Invisible Oranges

The soundtrack for last year’s Masters of Horror series on Showtime seemed like a good idea – take new and unreleased songs from the hottest metal/metalcore/screamo/emo bands of the moment, spread the goods across two discs, and wrap the whole thing in nice packaging. So I picked up the soundtrack and put it into my […]

Good band, good label, solid album, rising buzz… then the band breaks up. I hate it when that happens. I’m talking about Fall River, a Pennsylvania band that put out an EP and an album, Lights Out (on Thorp). Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Isis, etc.) mixed the album, which had a vocal cameo by Sean Ingram […]

My review of the new Suffocation album is now up at Stylus.

Defiance was a band from Oakland, CA that came up in the Bay Area thrash heyday. The band put out three albums on Roadrunner subsidiary Roadracer, then morphed into groups called Inner Threshold and Under before disbanding in 1999. Interviews with the band (available at its well-kept website) offer a great inside look at the […]

My dual review of Norma Jean’s Redeemer and War of Ages’ Pride of the Wicked is now up at Stylus. You can read it here.

Rarely will I post about an album I don’t recommend. However, Jesus Killing Machine has enough historical value to deserve a mention, if not a warning to stay away. The sticker on the front says, “featuring Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer), Gabby Abularach (ex-Cro-Mags), Phillip Boa, Waldemar Sorychta (Despair, Tiamat), Dave “Taif” Ball (ex-Killing Joke) + special […]

Gorod‘s debut, Neurotripsicks, was absolutely shredding, sounding like if Joe Satriani played lead guitar in Symbolic-era Death, with low death growls for the vocals. However, thin production hobbled the album somewhat. That’s definitely not the case with Leading Vision (on Willowtip), which has a deeper and beefier sound while retaining the clarity typical of Willowtip […]

Here’s footage of Pantera practicing with Kerry King in 1989 at Joe’s Garage in Ft. Worth, TX. At the beginning of the video, Phil Anselmo says, “We’re learning ‘South of Heaven’ for tomorrow.” It seems they’re rehearsing for a show in which King would make a cameo. In Part 1, they run through “South of […]

Another Napalm Death album??? These guys have been ridiculously productive since they left Earache after 1999’s Words from the Exit Wound. Since then, they’ve had a release of some sort each year, including four albums, two Leaders Not Followers covers collections, and the awesome Noise for Music’s Sake compilation. This is almost oversaturation, but Smear […]