Posted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 4:07 pm.
This week, I launched a new column called “Girls Don’t Like Metal” with Canada Arts Connect Magazine. This is an idea I’ve been turning over and over in my mind for a few months now, as a starting point for an even larger series of projects focussing on women and heavy metal.
Me
Here’s a little bit more about the column:
Girls Don’t Like Metal is a weekly column examines gender issues, feminism, and sexuality within heavy metal music. Each post will come in the form of of an interview with a member of the heavy metal community, including artists, writers, magazine and …
Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 1:46 pm.
Originally written for Exclaim!
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Ah, Holiday visiting — that special time of year when we spend a few days (or weeks) at our parents’ homes, sleeping in our childhood single bends, deflecting endless questions about our plans for marriage/procreation and generally exercising a superhuman amount of willpower in an attempt not to murder everyone in sight. Between once again having to hide alcohol consumption and constantly defend one’s lifestyle and wardrobe choices (“you’d be such a pretty girl if you didn’t …
Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 1:43 pm.
Originally written for Exclaim!
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As a devout metalhead, listening to most Christmas music, especially the bland and tasteless stuff blared in every public space from December 1 onward, is about as pleasurable as having electrodes attached to my delicate lady parts. The alternative, listening to heavy metal Christmas albums, is somehow even worse. The hilarious badness of heavy metal holiday tunes is well documented; we even assembled a similar list back in 2009. The thing with the holiday abominations though is that …
Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 1:40 pm.
Originally written for Exclaim!
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Black Skies have been active since 2005 and are based in Chapel Hill, NC. They’re a hybrid band that are somewhat difficult to categorize. The music they play is a bit like metal and a bit punk-ish garage rock, in terms of their technique. The core of their sound though, the guiding principle in the songs’ progression and structure, is a heavy, psychedelic take on the blues. There’s a sense of urgency in the rhythms, a relentless forward momentum …
Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 1:37 pm.
Originally written for Exclaim!
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This is the debut, self-titled album from ((Thorlock)), who hail from Cape Girardeau, MO. Another band that produced and released their record, ((Thorlock)) was then picked up by upstart indie label Handshake Inc. for a more comprehensive re-release and promo campaign. There’s a little Weedeater influence heard in the spare, thumping drums and buzz-y, reverb-heavy guitar tone, especially in the circular structured “Mississippi Wheelwash.” ((Thorlock)), however, are sharper than a lot of their tar-thick compatriots; they have created a Southern …
Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 1:35 pm.
Originally written for Exclaim!
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Fans of Finnish power metal icons Sonata Arctica will have to wait well into 2012 for a full-length follow-up to 2009′s The Days of Grays. Not wishing to let their loyal fan base languish, Sonata Arctica released Live in Finland, a massive four-disc (two-CD, two-DVD) collection. The fist CD is a truncated version of set they played in Ulu, Finland earlier this year, while the first DVD is a video recording of the same set, including all 19 songs, featuring much …
Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 1:33 pm.
Originally written for This Magazine.
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There is a unicorn on the cover of this book. This book is like a book with a unicorn on the cover. This book is like a unicorn, like something mythical and beautiful that has to disappoint, either by its non-existence or the drab ordinariness it must assume in order to exist. This book is like a unicorn, and it is like love.
The first section in Sam Cheuk’s Love Figures, “Punctum,” is the strongest. Punctum is a term …
Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 1:28 pm.
Originally written for Exclaim!
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This self-titled release may be a debut effort by Seattle, WA-based Sandrider, but that’s not an indication of experience or lack of chemistry. Nat Damm (drums) and Jon Weisnewski (guitars and vocals) have been playing together in Akimbo for over a decade, and are joined by bassist Jesse Roberts (the Ruby Doe) to complete the line-up. Weisnewski founded Sandrider with Damm out of a desire to play guitar again. The group take their name from Frank Herbert’s Dune series, a …
Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 12:45 am.
Originally written for Exclaim!
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There is something magical about Devin Townsend Project concerts. First of all, there is mounting evidence that Townsend is, in fact, superhuman. The Devin Townsend Project has been on tour almost constantly for the last ten months, supporting Ghost andDeconstruction, as well as the expansion of the Ziltoid project. Prior to embarking on this last Canadian tour of the year, Townsend is coming off performing a series of intense shows in the UK’s Union Chapel in Islington, where he …
Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 12:43 am.
Originally written for Exclaim!
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Forteresse are based in Montreal, QC. Founded in 2006, they’ve been quite prolific: Crépuscule d’Octobre is their fourth full-length album and the band are quite active in the French Canadian black metal scene. A great deal of black metal draws its strength from creating a vivid or overwhelming atmosphere, often evoking the seasons at their fiercest: winter as ravenous as it is icy, the strings as cutting as a sleet-filled wind. Forteresse, however, as the title, Crépuscule d’Octobre, suggests, are going …
Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 12:40 am.
Originally written for Exclaim!
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Serpentcult are a Belgian doom metal band with one previous EP, Trident Nor Fire, released in late 2006, and one full-length, Weight of Light, released in 2008. Vocalist Michelle Nocon left in 2010 and the remaining members elected not to replace her, instead sharing vocal duties and moving forward as a power trio. Nocon’s voice was the centre, and anchor, of their sound, the undisputed focal point. Now, Serpentcult keep vocals to a minimum, generally constrained to some thin, …
Posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 12:38 am.
Originally written for Exclaim!
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Portland, OR-based Chasma are part of a sub-genre of metal known as “Cascadian black metal,” which primarily comes from the Pacific-Northwest and is often characterized by long, atmospheric songs. Declarations of the Grand Artificer is their debut full-length – the band formed in 2008 and aside from a demo in 2009, this is their only release. Declarations is composed of just three songs, but clocks in at 33 minutes. That’s a serious slab of black metal and it’s quite impenetrable for …
