Todesbonden: Sleep Now, Quiet Forest
Todesbonden’s full-length album feels refreshing, which perhaps isn’t surprising given the images of breezy fields and mossy forests that Sleep Now, Quiet Forest conjures up within the listener’s mind.
Reviews
Thor: Keep The Dogs Away (30th anniversary reissue)
This 1978 full length debut album by the Vancouver, British Columbia based artist known only as Thor was an original RCA vinyl release and it has never made too much impact on my heavy metal ears. I really don’t call Thor’s first album real metal, instead I’ve always considered it glam rock like the Sweet, New York Dolls and Slade
Axis Powers: Marching Towards Destruction
Forget concept albums…..have you heard of concept bands? Sweden’s Axis Powers (whom I assume took their name from the military alliance of countries that formed in 1940….Hitler-run Germany being one of the strongest members….which if correct doesn’t sit with me that well) has dedicated themselves and their album “Marching Towards Destruction” to war.
Viatrophy: s/t
The debut album from England’s Viatrophy offers an enjoyable collection of melodic death metal tracks that only get better as things progress.
Eagle Twin: The Unkindness of Crows
Much as Gentry Densley used jazz in order to elevate hardcore in The Iceburn Collective, so does he use jazz (among other things) in order to plunge doom further into its depths. As The Iceburn Collective cast hardcore in a new light, so does Eagle Twin cast doom in a new darkness.
Throne of Katarsis: Helvete-Det Iskalde Mørket
Norway’s Throne of Katarsis have produced a sophomore full-length album that is, in almost every way, a recreation of much of the early nineties Norwegian black metal sound.
Progressive Nation tour @ Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto ON, August 14, 2009
This past Friday marked the Toronto stop of this year’s Progressive Nation tour, the now-annual summer festival curated by and starring Dream Theater as headliners – basically their chance to take out some of their favourite bands on tour with them across North America playing outdoor amphitheaters.
Sean Palmerston reviews the recent Toronto stop of this year’s traveling Progressive Nation festival.
Korpiklaani: Karkelo
Another year, another Korpiklaani album. Depending on how you feel about these fun-loving Finns, they’re either showing tremendous resilience in putting out six albums in fewer than six years, or they’re continuing to inundate listeners with their repetitive music.
November’s Doom: Into Night’s Requiem Infernal
By Melissa Andrews Into Night’s Requiem Infernal is the latest offering from November’s Doom. I loved the band’s previous release The Novella Reservoir so…
Divine Heresy: Bringer of Plagues
For all the hype it received in 2007, Divine Heresy’s debut Bleed the Fifth was a major disappointment. Somewhere along the way, though, band leader Dino Cazares righted the ship, for the follow-up Bringer of Plagues turns out to be one of the more pleasant surprises of the summer.
Adrien Begrand reviews the new sophomore release by Dino Cazares’s new band Divine Heresy and, much to the surprise of many of us over here at Hellbound HQ, he digs it.