meme with King Dude Who Might Have Been In Lord of the Rings telling us to brace ourselves because Winter is coming.

That's easy to get behind. Winter is the best season of the year.

LP Review: "Never Enough" by The Company Corvette

Never Enough

When your friend and humble narrator was just a lad, music lovers didn't have this thing called choice.

Our music came from the radio, then we could buy the tape or the vinyl. One hit wonders didn't last long back then, because an artist had to make an entire album's worth of tunes.

This was for the single fact that we had no ability to skip a track.

Well, we couldn't really do it for years as for me, I missed out on the original vinyl era and when I was purchasing it was all about cassette tapes...and that was hard.

Then enter in the CD. My father many times talked about how it was so easy to skip tracks now. The singer in my band in the mid-90's refused to switch to CD, because he didn't want to purchase anything that wasn't good all the way though.

LP Review: "The Hecatomb" by Temple Nightside

The Hecatomb

Cold, grimy, and dark.

That's a simple way to describe the best months of the year in my personal opinion, the winter.

Life is never as good for me as when my neighborhood is covered in snow and ice. Sweating, heat exhaustion, and sun burn are words not stated in the murky grip of January.

Those are serious problems in my home during the oppressive months of summer.

Aside from the apparent desolation, there are some juxtaposed upsides as well. As our home is in a fairly historic neighborhood, and that our domicile is older than my grandfather, a beautiful, snow covered winter looks like a Charles Dickens novel. Even in darkness, there is beauty.

Concert Photos: TESLA February 4, 2015 at The Pageant, St. Louis , Missouri -photos by Danny Nichols

Jeff Keith of Tesla rocks the Pageant in St. Louis

LP Review: "II" by Dumb Numbers

II

There's a road near my house that I drive basically every single day of my life.

It's one of the longest roads in the City of St. Louis. There are a great many neighborhoods, personalities, and walks of life on Grand Blvd.

When driving west on I-70, that Grand exit has a familiar name, but the first time I used it, the area of the city was wholly unfamiliar to me.

There certainly weren't any sushi restaurants there.

This particular street, like the city, like people, like everything, hasn't remained static over the years. It's grown, changed, progressed, and even regressed. Simply because we all know its name, doesn't mean we know what it's like this very instant in that very spot.

LP Review: "Kingdom of Sand" by Myriad of Lights

Kingdom of Sand

There was a time when the ooze was still primordial.

In that time, the world was very old, but the living were young. In time, things began to change. Pangaea broke up into several smaller continents.

The air become breathable.

Life crawled out of the sea and onto the land. This is when things really started to hot up.

Eventually the world has become what we know it as, but try as we might to make our world into Coruscant, there are still pockets of what used to be.

We live in a world that contains places that man has yet to despoil or improve, depending upon your stance at the moment. What if humanity could return to the point of the primordial ooze?

Album Review: “Black Hole Space Wizard Part 1” by Howling Giant

According to legend, in early March of 1951 Ike Turner’s guitarist Willie Kizart was driving to Memphis, Tennessee for a recording session when his amplifier tumbled from atop his car and bounced down Highway 61.  

A makeshift attempt to repair the amplifier by cramming it full of newspapers rendered it operational, except it now produced a fuzzy distorted sound.  The song recorded that day “Rocket 88” found its way to the top of the charts and is often credited as being the first rock-n-roll song.  

Clearly, the world wanted the fuzz then, and has never stopped doing so. 

The sound accidentally discovered by Kizart has since been captured, refined and controlled by amplifier manufacturers. Wise is the band who has chosen to harness this almighty power.

Howling Giant brings the fuzz and so much more on their second album “Black Hole Space Wizard Part 1”.  It is one down-tuned crunchy stoner metal riff after another, in a style closely resembling genre legends The Sword and Witchcraft.  

Only instead of focusing their attention of themes of paganism, this concept EP takes to the stars, telling a science fiction inspired tale of mankind abandoning Earth to avoid a celestial wizard.