Album Reviews


Guitar God Joe Satriani Shows Us “What Happens Next”

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What Happens Next musicians:

Joe Satriani – Guitar

Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple and Black Country Communion) – Bass

Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers ) – Drums

Mike Fraser (AC/DC, The Razor’s Edge and long time Satriani collaborator since Crystal Planet) – Producer/Engineer/Mixer

Joe Satriani certainly needs no introduction and remains one of my favorite guitarists of all time. What will be sixteen albums over the course of thirty one years, teacher of many other great guitarists (Kirk Hammet, Andy Timmons, Steve Vai, Alex Skolnick, Charlie Hunter, Larry LaLonde, Kevin Cadogan, Rick Hunolt, David Bryson, Geoff Tyson, Phil Kettner, to name a few), member of supergroup Chickenfoot, undeniably one of the most influential guitarists of all time, multiple Grammy Award nominations, headliner of G3 since 1995 featuring a veritable who’s who of the greatest the guitar world has to offer and a man that just exudes passion and fun on every stage he has ever landed on are just a few meager mentions of this man’s incredible talents. I have had the pleasure of seeing Joe quite a few times over the course of his long career and he so obviously loves what he is doing now more than he ever has. He just keeps getting better and enjoying it more and more as the years wear on. Where a jaded view of the music business has tainted the passion of so many other bands I have seen lately, Satriani hits the stage with continued wide-eyed wonder. Honestly, I think Satch enjoys playing more than his fans like watching him slay his beloved Ibanez.

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Review: Nebula – ‘Let it Burn’ 20th Anniversary Reissue

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For fans of Nineties psych-fused heavy rock, a group that commonly springs to mind is Los Angeles based power-trio Nebula, a group whose initial incarnation was formed out of the ashes of Fu Manchu and their decaying line-up at the time. Celebrating their 20th Anniversary, the group are planning to reissue their first three recordings under the newly-established, slightly esoteric label under the name of Heavy Psych Sounds. Each individual release features two bonus tracks as well as the original track-listing and is certainly marked by a deep feeling of sentiment and accomplishment. Today we’ll be focusing on the first of their upcoming releases which is also evidently the first plunge into oblivion the group embarked upon as a recording unit; – why yes, of course I’m talking about the EP ‘Let it Burn’ which was in its heyday originally released via Relapse Records. Continue reading →

Review: HARM’S WAY – ‘Posthuman’ [Song Stream]

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Harm’s Way is a band that some may find difficult to categorize. Originally formed in Chicago, Illinois in 2006 as a casual side project playing fast-paced powerviolence and hardcore punk; the band has since gone through several metamorphoses, and over the years, have slowed down their pace and leaned more toward a down-tuned “metal” sound. We can throw around labels all day such as hardcore, metalcore, death metal, nu-metal, industrial, thrash metal, groove metal, sludge, and the list goes on and on. Certainly, influences of all these genres can be heard in their music. At the end of the day, from what I can tell though, these guys are just simply evolving their style to become the heaviest, most brutal, powerful, in-your-face sounding music they can come up with. There’s no frills or gimmicks; no wank-off guitar solos or whiney ballads; It’s – Just. Plain. Heavy. Whatever you decide to classify them as, Harm’s Way’s latest full-length studio album, ‘Posthuman,’ is the sonic equivalent of a brutally violent ass-beating by a ten-ton sledgehammer. Continue reading →

Review: NORTHWIND WOLVES – ‘Dark Cold Grim’ [Album Stream]

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NorthWind Wolves is a black metal band originating from sunny Los Angeles, California with a sound that feels deceivingly like something conjured from the iciest, deepest regions of Scandinavia. Their aptly-titled, second full-length studio album ‘Dark… Cold… Grim…,’ released on Sweden-based, Black Lion Records in 2017, is precisely as advertised – dark, cold, and grim. What first draws you in to the record is the excellent cover artwork consisting of a mist-engulfed, moonlit, gothic castle which effectively serves to immerse you, as the listener, into this world. The musical style is symphonic or folkish at times, gritty and nasty others, but overall is firmly rooted in an old-school, melodic black metal sound. Continue reading →

Review of “Dark Matter” By Auditory Armory

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Auditory Armory is:

