by Chris Familton Nearing a quarter of a century together and well overdue for a greatest hits compilation, Shihad have put together a 2CD collection that reinforces the claim that they are one of the greatest rock bands to come out of New Zealand. The best-of travels from their early speed metal origins on the Metallica-aping It, through their industrial and post punk influenced debut … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Shihad | The Meanest Hits
Lords of all things loud and doom, Sunn O))) return to Australia in October for a couple of shows and they are bringing along post rock metal outfit Pelican to sweeten the deal. Wednesday 24th October – The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD Thursday 25th October – The Hi Fi, Sydney NSW Friday 26th October – The Hi Fi, Melbourne VIC Saturday 27th October – The Corner … Continue reading NEWS: Sunn O))) and Pelican announce Australian tour
Around here we love a ton of different genres from americana to dub, post punk to ambient drone but nothing gets the blood moving like a good hard dose of metal. Of course there are a million sub-genres within from black to death, hair to thrash and we love most of them. Torche are one band that have been slowly evolving their sound and incorporating … Continue reading SONG OF THE WEEK: Torche | Snakes Are Charmed
written by Chris Familton To get an idea of the current state of metal you’d be hard pressed to find a better club gig like this. Featuring three bands each representing a different strand of intelligent, hard and heavy guitar music the evening above all showed that there are many divergent threads to a genre that has without a doubt the most devotional of fans. … Continue reading LIVE REVIEW: Mastodon, Gojira, Kvelertak @ The Hi-Fi, Sydney (01/02/12)
Torche (Miami/Atlanta) have slowly but surely evolved from their sludge metal origins to incorporate stronger rock and pop aesthetics and from the sound of the monstrous new single Kicking it feels like it’ll be reaching its apex on the new album Harmonicraft, due out April 24th via Volcom. It is also well worth the time to dig back into some of their older stuff like … Continue reading LISTEN: To the new track from Torche…
Shihad are hitting the road for their upteenth NZ tour, this time in support of their recently released collection The Meanest. The band will play 2 sets, the first at the front of the stage, tight and intimate to represent their early club gigs before shifting to a full stage rock show in honour of what they have achieved as one of the biggest rock … Continue reading NEWS: Shihad announce NZ greatest hits tour…
written by Chris Familton Arriving at the soulless Entertainment Centre felt like a Delorean trip back to the early 90s with Sydney’s alternative/grunge/rock/metal community out in full force. Faded flannel shirts were scattered through the gathering hordes while the black t-shirt seemed to be the default dress code for the evening. Inside as the melodic hardcore of The Bronx (who had to hightail it up … Continue reading LIVE REVIEW: Soundgarden @ Sydney Entertainment Centre (25/01/12)
written by Chris Familton Jane’s Addiction cemented their place in music history with their seminal albums Nothing’s Shocking and Ritual de lo Habitual, both over 20 years ago. Since then they’ve made a few attempts to reignite the band and re-capture some of that magic with only limited success. 2003’s Strays had moments of brilliance but too often lost focus and cohesion. When they re-connected … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Jane’s Addiction | The Great Escape Artist
Black Sabbath made the announcement during a press conference today at the Whiskey A-Go-Go in Los Angeles, where Sabbath played its first show in the city exactly 41 years ago. At this stage they will be headlining the Download Festival June 8-10 in Donington Park, England as well as touring extensively next year. The other great news is that Rick Rubin will produce the group’s … Continue reading NEWS: Black Sabbath & Ozzy reunite for album and tour…
Beastwars have their debut album out polluting young minds and are touring New Zealand to rabid audiences at the moment. The record stands as one of the great metal albums to come out of the shaky isles in quite a long time and we managed to catch frontman Matt Hyde for a few minutes between gigs for the inaugural interview in our new section Questions … Continue reading Questions & Answers: Beastwars
Great to see some metal of the finest kind on Jools Holland recently. This is taken from Mastodon’s new album The Hunter. Continue reading WATCH: Mastodon | Black Tongue (Live on Later with Jools Holland)
New Zealand’s monolithic metal creatures Beastwars have had a massive year with a ton of packed out shows and the release of their debut album which is up there with the best heavy/metal records of 2011. Here is their first official video for the song Lake of Fire directed by Hamish Waterhouse. You can catch the band touring NZ through October and November, dates on their … Continue reading WATCH: Beastwars | Lake of Fire
Doubtful Sounds 