“All was dark, the sound of falling rain my only companion as I watched the world from atop Black Mount Promo. Hushed whispers warning of The Nighthag’s return had found their way to my ears, and I had to be sure. Before long, Iightning split the sky, shattering the surrounding dark, and there she was: The Nighthag, back for Part 2 of her deadly visit to our lands, summoned by The Projectionist.” From hags to riches.
“Before one can burn the night, one must first own the night. That’s exactly what Riot City set out to do on their rip roaring retro 80s metal debut. Properly done, retro metal is synonymous with unbridled enthusiasm, fun, and a middle finger to all authority everywhere. It should overflow like a latrine at a 4-day metal festival with in-your-face riffs, pounding drums, and vocals higher than Colorado post-2014. Nuance, subtly and restraint all must be forsaken and expunged and animal spirits embraced. Riot City know these truisms and live them as they rock hard and ride free like the 80s never ended.” Burning the midnight steel.
“I slink out of the Double R Diner booth I’m seated in and saunter over to where Audrey Horne is swaying in the center of the restaurant. Eyes closed, head back, fingers loosely splayed out, I join her in an unhurried groovy dance and lose myself to the music. I watch as a wash of color on the back of my eyelids slowly morphs with the ebb and flow of the music. The soundtrack to our dance, however, is strangely not Angelo Badalamenti’s jazz instrumental but “Muted Shifting of Space,” the hypnotic opening track on BIG|BRAVE’s new fourth full-length album A Gaze Among Them.” Stranger, louder things.
“I’ve made it no secret that I don’t love doom metal so much as respect it from a sizable distance, but certain acts have been known to prompt genuine affection. My criteria for good doom is admittedly opaque, with my two favorite albums of this decade residing in opposite ends of the genre’s sonic spectrum, but I think it boils down to a general feeling of genuineness. If you’re going to fuck around with pretentious atmospherics against a backdrop of flaccid, groove-less riffs, you’ll get no respect from me. It’s really all about the heart, with ingenuity being secondary to pure fun and overflowing emotion. And that’s where Toronto, Ontario’s Smoulder, and the excellently titled Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring, come in.” Smoke signals.
“I saw Divination, the third full-length by New Brunswick trio Zaum, and noticed the album’s description as “atmospheric doom metal.” Seeing as how no one else grabbed it, I lunged towards it all cat-like. Problem was, Mr. Elitist reviewed their prior album, 2016’s Eidolon, and wasn’t all that impressed by it. Normally, we don’t grab promos by bands reviewed by other writers here, but he didn’t fight me for it whatsoever. That’s never a good sign.” It’s a trap, get an ax.
“My brain over-complicates just about everything. At times—and in fact most of the time—it feels like thoughts are running through my head too fast and loose for me to make sense of any one of them. As a result it’s utter cacophony making even the simplest decisions, such as what to eat for breakfast in the morning. Medication helps. Music helps too, keeping the most unruly parts of my mind occupied so I can focus on whatever task I have in front of me. Stoner metal and psychedelic rock in particular are highly effective, what with the trippy atmosphere and plodding riffs. Gone Cosmic, a four-piece from Calgary, Alberta, are poised to drop their debut, titled Sideways in Time, filled with such atmosphere and riffs. Will it be enough to assuage my overactive grey matter?” A stoner in time.
“I’m trying to be stricter with my scores so far this year, and in the process I’ve done a lot of thinking about what makes a great record… well, great. I could boil it down to some nebulous combination of songwriting, riffs, and melodic personality, but solid fundamentals aren’t enough. Those qualities alone would only result in an AMG 3.5 without that all important je ne sais quoi; the kind of elusive talent which enables moments that explode with vibrancy, reminding us why we are alive. And Wormwitch? Man alive, they’ve got it.” The early Wormwitch gets the Elitist.
“I have been a fan of Devin Townsend for well over a decade now. I’ve been with him through half his career, including his entire Devin Townsend Project phase. But his most recent output started to feel a little stale. It was like he had painted himself in a corner and was finding it difficult breaking out of a rut formed from Epicloud’s echoes. Ziltoid 2 was overwrought, more of a comedic radio drama than a music album, and its companion piece Sky Blue had no staying power for me. Transcendence fared only marginally better. So when Devin announced he was laying the Project brand to rest, it made me hopeful. Could Empath, the first album since Ziltoid under his own name, be Devin’s new metamorphosis?” The Devin you know.
“Confession time: I am not the biggest fan of technical death metal. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the classics, such as Death and Atheist, as well as choice cuts from Cynic. But the genre as a whole suffers from either too many scale acrobatics, or way too much chugging on the low string on a 7-, 8-, or even 9-string guitar to even warrant such a overly abused tag such as “technical.” In other words, technical metal bores me to tears most of the time. You know what doesn’t bore me, though? Canada’s Gomorrah.” Smile back at this death.
“Another month, another retro band dropping an album on our doorstep. Do we need more retro bands? Actually, we need more of every kind of band, if they’re capable of writing great songs. That will be the key here, as local (to me) boys Traveler aim to blow the lid off the retro/proto scene with eight songs of caffeine-injected, high-energy metallic romps down memory lane. In this case, if that lane had a name, it would be Manilla Road (see what I did there?).” Olde but still getting around.
