ALBUM REVIEW: Black Rainbows – Superskull


 

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.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Ruim – Black Royal Spiritism – I – O Sino da Igreja


 

Rune Erickson aka Blasphemer has created an impressive career in black metal. After a decade-long run in Mayhem, he has also found himself performing with Aura Noir and Hammer of the Gods, along with many other side projects that fall into other sub-genres of metal. Here is his newest project which sonically falls closer to Mayhem. This was started in 2020 with Aggressor drummer Cesar Vesvre.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Yakuza – Sutra


 

This experimental Chicago band has been toying with the dark sonic corners for over twenty years. It’s been eleven of those years since we have had a new album from Yakuza, and it is good to dive back into their land of twisted shadows. The focus has shifted to a more deliberate brand of heavy, that places them not far from the sonic zip code of older Mastodon. The differences are fewer guitar pyrotechnics and a much darker trajectory than the Atlanta progsters. Bruce Lamont’s baritone moan carries a hint of anger as the opening track is framed with dissonance.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Megafauna – Olympico


Thirteen years later this band from Texas continues to evolve their sound. Now six albums into their career, they have not lost their taste for weirdness as their singer is quick to declare that it is “time to say goodbye to normal people “.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Gel – Only Constant


 

With anger becoming the emotional currency of the world today, it only makes sense to see a resurgence of hardcore. Only Constant (Convulse) the full-length debut from this New Jersey band, Gel, finds the quintet twisting the style of the early Hardcore vomited forth by The Plasmatics and GISM into their own sound that is re-imagined for a younger generation. The band’s sharp-edged twin guitar aggression is mixed with the drive-of-rock attitude.

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