Social media might be to blame for the increasing enmeshment of Pop music into the Rock genre. Pop artists are more marketable and interchangeable with social media influencers. What record label would not want an artist with the iconic charisma of Taylor Swift? Continue reading
Tag Archives: Wil Cifer
ALBUM REVIEW: My Dying Bride – A Mortal Binding
My Dying Bride might be the most important Doom band ever. Their second album Turn Loose The Swans (1993, Peaceville Records) redefined the genre, forsaking Sabbath worship, and creating a romantically depressing river of sonic darkness from which they sailed. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Newmoon – Temporary Light
In the mid-80s under the shadow of the Regan-era Cold War tension, bands like the Cocteau Twins crafted sonic fairylands that shone out from their depressive souls.
It makes sense that today’s youth would want to experience a similar escape.Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: The Black Crowes – Happiness Bastards
Rock ‘N’ Roll might be a young man’s game, but it is not stopping the Robinson Brothers from again coming together on Happiness Bastards (Silver Arrow Records) to prove they still have it. If Amorica was the last album you picked up by these guys, then things have changed dramatically. If you are one of their more avid followers then you have heard their transition away from merely being a Led Zeppelin/Rolling Stones hybrid, so this album makes perfect sense.
ALBUM REVIEW: Gost – Prophecy
The term “heavy” is most often associated with Metal. But Metal is not the only genre of music capable of invoking heaviness. Of all the other genres capable of tapping into heaviness, synthwave is not going to be first on the list. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: New Years Day – Half Black Heart
New Year’s Day helped pave the path for today’s female-fronted nu-metal bands who balance hard rock aggression with pop hooks. Having emerged from the days of Myspace, they have refined the weighty grooves of that era to transcend the bandwagon of their peers. This is largely due to frontwoman Ash Costello. On Half Black Heart (Century Media Records) Costello’s voice finds more piercing power. She knows how to pack a punch without resorting to screaming. This helps their songs avoid the modern rock formula that is wearing thin. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Pestilength – Solar Clorex
Art is a reflection of life. Thus the upswing in Death Metal – a renaissance that is not just a matter of marketing hitting just right. There is a wide breadth of different stylistic turns being taken, rather than just a worldwide tribute to the Tampa of the eighties. As someone who lives in Tampa at present, this might be the one city without an abundance of the deathly goodness that the rest of the world is nailing right now. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Spectral Voice – Sparagmos
Spectral Voice‘s sophomore album Sparagmos (Dark Descent Records) is possessed by a dark anguish that draws you in. A decade or so ago this brand of Atmospheric Death Metal was labeled “occult death metal” and referenced bands like Necros Christos who follow Incantation’s lead down into the doomier depth of death metal. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Slope – Freak Dreams
You would not expect a band from Germany to have become as stricken by a plague that makes their booty move as Slope has on their new album “Freak Dreams” (Century Media Records). The slapped bass and in-your-face energy might make more sense if it were being delivered by skater punks from Southern California in the summer of 1989. Slope wastes no time laying out their own uplifting mofo party plan. This unique approach sounds like it could catch on much, in the same manner, Turnstile proved audiences are ready for more grooves and tired of the same old same old. “It’s Tickin” proves that the band is not just living off of the nostalgia for 90s funk rock, though it does have doses of that as well. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: KMFDM – Let Go
KMFDM is celebrating forty years of conceptual continuity with the release of their twenty-third album Let Go (Metropolis Records). Let’s give that one some thought. Forty years holding to a musical concept throughout 23 albums is an achievement not many bands of their ilk can boast, as how many of their peers are this prolific? The sticking point on Let Go might be how continuous that concept is, and at what point are we weighing it against? Continue reading