Church of Misery - Houses of the Unholy
Church of Misery are obsessed with serial killers. When Macabre wrote about Albert Fish, it matched their death metal sound. But when this Japanese four-piece does it, their ’70s grooves throw the lyrics off balance. They sing of infamous serial killers over groovy riffs. On this album, they make raging shotgun slayers sound fun and...
The heaviest band on earth (almost)
Cazares, Hoglan, Stroud When Fear Factory announced that guitarist Dino Cazares and singer Burton C. Bell had reunited alongside bassist Byron Stroud and drummer Gene Hoglan, the interwebs went apeshit. If Black Sabbath are the gold standard of intra-band drama, Fear Factory are C-list tabloid fodder. Personally, I am curious as to what this lineup...
Metal Price Watch
Here is a cool idea: Metal Price Watch, a site that compares prices across distros (41 currently). Enter, say, Amon Amarth’s The Avenger into the search fields, and you get a listing of distros that carry it, along with their prices. There is also a small used album section. Right now the site is basically...
Glorior Belli - Meet Us at the Southern Sign
In 2005, Glorior Belli made a raw, promising debut in Ô Laudate Dominvs. Two years later, they polished their sound on the bland Manifesting the Raging Beast (reviewed here). Now the French outfit redeems itself with one of this year’s more intriguing black metal records. The production is still precious, but vocalist/guitarist Infestvvs seems to...