Deftones : private music

Deftones are true survivors of the onslaught of the mid-90s heavy music scene. Lumped into the Nu metal crowd(unfairly), by their 3rd album White Pony the California art rock/metal band showed far more many colors and hues in their sonic palate. This gave them the artistic and creative cache needed to solidify a respected music […]

Kills Birds : Crave

When I was 18 oldies rock and roll were bands like the Beatles, the Stones, the Kinks, and surf music. Those bands seemed light years away from what I was listening to. Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, NIN, Garbage, etc…they were the future. The British Invasion and the Beach Boys were the past. Well fast forward 30 […]

Deafheaven : Lonely People With Power

Deafheaven are the kind of band I never thought I’d listen to, let alone find myself fanboying over. The black/death metal shrieks of singer George Clarke were not my taste; blast beats like they were going out of style, not to mention the caffeinated guitar riffs that never relented. On paper I would have passed […]

Into The Lungs Of Hell : Revisiting Megadeth’s ‘So Far, So Good…So What!’

If it weren’t for an older brother who was getting into thrash and speed metal in the mid-80s I may not have donned the mullet and devil horns until much later in my life. As it turned out I was probably 13-years old and I was spending the week after the last day of 7th […]

The Smashing Pumpkins : Aghori Mhori Mei

There was a time when The Smashing Pumpkins were a revered, loved, slightly misunderstood but ultimately great band. Gish, Siamese Dream, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were all monumental albums. Gish was the psychedelic little brother to the giants Siamese and Mellon Collie. Siamese laid the groundwork for Big Muff guitar fuzz that […]

Kerry King : From Hell I Rise

In 2019 the speed/thrash metal world mourned the retirement of one of the best bands to come out of the California metal scene of the 80s, Slayer. With the passing of songwriter/guitarist Jeff Hanneman in 2013 and the band parting ways permanently with original drummer Dave Lombardo, guitarist Kerry King and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya were […]

Metallica : 72 Seasons

At this point Metallica have ascended to elder statesmen of rock and roll. 40 years into a career that’s seen the Bay area thrash band rewrite what it is to a be a metal band. Game-changing albums(Kill Em All through …And Justice For All) to remaking themselves as stadium filling rockers(The Black Album, Load), to […]

The Crooked Whispers : Funeral Blues

On a random “new releases” search I came acrosss this L.A. psych/doom band The Crooked Whispers. I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for, but the skull with the sword through it, demonic stone cross, and sepia-toned feel of the album cover won me over. They had just released a new album called Funeral […]

Snakehandler Church : Cheap Heat

Pete Dio has lived quite a few musical lifetimes over the years. Touring the world with Left Lane Cruiser, and stepping out from behind the drum set and forming Pete Dio and the Old & Dirty. Both projects had a southern flair to them, with LLC taking two-man dirty blues to a new level while […]

Pike Vs The Automaton : Pike Vs The Automaton

Matt Pike is the king of the Heshers. Shirtless, long-haired Midwestern punk who relocated to Oakland, CA as a teen, if Pike hadn’t found his purpose in a Gibson Les Paul and a Marshall stack he probably would’ve ended up in jail. He took his teenage Black Sabbath worship and love of mind-altering substances and […]