I always do like 50 different drafts for just the opening alone then end up with one stripped down thing like this at the end of it all because I just wanna get this ish out there to the masses. 2021 has been up’s and down’s in the world but a pretty solid year overall for music. So much so that I almost considered not ranking my massive list of 21 releases that did it for me in 2021. Almost. As always, thanks for liking and following and most importantly, thanks for reading!
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It’s an understatement that 2020 was a pretty fucked up year, right? Machine Head was the last live band I saw back in February and a few days after that I found myself in an emergency room with some unexpected surgery to be had (Don’t worry, I’m fine now!) followed by the shutdown across the country. There’ve been ups, downs, and everything in between in 2020 but one constant has been the music. Artists have adapted with some keeping those schedules and releasing new albums despite not being able to tour behind them while others are holding off altogether. Some have done well with the new norm of livestreamed concerts and while I’ve checked out a few, personally they’re just not my cuppa.
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A few years back, Metal Hammer decided to rank Type O Negative’s discography from worst to first and, as a lifelong tattoo-emblazoned/double digit seeing TON fan, I was slightly put off by the whole thing. That said, and at the urging of bostonregina, I decided to rectify their mistakes and make my own list.
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This is the one, people. You know when Mastodon had that record that really divided fans? That apparently crossed the line between what’s suposedly metal and what’s something else? This is the one that’s gonna do it for Gojira. It’s short (Only eight songs if you don’t count the two brief instrumentals), it’s concise, and there’s actual singing! But it’s still wholly a Gojira record. Trust me. [Read more…]
Fear Factory’s latest, and ninth album, is barely a year old yet here they are touring the country playing their iconic sophomore album from front to back. Despite the obvious reasons (Um, 20th anniversary of Demanufacture!), the answer for the current tour is actually quite simple as vocalist Burton C. Bell cordially explains via phone: [Read more…]
My first exposure to Oakland’s Machine Head was waaaaay back in 1994 when the now classic Burn My Eyes was released. I was on the Roadrunner Records mailing list and occasionally got postcards about new releases (Yes, regular old snail mail used to inform people about new music). [Read more…]
I’m not saying this is the greatest Slipknot album yet…but it kinda is. An album that should not be is now less than 24 hours from being released. Fueled by death and inner turmoil, .5: The Gray Chapter is a fury-filled fuck you to naysayers and a triumphant step forward for the nine.
It’s also a giant fuck you to fired founding member Joey Jordison who many believed was the driving force as far as songwriting was concerned. Just listen to “The Negative One”, Slipknot’s first tease from the album released back in August. Never mind the obvious jab in the song name (“One” was Jordison’s number) all you have to do is take one listen to any of the lyrics within: “I hope you live/To see the day/When your world comes up in flames/And as you die/You see my face/You’re the only one to blame”. And that’s just one refrain. Stylistically this “gift to the fans” showed off strong songwriting with a vicious track that captured the raw ferocity of Slipknot merged with modern technology. [Read more…]