February 7th is significant not only because ESA’s last full-length dropped but it also happens to be the day that I saw my last live show before the shit hit the fan in the world. Since then we’ve had an ongoing apocalypse which has allowed me (some) more time to write and artists more time to create. Like the aforementioned ESA who will unleash a new EP featuring one half of our current Negative Gain loves, Corlyx, on the title track.
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There is so much that is right with this two-song split by Howling Giant and Sergeant Thunderhoof. Firstly, can you say epic??? A forty-minute runtime between two bands supplying a song each. Do the math. Secondly, I know of Howling Giant already and they rule. Thirdly, I did not know Sergeant Thunderhoof going into this but now that I do, they rule as well. And fourth and finally, Ripple Music rule. Or have you not been paying attention to every single album they’ve released?!?!?
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Jaye Jayle creates the kind of music that is tantamount to current times. It’s bleak and downtrodden and with Prisyn, pretty quirky and strange….so yeah, pretty much 2020 to a T. On the newest full-length, multi-instrumentalist Evan Patterson teams with Chelsea Wolfe’s Ben Chisholm to concoct the most unique Jaye Jayle record yet with a heavy focus on synthesizers and programming.
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I’ll call it here: Generation Antichrist is the best modern Thrash record of 2020. And this is coming from a lifelong Testament fan who realizes that those Bay Area thrashers dropped a new one in April.
But I digress.
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In an age where there ain’t nobody going to a concert anytime soon (In the States at least), it’s refreshing to live vicariously through past performances especially when it comes from such a legendary artist like the almighty Dee Snider. Two years after the former Twisted Sister vocalist’s furious return to all things METAL on the aptly titled studio effort For The Love Of Metal (Produced by Jamey Jasta and reviewed by us which you can read all about here), Snider is back with an audio and visual collection of live performances across the world in support of that record pieced together like one seamless performance featuring new bangers, old staples, and even a surprise or two.
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Big, bold, and bodacious (Apologies, coming down from a recent Bill & Ted’s… kick), Zyclops’ new monstrous opus (Instead of “magnum” opus, get it?) is just the kind of epic 2020 needs. Like a mythical beast, Inheritance Of Ash is mysterious and majestic while also dense and delightful and definitely demanding our your attention.
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Have you ever wanted to go back in time and recapture the feeling of when you first hear an album that you just know will be groundbreaking. Something, like, say Mastodon’s Remission? The first time you hear the sonic onslaught of “March of the Fire Ants” or that huge riffage that begins “Mother Puncher”? Listening through the latest from France’s Stonebirds conjures all those feelings and more. Inducing chills and the hairs on the back of your neck to automatically stand up, Collapse And Fail is a blistering metallic tour-de-force of modern Sludge, Doom, Progressive and everything that’s good in between.
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There’s no artist quite like Dark Sarah traversing the Heavy music landscape today. On Grim, their fourth full-length, the Finnish quintet take their brand of Symphonic Metal, mash it with The Birthday Massacre-style Gothic Electro, Within Temptation’s grand presentation, and the twisted bits from Oingo Boingo or main man Danny Elfman’s cinematic score work to create an unholy story that’s as unique as it is utterly irresistible.
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This is my second review lately of an artist releasing something after a founding member has shuffled off this mortal coil and it’s depressing as fuck because the relevant brilliance in both cases is staggering.
But I digress!
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In simplifying the complexity of Boston Hard rawkers Jump The Fall you could make the case that it’s as if Ed Kowalczyk is fronting Alter Bridge but they go way beyond that. With Ten Year Guilt: Part 1, they tread a fine line between Hard Rawk, Grunge, and even Glam at points to conjure a special kind of sound that’s all around magical.
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