Music
▼ National Reviews
Review: Divider – Minimal Distraction EP
Divider’s new EP, Minimal Distraction, sidestepped the mainstream approach to EBM and pulled from the traditional era of the mid-’80s early-’90s electronic sound. The dark, surrounding electronic beat enhanced by the vocals creates an atmosphere of aggression and anxiety. … read more
Review: Grand Magus – Triumph and Power
This trio of hard-rocking Swedes never disappoints with their unique brand of epic doom metal. JB Christoffersson’s soaring vocals sound like a younger Biff Byford, and he backs them up with earth-shaking guitarwork. … read more
Review: Lie In Ruins – Towards Divine Death
Hail Satan, hail death, indeed. This album is the band’s second full-length since they were resurrected from the heyday of early ‘90s death metal to bring back what is a decidedly old-school sound to the genre. It’s longer on both song and album length than most death metal works, which seemed to give the whole thing a more cohesive feeling. … read more
Review: Mad Choice – Safety Net
The main reason to listen to this album over and over again would be for the opening track, “Swallowing A Shotgun”—combining elements of California skate punk and post-hardcore made for some heavy, mosh-inducing music. … read more
Review: Malthusian – MMXIII
With members from Altar of Plagues and Mourning Beloveth, the band’s already got a great doom-type pedigree, but MMXIII is more of a batch of death and black metal with tints of the rotten kind of doom. … read more
Review: Noir – Darkly Near
This release is packed with archaic, simplistic synthesized sounds reminiscent of the ’80s. The remaining dark tracks provoke the cobweb-clearing dance movement, which is a bit too “goth” for me. I do know that those who are truly black at heart will love it. … read more
Review: Preston Lovinggood – Shadow Songs
Before my first listening of Shadow Songs, I was preparing myself to sit through another guy with a guitar singing cliché love songs. What I got instead was a pleasant surprise of dreamy pop melodies with morbid lyrics, creating happy little ears that felt alright about listening to cliché love songs. … read more
Review: Rawhide – Murder One
This is raucous death-flected RnR monster, which clutches at its NWOBHM and D-Beat influences with equal aplomb. The band’s a semi-mystery, with precious little information available online. … read more
Review: Scott H. Biram – Nothin’ But Blood
Songs like his cover of “Backdoor Man” will put you on your ass. Biram, to me, has become the Southern roots music modern Hemingway, expressing honestly the dark parts of this life like only he can. … read more
Review: Secret Boyfriend – This Is Always Where You’ve Lived
It’s a strange, varied affair, playing like a lost soundtrack to something doomed, yet beautiful. The music ranges from synth-based melody and filtered noise (“Summer Wheels/ Mysterious Fires”), to tape-hiss-laden acoustic ballads. … read more