But expecting that kind of experience as the “norm” is a fool’s game – one that leaves you, more often than not, bitter, disappointed, and generally disgusted with everything around you – rendering you DEEPLY unpleasant to be around. Don’t be that guy! That guy sucks.

All this is to say – I’m not always, or even often, looking out for greatness. Most of the time? I just want a good time. And hoo boy,  Norway’s Magick Touch delivers a really, REALLY good time.

And for me, this run-in with these highly energetic, very Rock & Roll-forward Heavy Metal  maniacs is an entirely new experience – both giving me an entirely clean palate on which to make judgement on the endearingly-titled Cakes & Coffins, and makes it slap all the more righteously! Opening track “Apollyon” is everything I could possibly ever need to perfectly back a Friday evening, post-work beer and decompressing brew-ha-ha with buddies to let loose and watch as the worries of the week slip away beneath the band’s intoxicating mix of driving Rock & Roll riffs, 70’s-inspired harmonies, and the kind of higher-register singing that, for one reason or another, never fails to put a smile on your face and encourage you to sing right along with the pair of bassist/vocalist Christer Ottesen and guitarist/vocalist HK Steen. All of it is backed by Bard Heavy Nordvik’s perfectly balanced drumming that appropriately and deftly strides the line between the righteous early Heavy Metal might of Rainbow‘s Cozy Powell or Saxon‘s Nigel Glockler, and the more upbeat, Punk Rock& Roll stylings of Turbonegro‘s Chris Summers or The Hellacopters’ Robert Eriksson (the combination of those four bands perhaps as appropriate an amalgamation to describe Magick Touch‘s sound as any).

That same energy and sense of fun carries on with tracks “The Judas Cross” and “Demons and Rust,” the latter of which swaggers out the gates of Hell itself with the kind of 70’s-drenched Thin Lizzy, Montrose or Narazreth-inspired riffs that just beg for the most wicked, epic mural-painted van to come speeding down the road, speakers blasting and smoke pouring out the windows. This is nothing new being brought to the table, it’s just a fantastic tribute to the sounds that helped build the world of heavy metal we know today, and I feel the hair on my chest getting thicker with every single listen. These tracks also showcase another aspect of Magick Touch‘s sounds which makes this album all the more a joy to listen to – a dark, occult-worshipping and demon-loving underbelly that permeates the entire run of the record. Hell, if you really want a good time, you don’t want a bunch of choirboys, right? Bring Beelzebub himself for some Jager shots. Some tracks go even more all-in on the vibe, like “When Eating a Wolf” which sounds like the listing all the dishes needed to perform a proper Satanic rite, all with the tongue-and-cheek attitude of a Rob Zombie-concocted fun house of mayhem and macabre. “Raven” haunts with an airy, mysterious quality of classic Blue Öyster Cult or Deep Purple, right down to the spacious clean guitars and moody synth accents that make you want to get high and take a midnight stroll through an old cemetery just to try and catch a glimpse of the reaper himself. It’s certainly one of the album’s more serious tracks, but by no means does it detract from the fun – it just piles on another timeless bit of nostalgia to enjoy along with the rest.

But as fun as those more moody, “dark crypts and candles” moments certainly are, it’s when the band really lets loose and just rocks the hell out that see Magick Touch at their strongest and keep me coming back. The more metal-forward, Priest-inspired tracks like “M.I.N.A” and “Guillotine Dreams” pack all the kind of classic riffs you could possibly want into their 4-ish minute timeframes, taking you on a studded, leather-bound trip through Heavy Metal’s golden years. The friggin’ killer solo on the former is enough in and of itself to get me air-shredding along like an absolute dweeb and I lover every damn second of it. One of my favorite tracks, “Boots,” carries a bit more of a gruff, ass-kicking and name-taking attitude that carries every bit of piss and swagger as “Breaking the Law” or “You Got Another Thing Coming,” bursting with the kind of metal machismo that makes you want to flex your muscles regardless of whether or not you have any to flex. It’s brimming with the kind of confidence that gives Magick Touch the air of credibility many similar acts can only hope to replicate. It’s just so goddamn good.

