Rock ‘n Roll quintet Bad Touch, hailing from Norfolk, England, are back with their fifth album, Bittersweet Satisfaction (Marshall Records). This time round they spent half a year making the record, tempering their balls-to-the-wall rock with polished hooks and a healthy portion of soul, the end result being a more rounded, earthy Classic Rock that still has plenty of bite. Continue reading
Aesthetic contradictions within the metal scene are not an uncommon sight these days. Bands whose image says one thing while their music does something entirely different vex and confuse people on a daily basis. But then there’s Twin Temple. A band favoured by a certain core of fans, whose image is a perfect representation of their sound but has nothing to do with heavy metal in the slightest.
Mutants (Sargent House) is album number three from Stephen Brodsky’s heavy, quirky and often colourful side-project Mutoid Man. And much like his work in Cave In, the music Brodsky creates with Mutoid Man encompasses a whole host of influences, to create a myriad of sounds.
It’s hard enough as it is to pick a standout track from Freakazoid (Pure Noise Records). It’s even harder to find any two tracks that sound the same. Therefore, expect a bevy of entertaining, ear-pleasing tracks from The Pink Spiders, because that’s what this new record is. The songs might transport you to another time in your life, or they might play perfectly as a soundtrack to a montage.
Nearly thirty years of diving headfirst into the void, and Church of Misery are back with Tatsu Mikami once more giving worship to the Blackest of Sabbath’s, acolyte to ‘The Riff’ and servant to the retro groove once more on Born Under A Mad Sign (Rise Above). Joined once again after a twenty-five-year absence by original vocalist Kazuhiro Asaeda, there is a fine sense of anticipation about the Japanese doom merchants seventh full-length.
This band from Atlanta transcended the vest metal tag assigned to them early on, to become one of the most underrated new acts to coast under the radar of mainstream rock. The lengthy seven-year break since their last album did not help this, but Rebuilding The Mountain (Spinefarm Records) finds the band taking inventory of their demons before returning, reconfigured, with drummer Evan Diprima back in the fold.
Stoner rock is often thought of in the same dim light as Doom, but this Italian band has dropped an album that serves as an example of how the two genres differ. While stoner rock and doom both share DNA with Black Sabbath, these guys ride on their riffs with a boogie that share a similar cactus patch as Clutch. They do pay homage to Sabbath, mainly in the singer’s piercing declarations that sound like Ozzy by way of nineties grunge. Their fuzz-laden riffs focus on grooving, rather than carrying the stark undercurrent of aggression that powered Sabbath’s darker guitar sound.
I’ve always pictured the Stockholm-bound The Riven as the Swedish version of Thulsa Doom – similar vibes, similar undertones, and similar upbeat resonances. The RIven, as far as I observe, has always been influenced by the sounds from the golden age of classic rock; the 1970s and 1980s. Their sounds are genuinely hard-hitting, sharp-shooting, and they appear to be the kind of sounds that would make you want to headbang as the exciting memories in your head replay themselves in retrospect whilst you listen to them. In terms of genre classification, they might pass as heavy blues rock with progressive, psychedelic, and classical influences and a strong emphasis on menacing riffs as well as vigorous vocals.
Never a country to be worried about being viewed as a bit strange, Japan has always enjoyed a rich history of unnaturally jarring cultural opposites. For every Spirited Away, Rashomon or Ponyo there’s a Battle Royale, Suicide Club, or Tokyo Gore Police, and for every bouncy and sickeningly wholesome J-Pop band there’s a Corrupted, Bathtub Shitter, and Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation.Continue reading
Psych rockers Druids have historically inspired scribes to reach for the thesaurus, turn to the epic, mythic and mystical – words like ‘monumental’, ‘colossal’, ‘ominous’. ‘bludgeon’, ‘pulverise’, ‘rampage’. Now their splendid, accomplished and invigorating new album inspires another word: ‘Family’.