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 […]

Filth & Majesty : Who Killed Friday Night

I like intricately-layered prog metal as much as the next Peart-worshipping rock and roll poindexter. I was a sadsack teenage outcast reading Vonnegut and Philip K Dick while getting lost in albums like 2112, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, and Helloween’s Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I and II. But before I started […]

“Lost inside my sick head”…

Alice In Chains’ Facelift was unlike any album I’d heard when I first put it in my ears of December 1990. They were a Seattle band, but they were not like Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone, Screaming Trees, or Mudhoney. They were darker and much more metal than their Pacific Northwest peers. With Jerry Cantrell’s guitar […]

Fuzz : III

Whether you’re ready or not, Ty Segall, Charlie Moothart, and Chad Ubovich are back with Fuzz’ third album, III. Starting out with their self-titled debut in 2013, the trio of Cali psych rock vets put out an album with Sabbath-like riffs and Blue Cheer garage rock abandon, setting the bar extremely high for riff-heavy rock […]

Deftones : Ohms

On Deftones newest album Ohms, the Sacramento, California metal band continues to refine and reshape their brand of melodic metal. Singer Chino Moreno’s elastic scream and alluring croon is at the center, while guitarist Stephen Carpenter’s d-tuned guitar creates dark, Gothic mood that tows the line between The Cure and Godflesh, sometimes in the same […]

Wasted Shirt : Fungus II

Wasted Shirt is a collaborative project between Ty Segall and Lightning Bolt’s Brian Chippendale. If you’re at all familiar with where these two individual artists are coming from stylistically then you should be very excited. And a little frightened. If you’re not familiar, then imagine songs culled together with exploding amplifiers, drums being abused beyond […]

Black Mountain : Destroyer

I remember when I got my drivers license. I was a late bloomer and didn’t get mine till I was 17. After some shenanigans prior to being 16 and my uncle’s 1949 Chevy, I was banned from getting my license for a bit. But when I did finally get it, it was such a feeling […]