This is a band that packs so many elements that make them an automatic “fuck yeah!” in my book. I don’t care that they’re not bringing anything new to the table, it’s the band’s delivery that makes Cakes & Coffins such a win. I will certainly be diving into the band’s back catalog to get more of this in my life, but just know that Magick Touch fits in beautifully with Norway’s robust Rock/Heavy Metal scene alongside the likes of Audrey Horne, Spidergawd, The Good The Bad and the Zugly and so many others, while providing a distinct flavor all their own. If a good time is what you want, then by gods you can’t do much better than with this Norse trio.

But sometimes, we’ll stumble across something that just seems like its too big for Metal. Or Rock, or Pop, or Hip-Hop or any one particular genre for that matter. Something that, truly, EVERYONE should take the time to listen to, become familiar with. Sure, I’d love everyone to love metal! But you and I both know that’s just not a realistic possibility.  But this Canadian Prog duo, Crown Lands? Fuck me. Everyone can, and absolutely should get in on this.

If you’re a metalhead of a certain age, who grew up in the earlier stages of metal’s creation, you should have no problem falling into Odyssey. The band certainly follows the Prog tradition of fellow countrymen Rush, along with Camel and others, but also take a great deal of cues from the likes of Jimmy Hendrix, The Who and a heavy dose of Led Zepplin – Singer and drummer Cody Bowles sure as hell sounds very similar to Robert Plant – and it’s all woven together with plenty of influence from Bowles’ Native Mi’kmaq heritage. More than anything, this influence is found thematically, particularly on tracks like the trio of “Mountain,” “End of the Road” and “White Buffalo,” which, the band explains, are about this history of what has happened to Indigenous peoples of Canada, what is happening right now, and the hope of future reclamation (the name Crown Land itself in reference to the desire to reclaim Canadian “crown land” – land held by the government that was largely stolen from First Nations Indigenous peoples). These tracks, along with the blistering “Right Way Back” represent the album’s more relatively straight-forward, catchy-as-all-fuck rock approach, featuring a bevvy of superb, blues-inspired riffs that are an easier add to anyone throwing together a casual listening playlist. “White Buffalo,” especially, features the kind of upbeat, swagger-filled guitars that would be a welcome way to kickstart your commute to work, school or wherever. An absolute earworm.

On the flip side, the band is also flexing the living hell out of their prog writing chops, building a storyline featuring a character known simply as “Queen,” featured in the incredibly produced video for the epic, impressive Rush-meets-Coheed and Cambria track “Context: Fearless Pt. I” (go to Youtube now and look for it.) I’d have included that video in this write-up, but instead chose the live recording to showcase one critically important piece of the Odyssey puzzle – one which properly puts how impressive this album is in context: This is a live-recorded album. And no, the band isn’t filling in the gaps with studio musicians, it’s just the two of them – Bowles and guitarist/bassist/keyboardist Kevin Comeau – which, when you listen to the depth of sound coming through your headphones, is just friggin’ mind-blowing. Check out the above video to watch these two at work! Bowles’ drumming alone is impressive, and while it may not be a Neal Peart–level masterclass, Neal Peart never had to do his thing while throwing down powerful, nuanced vocal lines like this. And some of the interplay between Bowles and Comeau, who he himself is juggling between laying down guitars, killer bass lines, and using a pedalboard to layer in some super effective keys (which sorta act as a super fuzzy bass backbone while he’s playing guitar), is literally making my head hurt just trying to think about. I’m exhausted.