April Rose – Vocals and Guitar
Oscar Garcia – Drums
Dennis Burns – Guitar
Justice Maynard – Bass

Dark Matter

Auditory Armory is a female fronted Alternative Metal band that manages to take the best of Hard Rock, Metal, Progressive Rock and even some Jazz and cleanly distills them into a sound that can only be identified as theirs. This is the advantage of taking on music with wide, curious and wandering eyes instead of within the confines of what is and what should be for any certain genre/sub-genre of music and the die-hard fans that constantly in-fight these categorizations to death. This has always been a pet peeve. Categories should be used simply as a way of describing a sound to someone that has not heard of the band, not as some confining boundary of what music should sound like. Imagine, if you will, a musical landscape where Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Gershwin, Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, The Beatles, Elvis, Hendrix, Yes, Rush, Michael Hedges, Pink Floyd, Eddie Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Judus Priest, The Big 4, Chuck Schuldiner, Pantera, Cannibal Corpse and Venom chose not to think outside of the box. Got it worked out? Not a pretty picture, huh? This is precisely the reason I actively search out and share bands that throw the whole “writing within a box” thing to the wind. Auditory Armory is, obviously, one such band that fits the mold of not fitting in one.

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CATATONIC PROFANATION Releases ‘Euphoric Dismemberment’ On January 4th!

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After the late 2017 release of ‘Parasitic Devourment’ came out I was instantly hooked with the oh so brutal waves which Catatonic Profanation brings but after hearing his up and coming record ‘Euphoric Dismemberment’ I was totally stunned. Check out why!

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Album Review: SYSTEM SLAVE- Beast In Me [Song Stream]

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You guys, I can’t even tell you how much I love finding these insanely good local-level bands. Today’s review is brought to you by System Slave‘s debut album “Beast In Me.” System Slave are an independent hard rock/alternative group out of St. Louis, Missouri. Their members are Stephen Harris on vocals, Mike Messex and Mitch Davis on guitars, Chuck Guzman on drums, and Steven Miller on bass. These guys started in January 2015 and have been building their fan-base and improving ever since. Continue reading →

Sunshine & Bullets, “The Centauri Conspiracies Part 1 – The Awakening”

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Sunshine & Bullets is:

Rich Keane, Jr. – Guitar/vocals

Amanda Hamers – Bass/vocals

Kyle Wolfram – Drums

Former members (bass) – Sam Brown, Chandler Cornell

The Centauri Conspiracies Part 1 – The Awakening

Just as the year passes from 2017 into the dawn of 2018 it seems appropriate to look backwards and forwards at the same time in preparation for Part 2 of The Centauri Conspiracies, due out in the early part of the year by one of Florida’s premiere and unique bands, Sunshine & Bullets. While the first album, The Centauri Conspiracies Part 1 – The Awakening was released about a year ago, it deserves a review to get those that have not heard of this incredible band before caught up and jonesing for the new release.

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Review: MIST OF MISERY – ‘Fields of Isolation’ [Album Stream]

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Swedish symphonic black metal band, Mist of Misery release their latest EP, ‘Fields of Isolation’ on Black Lion Records as the second chapter of a two-part series to accompany ‘Shackled of Life,’ the first EP or “mini album” in the series, released earlier 2017. Originally formed in 2010, the quartet currently consists of Mortuz-Denatus on lead vocals and keyboards, Phlegathon on guitar, Livsnekraen on drums, and Damian on bass. On ‘Fields of Isolation,’ they attempt to answer the question, “What would happen if a Scandinavian black metal band in corpse paint partied with Beethoven and Bach?” Continue reading →

Review: BLACK TUNDRA – ‘S/T’ [Album Stream]

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The sludgsters Black Tundra formed in 2016 in Warsaw, Poland. Comprised of ex-Dopelord and Hidden Haze members, these fellows are by no means rookies in the world of metal. The band is made up of Dave and Tomek Sikora on guitars, Marcin Skarzyński on bass and vocals and Blond on drums. In January of 2017 the band got together and began to record what would eventually become the bands debut self titled album. The album was recorded, and mixed by Haldor Grunberg (Satanic Audio) at “Nebula Studio” and Mastered by Audiosiege.

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