Music
Local Review: Yield – Self-titled demo
Yield Self-titled demo Yield = Alice in Chains + Metallica’s “Sanitarium” + Extreme Mid-80s chunka-chunka low-end metal parleys with tender, suicidal Alice-in-Chains ballads touching on themes of mind-rupturing confusion with plenty of guitar-pick’d arpeggios and minor chords (choicest example: “Brainwash”). It’s been done before, but Yield succeeds at a much-traversed genre because they’re completely
Local Review: Terra Noir – Emperors of the Black Earth
Terra Noir Emperors of the Black Earth Hellspawn Creations Terra Noir = Mayhem + Dark Throne + Burzum When you look up and see the gray skies of death above your head, your final thoughts will be about the haunting voice of hell that wafts through your mind … Terra Noir have a unique
Local Review: Malignant Inception – Black Death
Malignant Inception Black Death Slaughterhouse Records Malignant Inception = Malevolent Creation + Suffocation + Decapitated Malignant Inception have everything the die-hard death metal fan needs—relentless double-bass drumming, ever-changing guitar and bass technicality and trademark dual low vocals topped off with the screeching highs that made this band notorious. Black Death is a bloody, throat-wrenching
Local Review: Powerhouse Rock – Self-Titled
Powerhouse Rock Self-Titled Powerhouse Rock = Alice Cooper + Ted Nugent Good God. Someone in the 80s invented a time machine and sent a butt-rock group to the new millennium to see if it could still survive. Unfortunately, it landed in SLC and somehow made it into my hands. I’m guessing the entire band consists
Review: Skinlab – Nerve Damage
Skinlab Nerve Damage Century Media As a thank-you to their fans and to mark 10 years as a band, Skinlab are releasing Nerve Damage. What started out originally as an EP of unreleased songs soon turned into a full album of unreleased material, which ultimately morphed into the double album Nerve Damage. This two-disc set
Review: Bad Acid Trip – Lynch The Weirdo
Bad Acid Trip Lynch The Weirdo Serjical Strike Even your worst acid trip isn’t as bad as Bad Acid Trip’s Lynch The Weirdo. This band is a signing of Serj Tankian (System Of A Down) on his Columbia imprint label. My first impression of their music reminded me of a cross between Green Jelly and
Review: Therion – Lemuria
Therion Lemuria Nuclear Blast The last time I received a Therion release, it was a slipcase promotional copy. As if that’s not bad enough, there were only two full songs on the slipcase; the rest were edited to fade out after about a minute. I took the slipcase out of my mailbox, brought it in
Review: Chastain – In An Outrage
Chastain In An Outrage LEVIATHAN I’ve been listening to David Chastain’s music since his ‘87 solo album, Instrumental Variations. By 1987, David was already well into his recording career, having released albums with Spike, CJSS (as David Chastain—solo albums—and as Chastain). Albums released by his band Chastain were more of a band effort and up
Review: Nonpoint – Statement
Nonpoint Statement Lava Even from their first album, Struggle, in 1999, the band Nonpoint wasn’t a simple metalcore band. This band’s music has always had substance lyrically, vocally and musically. The band continued their hard-hitting approach on their major label (MCA) debut in 2000 with Statement. I lost touch with the band for a while
Review: Otep – House Of Secrets
Otep House Of Secrets Capitol Otep is back with House of Secrets, the follow-up to their major-label full-length debut, Sevas Tra. The music this band plays revolves around female singer Otep Shamaya’s self-loathing lyrics that tend to get a little stale after a song or two. During “Buried Alive,” Otep hates her life, during “Autopsy