Like the best of history’s Prog Rock bands, Crown Lands has proven on Odyssey that they can deliver the best of both worlds – super catchy rock tracks you could easily find on the radio, along with the epic compositions that demand (and deserve) much more of your time and attention. This band was not on my radar before now, but having now done a quick once-over of their back catalog, Odyssey is a gigantic leap forward from what was before a pretty straightforward Blues Rock band. And it’s well-worth taking the dive into the Crown Lands experience! I literally just spent about 3 hours falling into interesting factoids and rabbit holes based just on learning more about Cody Bowles’ cultural heritage, and their identification as Two-Spirit (far too complex to even get into here – just go do your own reading. It’s a FASCINATING subject). Sometimes you discover something and know immediately it’s truly special, and I wholeheartedly believe this to be true with Crown Lands. I dunno if this is “Metal,” maybe “Metal-adjacent” at best, but whatever. Keep on the lookout for this duo – they’re going to do some big things.

That’s sorta what listening to Wish to Leave is like. The album just has that sorta intangible, “IT” quality about it. But unlike some of those eventual Oscar winners that everyone claim to like because they just sorta feel like they’re supposed to – there’s PLENTY to really like, and truly appreciate about Lunar Shadow’s 3^rd LP.

To anyone paying attention, it should be no surprise that the band has churned out another impressive album – but that certainly doesn’t mean the band haven’t undergone their share of changes. Where 2017’s Far From Light stuck closer to a more classic heavy metal sound with a good amount of psychedelic vibes, and 2019’s The Smokeless Fires injected some subtle black metal elements to the mix, Wish To Leave sees the band stripping things way down to the rafters with a much cleaner, classic rock tone that finds itself closer to Blue Oyster Cult or Dire Straits than it does to Priest or Mercyful Fate. The end result is really unique – at times sounding like completely undistorted Black Metal (listen to the Vreid-like riff starting at 3:09 of “Serpents Die), at times getting downright bluesy (“To Dusk and I Love You), and still finding moments to unleash some more metallic fury (“The Darkness Between the Stars”), albeit still with that simple, mostly un-fucked-with clean guitar tone.

As with the rest of their catalog, this album is for the guitar lovers, with axeman, Max (Maxman?) leading the way, deftly balancing all of their new and previous influences together to pull off an intoxicating and innately listenable record. “And Silence Screamed” (my personal favorite) starts with a sweet galloping, Maiden-esque riff layered with a super catchy melodic lead that comes back throughout the track, before the band launches in a really cool lead and thrashy bridge (again given in “indie” flair with those super clean guitar tones), and capping things off with an epic, building, Hammond Organ-backed crescendo (all Traditional Heavy Metal bands should have organs don’t tell me otherwise). “Delomelanicon” does a nice job of seamlessly trading off epic, double-bass backed melodies, Classic Rock-inspired leads, and some (comparatively) furious heavy metal riffing to make a song that feels much longer than it’s 4:14 run time. It doesn’t drag by any means, it just packs a lot of different influences into a relatively brief time frame.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the excellent production work here, perfectly matching the product I think the bands sets out to make here. The entire album has a sort of dream-like, almost reality-bending quality – like being trapped in limbo between the world of the living and dead… Ok what the hell would I know about being in limbo? But this all goes back to my original statement, that “Wish to Leave” just has some certain, intangible “It” factor. It’s the kind of thing that I’m sure will inspire a whole bunch of other ridiculous and nonsensical statements and descriptions like my own above. The truth is, I don’t think I can properly convey the listening experience to you, dear reader, until you just go ahead and listen for yourself. Which I highly recommend you do. Soon.

For now, the best I can tell you is that “Wish to Leave” is a unique, enjoyable listen, one that I do firmly believe is going to end up on a lot of folks’ year-end lists. Time will tell if it’s got the lasting power to end up on mine, but for now – I’m digging it a bunch.

Long before Glenn Danzig became the ill-advisedly shirtless butt of countless metal memes and jokes, the man was responsible for at least 3 excellent albums of darkened blues-meets-rock/metal before things started getting a little… wonky. It’s easy to poke fun at the guy now, but Danzig I-III are goddamn classics and I won’t have you telling me otherwise. DON’T @ ME.

