Metal playlists from the underground
Sothis breaks the barrier for being a black metal band from Los Angeles, not some far corner of Europe. This unit’s nine-track affair, produced by Andy LaRocque, captures the nefarious nuances of the genre without too much interference, allowing the malevolent interplay between atmospheric keyboards, thunderous drums, and rapid-fire riffs to reap full benefit on […]
Suspyre is a progressive metal troupe whose 11-track trek WHEN TIME FADES takes the listener through a labyrinth of dark passageways illuminated with fierce metallic explosiveness. Equipped with the similar songwriting devices as Dream Theater, Fates Warning, and Nevermore, Suspyre precisely pulls from each to form their own spin on the genre, as songs like […]
Boston-based outfit Roadsaw have returned from “indefinite hiatus” with SEE YOU IN HELL, a durable 11-track comeback. Bringing their brand of blue-collar heavy blues rock to the forefront, the Fu-Manchu meets Nebula groove on “Go It Alone” proves the band capable of laying down banging buzzsaw riffs, the fuzzed-out title track stomps like a sludged-out […]
Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd are hitting the road this summer for the “Rock and Rebels” tour: Kid Rock/Lynyrd Skynyrd June 26 – West Palm Beach, FL @ Cruzan Amphitheatre June 27 – Tampa, FL @ Ford Amphitheatre June 28 – Atlanta, GA @ Lakewood Amphitheatre June 30 – Houston, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell […]
Swedish metalcore sextet Sonic Syndicate portray the perfect product of their environment, as LOVE AND OTHER DISASTERS carefully follows templates from the genre’s commercial successes to comprise this band’s by the book sound. Tracks like “Contradiction” easily fits somewhere on the Bullet for My Valentine radar, while the pseudo-ballad “My Escape” and “Damage Control” takes […]
This week’s episode of That Metal Show, starring hard rock DJ Eddie Trunk and comedians Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson, featured the foul mouthed hilarity of Anthrax’s Frank Bello. The hosts began the show by examining the reasons why European metal festivals are better than US festivals such as Ozzfest. Florentine noted that diversity of […]
If you were fortunate to attend AC/DC’s Black Ice tour in 2008, you were most likely exposed to the brilliant rock energy eminating from the opening act: The Answer of Northern Ireland. Everyday Demons is the followup to the successful Never Too Late EP and features an all-out blistering classic rock sound. The Answer’s style […]
California hardcore punk trio Ghostlimb pour a lifetime of aggressions into their 18-minute, 15-track disc BEARING AND DISTANCE. Featuring a flurry of short, sharp, and succinct strikes, this squad relentlessly rips out tracks like “Ruins” and “The Force That Gives Us Meaning,” tearing through speakers with an imminent impact that requires immediate attention. Keeping the […]
The latest project by Brooklyn-based bassist Evan Hammer is a versatile release made by a multitude of musicians corralled to form a collective that dutifully brings this batch of songs admittedly “written by a younger man” to life on the 10-track BRIGHT DAY FOR A FROG’S REBELLION. Switching between jangly drug-era Beatles (“Martin Kane’s Magic […]
This week marks the death of rock and roll radio in New York City and its suburbs. CBS Radio presented the launch of the new 92.3 NOW FM that consists of an identical top 40 format to that of Z100 (100.3 FM). With the move of radio legend Howard Stern to the brilliant Sirius Satellite […]