Review: BWAK DWAGON – ‘Underground and Passed Around’ [Album Stream]

 

 

BWAK DWAGON was forged in the rock n roll town of Cleveland, Ohio. The three piece band is made up of Matthew Clement on drums and vocals, Dave Busch on guitar, and Jason Robinson on bass. Together, they mix heavy riffs with haunting tones and lyrics. This powerful trio has plenty to offer and though this band may be small in numbers they are big in sound. The band released their self-titled debut album in 2014 and was released independently by the band. It is also now available on vinyl via Gotta Groove Records, I might add. The debut was recorded by Paul Maccarrone (Obnox) at 71st Door in Cleveland, OH and mastered by Charlie Loudin (The Pistolettes) at My Other Car Is The Space Time Continuum in Kent, OH. The band of course has had a strong string of live performances in and around the Cleveland area and has quickly garnered attention for their heavy and haunting sound. Just 2 years later the band has released a follow up to their debut titled ‘Plum Island’ which released in September of 2016. The band coming off the heels of a successful first album again went to Paul Maccarrone for recording and Charlie Loudin for mastering. The lyrical content is one of the strongest points within the Bwak Dwagon sound and those words are brought to life on paper and in voice by Matthew Clement. It’s not often we get a chance to hear the drummer show off his pipes while also beating his drum kit to shreds but Clement is able to easily accomplish this. The band’s brand new release is ‘Underground and Passed Around’ which released on January 26, 2019. Bwak Dwagon recorded the new album again with local producer Paul Maccarronne and again locally based Gotta Groove Records to press the vinyl. However, this album includes 3-D glasses to enhance the album art. “The color scheme [of the album art] has a lot of red and blue to it,” Clement explained to CleveScene. “There happened to be a pair of 3-D glasses in the room, and when we tried them on, the artwork looked great, so we decided to include a pair with the album. We have a gimmick of some sort with each record.” ‘Underground and Passed Around’ includes 12 well thought out tracks. Continue reading

Review: SPARROWMILK – ‘Articles of Separation’ [Album Stream]

Clevelanders Sparrowmilk are a three piece atmospheric instrumental doom rock band with ample amounts of sludge a la carte. Founded in 2014 the band features members of Venomin James, Doomstress and Ancient VVisdom. They have quickly gelled and captivated listeners both near and far with their instrumental stylings. Though the band has no vocalist they certainly aren’t speechless. Their music speaks to you in ways that traditional lyrics could never do. Their influences range from fellow instrumentalists Pelican and Karma To Burn, then to Celtic Frost, Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath and even noting The Cure as well. While this seems like a broad range of influences the band’s sound isn’t scattered or all over the place, their music is refined and maintains cohesiveness. Sparrowmilk has recently released ‘Articles of Separation’ on February 15th 2017 via Kultland Recordings. This marks the bands debut, and has previously only released demo material. Their dominance of the instrumental metal genre begins now! Continue reading

The Great Iron Snake

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*This is part of our State Of The Arts series, showcasing bands every Monday from the state of the month*

This month’s state is Ohio.

Cleveland, Ohio is home of the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, and Lebron James, but most importantly it’s home to one of Ohio’s best rock bands in The Great Iron Snake. The band is a trio of hard rocking guys that have some chemistry when it comes to being in a band together. The comradery and stage presence they have may seem like déjà vu, but that’s only because they are ¾’s of the band Red Giant. The guys have been together sporting this new band name since 2012. You have Damien Perry at the helm on vocals and rocking out his Gretsch White Falcon guitar that sounds absolutely amazing. Brian Skinner is setting the low tones on bass, and behind the kit is Eric Matthews on the sticks. The band recently released a single in February entitled “Pungent Porcelain”. Like a trucker in a roadside brothel, the song gets right to business. The guitar work leads the song through its paces, from start to finish it’s an uphill to downhill rhythm. Playing off every up tempo and downtempo change the song perfectly showcases the talents of the band. They have been playing live shows in and around the Cleveland area with some other bands we enjoy like Trouble, and Black Pussy (and no I’m not referring to the kind of black pussy you can see if you go to www.tubev.sex/categories/1160/black I am on about an actual band called Black Pussy, great choice for a name don’t you think). Presently The Great Iron Snake is unsigned to a label, which we don’t think will last very long. With a unique sound and with as much chemistry Damien, Eric and Brian have together it won’t be long before they are fighting away offers. Other than the one song “Pungent Porcelain” that has been recorded and is streaming on Bandcamp there are a few good quality live videos available of the band as well. The song “Elipsis” (which we will link below) has this great little bluesy groove to it that just has this amazing energy to it. We always say that the best way to see a band is live and in person. We look forward to catching these guys on the road soon.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegreatironsnake

Bandcamp: http://thegreatironsnake.bandcamp.com/releases