Which is why it’s been so disheartening to see Danzig reach the depths ranging from tired and uninspired (Danzig IV), to downright fucking cringy (2020’s Danzig Sings Elvis… god, just… why?) and everything in-between since his initial solo-career success. There were a few releases sprinkled here and there that showed glimpses of inspiration or past glories, but for the most part, it’s been pretty bleak.

So if I can’t get the real thing back again, maybe the next best thing is to find the best possible imitation, and just like Gruesome is doing the world a solid and giving us more Death 20 years after Chuck Schuldiner departed for Valhalla, Finland’s Black Totem is more than up to the task of giving the world more classic Danzig 20ish years after the band stopped releasing anything I really give a shit about.

And the imitation is nearly spotless. Blackened, bluesy filth just permeates the whole thing, complete with just enough outrageous, overzealous crooning that made Danzig himself so ridiculous, yet somehow so endearing in his glory years. I feel wrong not having a cigarette hanging out of my mouth and a bottle of jack in hand listening to II: Shapeshifting. While things get off to a slightly more upbeat start than anything from Danzig’s early work, the overall tone and feel of first track “Begone Vampire” is unmistakable. It’s a raucous, energetic song that kinda bridges the gap of all things Danzig, including nods to both The Misfits and Samhain before breaking things down into straight-up dirty blues rock on the back half of the song. It’s a super-fun start to the album and leads nicely into follow-up “The Devil” which is just pure OG devil-blues Danzig. I like the vocal interplay between lead vocalist and guitarist “Spit Poison” and bassist “Wera Wolf” – it adds a little bit of extra dynamic to the song and I plays a fairly central theme to the rest of the album.

The middle stretch of the album does add a few extra fun elements to the Danzig love-fest that help to keep things a little less predictable. “Black Nekro Gloves” is a catchy-as-fuck little surf-punk-inspired jaunt that injects a bit of energy back into the mix after a couple more plodding songs, and “Ghoul of Crow Swamp” adds a sludgy, grungy Melvins or Mudhoney vibe that just adds even more to the grit and grime of the whole experience. But after the band is finished meandering through a couple different alternative paths, it’s right back to our favorite New Jersey dark boi with a three-songs stretch of “Backyard Corpse Blues,” “Welcome Lucifer,” and “Warlock,” that would all find themselves perfectly at-home on Danzigs I-III. To further elaborate would just be an exercise in writing for the sake of writing, because if you know those albums, then you know exactly what to expect here.

Look, I never said this was anything special or mind-blowing, right? If you have a special place in your heart for the days before Glenn Danzig was known more for being an Aqua Teen Hunger Force character or getting knocked out in viral Youtube videos – then grab a smoke, open a beer, and settle down with this little gem from Black Totem. It’s a real treat.

This is open window, driving own the highway, singing out loud rock. The vocals of front-man Ålarik are the clear highlight with a svelte tone that’s uplifting, yet a bit despondent, which carries over to much of the music. I get a weird Sentenced meets Soilwork (their most radio friendly stuff) meets Ignite, pop, mish mash vibe that I can’t quite put my finger on.

The Jens Bogren (Opeth, Dimmu Borgir, Arch Enemy At The Gates, etc) mix/master is expectedly polished and big sounding, befitting these sort of arena rock anthems, and giving the affair a bit more ‘true’ metal heft. But its Ålarik’s voice that carries the songs with big brash choruses and subtle keyboards that get your foot involuntarily tapping as heard on opener “Straaling”, “Parasite”, “Wasted” and “Arnold”. The somber elements surface for the likes of “No One Around Me”, closer “The King of Silence” and ballad-ish “When Everything Disappears” which still deliver sturdy guitar driven rock, but have a little more downtrodden aura

Certainly not something I would go out and purchase, but certainly a enjoyable out of my comfort zone listen that when one of the songs comes on I hum along and bob my head. And I applaud FDA records for stepping out of their comfort zone as well with this release. It will be interesting to see if its a trend for the label or simply a surprisingly tolerable one off.