FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
If you ever find yourself reading press releases about metal tour announcements on the West Coast and suddenly wondering, Now why the hell am I not living in Portland? don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Thanks to local booking agent Nanotear, whose clients are some of the coolest, most cutting-edge artists in heavy music, the Oregon city has turned into a very strong metal market, a fact hammered home annually with Fall Into Darkness.
My first listen to this record had me tagging it as a possibility for my album of the year, my second listen had me not too sure about it, but my third, fourth and fifth brought me right back around to my original opinion. Strings To A Web may well be Rage’s finest.
Sure, it’ll be a frosty day in Danzig’s nether lair before you’ll ever see a reunion of the band’s classic lineup – but until Lodi finally freezes over, you can certainly find solace in Deth Red Sabaoth, which goes a long, long way to recapturing that classic Danzig sound.
On Taste the Sin, Black Tusk inject more howling punk à la Kylesa than instru-prog à la Baroness and Mastodon, and the result is a disc that has the potential to incite fist pumping, moshing and a little John Baizley fan-boy love.
I’m just going to come right out and say it: 12 Gauge is a great album.
Oh, what a strange race Buzz Osborne and The Melvins have run.
If All Empires Fall is meant to close a certain chapter of the band’s history, we have every reason to believe the next one will be even more exciting to witness.
It’s true that Scream is not your Dad’s Ozzy Osbourne, but it’s not as worthless as some nostalgia addicts would have you believe either.
While frequently compared to Iron Maiden, White Wizzard is a much different beast. Or rather, White Wizzard is not much of a beast at all. Let me put it this way: the number of the beast is not on White Wizzard’s speed dial.
Hellbound readers, we’re sure that by now you are all familiar with our Natalie Zed, right? Natalie was our big grand prize winner way back in January, taking home more than 50 CDs + and shortly after she received her huge box ‘o CDs, Ms. Zed asked us over at Hellbound HQ if we’d be interested in running reviews of her winnings if she did postcard sized reviews of the albums. How could we say no?
So, after a long layoff (sorry NZ!), here is Natalie’s fourth installment (reviews #31 – 40 for those keeping stats at home) in what Hellbound likes to refer to as “Postcards From Natalie Zed”…