I overlooked Exhorder the first time around, and it’s too bad. ‘Slaughter in the Vatican’ is a great record, and as evidenced by their performance at this year’s Decibel Metal & Beer Fest, they are a live band to be reckoned [...]
My first exposure to Torche came in October 2010 when they, along with the sorely missed Kylesa supported heavy metal leviathans High on Fire. The Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, having notoriously muddled acoustics in those days, did [...]
I have always been aware of Saint Vitus and respected what they do, but my ears have generally gravitated toward their more musically restless predecessors, peers, and successors (e.g. Sabbath, Trouble, and Cathedral respectively). Last year, however, I [...]
As an avid player of Dungeons & Dragons in my formative years, I quickly realized that as an RPG soundtrack my Van Halen records just weren’t cutting the mustard. My brother’s Deep Purple and Rush records fared better, and regarding the [...]
As the son of a conservative Baptist preacher, imagine my surprise when I unwrapped a CD copy of ‘Holy Diver’ on Christmas 1987. A gift from Grandma, who had bought me the first two Iron Maiden records for Easter half a year earlier, it [...]
First and foremost, “flying witch puppet” vocals abound! The aptly applied phrase coined by my wife to describe falsetto metal shrieks (derived from the vampire puppet musical in the Judd Apatow comedy ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’) [...]
‘Electric Messiah’ is “Spewn from the Earth” with a wrecking ball of a track in the vein of ‘Blessed Black Wings’ standout “Devolution.” Fast and aggressive, it makes it clear that the new record, which [...]
Into Eternity hit an extended artistic high point in the mid aughts on the strength of two solid releases with the core lineup of founding member Tim Roth (guitars/vocals), along with Stu Block (vocals) and Troy Bleich (bass/vocals). Met with favorable [...]
