Author: Rob Hughes
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The Opium Cartel – “What’s It Gonna Be” (Ratt cover)
The Opium Cartel is the sister band of White Willow, whose last album, Future Hopes, we gushed over last year. The Opium Cartel seems to be a necessary outlet for bandleader Jacob Holm-Lupo, a way to explore a lighter, poppier style away from the weight-of-the-world concerns of White Willow. You’ll hear a similar palette of…
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White Willow – Future Hopes
Every White Willow album is a gem, and Future Hopes might be the most precious of them all. Befitting the fact that they’ve entered their third decade in the progressive rock scene, White Willow’s newest offering is something special, both musically and visually (yes, that’s a Roger Dean painting on the cover). Of the young…
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BOOK REVIEW – The Explosive Early Years of the NWOBHM
Wheels of Steel: The Explosive Early Years of the NWOBHM by Martin Popoff (Power Chord Press) It’s now over 20 years since Riff Kills Man! hit the shelves, and, amazingly, Martin Popoff’s output appears to have gone into overdrive. He’s written or co-written over 50 books at this point, and banked interviews with every metal…
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Year-in-review 2015: Rob Hughes
As another year draws to a close, we metalheads tend to take time to reflect on what the year in metal meant to us, and prepare our various lists of what was great, what sucked, and everything in between. This year we decided to get a little more up close and personal with Team Hellbound,…
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Opeth – Pale Communion
Pale Communion is a richly appointed collection of progressive rock that continues the approach of 2011’s Heritage, while refining and expanding the style that characterized that troubling (to some) transitional album. Everything on Pale Communion—the production, the material, the performances—hangs together more logically than on Heritage. The songs travel through candlelit corridors, sidestep into a…
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Cynic – Kindly Bent to Free Us
Around the late ’60s, progressive rock was born. Those who adopted the infant genre went forth from England, blew minds, and progressed, taking the music to fantastical new heights and, admittedly, a few indulgent new lows. Around the early ’90s, progressive death metal was born, and its practitioners went forth from the Everglades, banged heads,…