Archive for the ‘Reviews › H’ Category

There’s something slightly disturbing about this project to me. First, I see the video for the first single and one of the guitar players in this band looks and moves eerily like drummer Vinnie Paul’s late brother Dimebag. Then, there’s the singer from Mudvayne doing his best Phil Anselmo impression on some of the tunes, […]

I’ve always sort of pegged France’s Hacride as a ‘sister’ band of The Netherland’s Textures; both are angular jagged, Meshuggah inspired bands, that are good at what they do. However, while in my opinion Textures took a step back with Drawing Circles, Hacride have stepped way up with their impressive second album, Amoeba. What sets […]

It always leaves me scratching my head when I get a record from an unsigned band that’s better than about 80 percent of the stuff I get from the labels. That’s the case with this EP from Finnish melodic metal outfit Helion. According to their Web site, Helion has been around in one form or […]

Although St. Louis, Missouri hardly has a thriving metal scene, it does have a handful of dedicated and consistent metal bands that always seem to surface when a national tour comes through. Such is the case when I covered a recent Dismember/Vital Remains/Grave/Withered show at the Creepy Crawl where one of the opening acts and […]

If you, like me, wish that Protest the Hero’s excellent Kezia was a little harsher (especially vocally) and less emo or that Between the Buried and Me’s Alaska had even more sweeping arpeggios and less chaos, the fine debut from LA’s The Human Abstract should be right up your alley. Right now I’ll tell you, […]

Helrunar hails from Munster Germany and formed in spring 2001. They play Heathen black metal and Frostnacht is their debut album for a record label, with Gratr being self released. If I was in the habit of offering quick and dirty comparisons to known bands I’d say Enslaved meets Immortal circa 1994 with Frostmoon Eclipse […]

Goddamn this is good; swelling, caustic yet melodic post hardcore that drips with rending, paranoid intensity at every chord shift. Imagine the biting, jangly discordance of Circle Takes the Square mixed with the ambient, simplistic note progressions and pulse of Amanda Woodward (so then by default also Neurosis). Throw in some painfully screamed female vocals […]

As the regular visitors to the site might have already realized, I’m not the biggest fan of the current hard/metalcore wave. Too many bands, inflation, no one’s happy, yadda yadda – you get the idea. Far from being original, Canadian Hollow Ground do at least something right to these ears. 6 songs, 12 minutes of […]

2004 meant the return of legendary thrash bands, most notably, bands like Exodus and Death Angel, whose albums and returns were given a great amount of media exposure. This of course took some space away from the ‘smaller acts’. Reformed back in the beginning of the new millennium, Hirax have returned to grace the music […]

This is Horna, no compromise black metal from Finland, no trends past or present, the Motorhead of black metal. Ignore all trends and be true to your origins is Shatraug’s motto and, like Motorhead, their songs are not as simple as people think. They can masterfully craft simple song structures that are more complex than […]

If the private investigator skills I picked up by watching Mr. Matula crack cases and score with the whores in one of the longest running German cop TV-shows, Ein Fall für Zwei, on TV can be trusted – Canadian Horfixion has more years (12) behind them than I can count (I’ve only got ten fingers; […]

Former Pungent Stench frontman Martin Shirenc stormed back into the scene with 1999’s Hollenthon debut, Domus Mundi, an eclectic, hard-hitting foray into a wide variety of metal stylings. The sophomore effort With Vilest of Worms to Dwell takes that catalystic impetus into the 21st century with another inspired album that is practically overflowing with originality […]

As metalcore shape-shifts every month, the borders of the genre continually expand, absorbing death and thrash metal, jazz, fusion, hardcore and every other music genre it decides to take on. Death metal in sound and hardcore in attitude, Germany’s Heaven Shall Burn are one such metalcore outfit, whose sound is more reflective of Amon Amarth’s […]

The legendary Horna is back with a vengeance, and even better, back on cd. After releasing seven vinyl only recordings as limited edition 7 inches, they have signed to Woodcut Records and now those of you not into spending money on split seven inches to get a few songs from Horna and a few from […]

The Haunted finally return with what may be one of the best metal album of the year! Picking up where the band left off on the self-titled debut, The Haunted waste no time expanding upon the thrashfest that made the band an overnight sensation with fans and media. Humorously titled, The Haunted Made Me Do […]

t’s no secret to most of you that the genre of hardcore has morphed its shape and sound in recent years. In fact, I think it’s pretty safe to say that most of the modern-day warriors that our ears are being exposed to nowadays share little camaraderie with the punk rock icons that most bands […]