Rise Above

Featured, Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Live June 2, 2010

Slough Feg/ Funeral Circle @ Red Room, Vancouver BC, May 29 2010

The inveterate Slough Feg are one of those bands that pulls it off so well live that they’re able to sound identical to what they do on tape, which I found pretty impressive considering how ornate their songs can get. Personally, I was there to hear songs from their latest, Ape Uprising!, and they did not disappoint, throwing the excellent “Simian Manifesto” into their set early on. But as they’re touring for their 20th anniversary, the band threw loads of gems into their set. It was great to hear older tracks like “Tiger! Tiger!”, “The Final Gambit” and “Hiberno-Latin Invasion” live. And seeing Mike Scalzi and Angelo Tringali work their guitar magic, playing off each other is especially jaw-dropping – they recall the classic Gorham/Robertson harmony work in Thin Lizzy.

Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Audio September 8, 2009

Church Of Misery: Houses of the Unholy

If you’ve heard the previous two Church Of Misery albums and quite enjoyed them, then you won’t be disappointed with their latest and third full length release. Houses of the Unholy follows the same formula as 2001’s Master of Brutality and 2004’s Second Coming: bluesy lead riffing over heavily distorted rumbling bass accompanied by an incoherent, gruff vocal delivery that reminds me of inebriated Neil Fallon of Clutch.

Jared Hynes reviews the newest studio effort by Japan’s serial killer-obsessed doomsters Church Of Misery.

Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Audio August 10, 2009

Firebird: Grand Union

While extreme metal fans worldwide continue to wish like hell that 2008’s Carcass reunion tour would turn into something more permanent, Bill Steer’s musical passion has led him down a very different road, the guitarist eschewing death metal for some good, old-fashioned heavy blues rock with his trio Firebird.

Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Audio August 7, 2009

Church Of Misery: Houses Of The Unholy

What separates Houses of the Unholy is the band’s penchant for psychedelic melodies and harmonies, not to mention that all lyrical themes are about serial killers. Church of Misery is an extremely heavy doom band, that varies from slow and melancholy to fast and crunchy more often than you’d expect.

Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Audio July 6, 2009

Astra: The Weirding

Originally forming in San Diego, California during 2001 under the moniker Silver Sunshine, this progressive rock changed their musical style from psychedelic pop to progressive rock in 2008 and also decided a name change was in order too, settling on the new name of Astra. However, Do not be mistake Astra with the Italian progressive metal band that also goes by the same name.