Inject the Light is a time capsule, a one-person project from Chris Mason that’s about living in the moment of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Mason, who has also plays with Low Culture and Macho Boys, among others, takes a new approach here. This five-song digital release is a little on the lo-fi side, with elements of New Wave, No Wave, synth punk, sci-fi, punk rawk and more. It’s melodic and peppy, but artsy and conceptual too.As the name suggests, the record explores the absurdity of 2020 alongside the crass commercialism, health risks and anxiety. It wavers in tone between anxiety and fascination at the surreal time we’re living in. I normally wouldn’t post a track listing as useful information in a review, but the titles here really tell the tale: The Apocalypse Is Boring Inject The Light We Deliver Tomorrow Got a Year’s Worth Of Food And A Thousand Guns (I’m Lonely) “The Apocalypse Is Boring” and “Tomorrow” are both anxiety-laden tracks with a fear of doomsday. Repetitive beats create inhuman, surreal vibes with nihilistic lyrics adding to that gloomy sense. “Inject The Light” keeps that feeling going, but with a faster beat and bigger hook that deliver a snarky look … Read more
Boy do The Raging Nathans know how to start a record on a down note. The band plays melodic DIY … Read more
Two years ago I reviewed Local Warming, the debut EP by Sun-0-Bathers. Two years have passed, but not much has … Read more
Most death metal bands exhibit a morbid quality to their sound but few would be believed if they said that … Read more
It’s a fairly long story as to the exact circumstance, but a couple of years ago on a rainy winter … Read more
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If there's any band that defies easy description, it has to be French progressive metal band Gojira. Featuring influences and techniques from a variety of complex metal genres, incredibly technically talented band members, and an environmental fixation only a few degrees short of an actual whale fetish, these guys are anything but your standard death metallers. Add on a quartet of increasingly strong and diverse albums and you'll get an idea of how extremely hard it was to predict what they would pull out for their fifth release. Enter the band's newest album, 2012's L'Enfant Sauvage, named after the old French art film.In terms of overall sound, L'Enfant Sauvage definitely continues the musical development hinted at on their last album, 2009's The Way of All Flesh. Gojira have all but … Read more
Anytime it’s just one person on the stage, the music being created is going to be intimate and personal. Sometimes it’s so personal that it doesn’t bridge the gap from the stage to the floor. Fortunately, Sam Russo isn’t one of those artists. When he sings, you know it’s about his own life experiences, but it sounds like it’s coming … Read more
Meet Me On The Moon is a teaser single for the new LP, Sad In The City, which also happens to be Broadway Calls’ first new full-length in almost a decade (which will release close to the time this review publishes). While I knew of the band, I’d never really spent any time with their records. On this short-player, I … Read more
Back in the late nineties I started listening to horrropunk. To this day it is one of my favourite scenes. Back in the day I listened to basically everything I could find that would match the description horrorpunk. Nowadays I am more picky. Still, if I see a promo mentioning horrorpunk I am so tempted to review it. I’ve skipped … Read more
Kissed by an Animal is getting the vinyl treatment a year after release of their self title album from 2019. To describe these guys, well it’s hard to nail down a specific style that the Brooklyn, NY based band is trying to hit. To be honest, this album is hard to get use to in general.To prepare for a review … Read more
Southern California's Xibalba is back with a new LP titled Años En Infierno. The title of their third studio album translates to "years in hell," and it is a loathsome pillar, raised in tribute to the pain of living in a world populated by misery and ruin. Somehow the band's sulfurous combination of doom and death metal and hardcore from … Read more
To say that this album gives vibes similar to those of …And Justice For All, is an understatement. The newest album by Colorado thrash metal aficionados, Havok, starts with guitar harmonies that can only be described what it must sound like when descending into the metal underworld upon death.With raw intensity this album is the epitome of thrash. With screaming … Read more
Fake Names formed when two long-time friends decided to play music together at home, with no plans for it to grow into an actual group. But after Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Dag Nasty, Bad Religion) and Michael Hampton (S.O.A., Embrace, One Last Wish) put the pen to paper, they changed their mind and recruited a band. They’d attended elementary school … Read more
There has been a shift in recent years, in heavy music, and it’s one that has given bands and artists the opportunity to use their platform to speak out, to uplift those who need help and to talk about difficult topics more openly. Heavy music is changing, for the better, and one such band using their space for good is … Read more
Does Died’s debut LP Less Life see the band growing up, or is it just them getting old? It’s an odd question to ask of a group who are in the midst of pushing out what should be their first (and best impression) to the world, but hardcore bands tend to operate on different rules. For instance, a band's early … Read more
Santa Cruz is a convoluted place. It feels like the rest of the country erroneously thinks Santa Cruz is just like Santa Monica. It’s much more of a town than a city, and in a lot of ways it’s a microcosm of everything in California: conflicted and nuanced, beauty found at a high price with an oft-ignored grimy underbelly. Is … Read more
Clocking it at just under 27 minutes, Columbus, Ohio electronic music producer Jacoti Sommes’ 2020 release Travel Time is all around better than his excellent 2018 effort Ubermensch. I think the album’s title accurately reflects what it’s all about. Featuring a handful of longer tracks periodically broken up by short ambient interludes (“Phases” I through III) that sound similar to … Read more
New York hardcore legends Cro-Mags's waste no time getting started on their new album In the Beginning. Opener "Don't Give In" kicks in the front door and immediately begins stalking the grounds looking for revenge, relief and solace, with deep growly, cross-over guitars leading the way like a pack of rottweilers hot on a guilty man's scent. When the tempo … Read more
Me: The Suicide Machines got really angry.[Looks at news coming out of Michigan.]Me: Oh, yeah. They should be.Flint’s waters crisis, militias, the widespread issues of race, violence and inequality across the US…Sure, this is 1990s-styled ska-punk. But it’s not your dance party, silly costume ska-punk. Much like Battle Hymns of 1998, Revolution Spring is angry and political. I kind of … Read more
At this point Canadian extreme metal malcontent J. Read has had two entirely different but noteworthy careers. The man (something I assume he identifies as, and not a woodlen spirit, demon, or other apparition) helped to invent one of the more punishing confluences of metal subgenres as the vocalist and drummer for pioneering war metal generals Conqueror, and since 2000 … Read more
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