Tag: metal

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sweden’s Machine 85 Share a Driving Ripper

Swedish metal outfit Machine 85 — Jokke Patterson (vocals, guitar), Ulf Wahlgren (drums) and Alfred Anderson (bass) — specialize in a sound that meshes elements of gritty classic metal and modern heavy rock and heavy metal featuring arrangements that see the trio pairing thunderous drumming, razor sharp riffs and vocals that frequently range from haunting melodies to primal roars. As the band says “It’s a sonic onslaught designed to awaken the rebel within.”

The Swedish trio’s latest single “20 Days” is a serious ripper with a relentless motorik groove that — to my ears, at least — seems like a synthesis of Hawkwind, Black Sabbath and Queens of the Stone Age, complete with enormous power chord-driven riffs, thunderous drumming, a relentless motorik groove paired with Patterson’s punchily delivered croon.

Personally, I’d love to hear this one played at eardrum shattering volume at a sweaty club.

Directed by Death by Horse‘s Tommy Erichson, the accompanying video employs a simple concept: intimately shot footage of the band playing the song in a remarkably well-lit studio with quirky décor.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Belated 59th Birthday, Corey Glover!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Corey Glover’s 59th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Belated 60th Birthday, Rick Allen!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Def Leppard’s Rick Allen’s 60th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 75th Birthday, Robert Plant!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Robert Plant’s 75th birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: BORIS Set to Re-issue 2002’s “Heavy Rocks,” Share Glam Rock Headbanger “1970”

Formed back in 1992, Japanese, experimental heavy rock outfit Boris ((ボリス, Borisu) — currently core members Takeshi (vocals, bass, guitar), Wata (vocals, guitar, keys, accordion and echo) Atsuo (vocals, drums, percussion and electronics) with Mucho (drums) — settled on their current lineup in 1996. Since then, the members of Boris have tirelessly explored their own genre-defying take on heavy music.

The acclaimed Japanese heavy rock outfit released their landmark album Heavy Rocks back in 2002. Its original release only circulated domestically in Japan, leaving listeners globally eager for physical copies. As record pressings were in production, a fire broke out at the plant and the stamper was lost, rendering the album out-of-print for many years — and it quickly became a cult classic. 

21 years after its original release, Third Man Records and Boris will be re-issuing Heavy Rocks (2002) on LP and digital formats for the first time ever, along with a CD re-press. The reissue, which will be out digitally on August 18, 2023 and physically on September 18, 2023 was restored from the original TD master. 

The re-issue of Heavy Rocks (2002) will also coincide with a recently announced Stateside tour with Melvins this summer aand fall. The bands have circled each other with reverence for many years; they first played a show together in 1999 during Melvins’ first time in Japan, and ever since they have deepened their friendship and enjoyed opportunities to play together whenever possible. 

For their first tour together, both bands will be playing a full set of material from their classic and beloved albums: Melvins will be playing material from 1991’s Bullhead and Boris will be playing material from Heavy Rocks 2022. 

 “Could anyone have predicted such an astonishing event, that Boris and Melvins would tour the entire USA together? Since the mid-1980’s, Melvins have had an enormous influence on artists of all genres not only limited to heavy music, and have brought forth a surge of faithful followers over the years,” Boris’ Takeshi says. “Needless to say, Boris is just one of these many bands influenced by the mighty Melvins, and we took our name from a song title off of the 1991 album, Bullhead.”

“40 years as the Melvins!!! What better way to celebrate that unlikely milestone than by setting off on the ‘Twins of Evil Tour’ with our friends Boris!!” Melvins’ Buzz Osbourne adds. “This will be a stone groove!” And as always, tour dates are below.

You can pre-order Heavy Rocks (2002) here. You can also check out a new line of Heavy Rocks merch here.

Last month, the acclaimed Japanese heavy outfit and Third Man Records shared the album’s opening track “Heavy Friends,” a sludgy and stormy dirge built around the sort of guitar solo work that would make Melvins and Soungarden very proud. The re-issue’s latest single “1970” is built around enormous power chords and a bluesy, glam metal-like groove paired with thunderous drumming and the acclaimed Japanese outfit’s unerring knack for a towering, arena rock sound. But unlike most of their other sounds, “1970” is playfully anachronistic with the song nodding at Metallica’s “Am I Evil.”

Play loudly and headbang, y’all.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Demons My Friends Share an Expansive Face-Melting Ripper

Currently split between Austin and Mexico City, Demons My Friends features members of Washington, DC-based outfit Fellowcraft and well-regarded Mexico City-based rock band QBO, and can trace their origins to an impromptu recording session at last year’s SXSW. Conceptually, the trio explore the inner journey its members have been on since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, confronting inner demons and battling anxiety, depression, self-doubt and rage while teaching themselves how to turn these demons into their “friends.”

The Mexican-American trio’s Jeff Henson-produced and mixed Demons Seem To Gather is slated for a September 8, 2023 release through Gravitoyd Heavy Music. Sonically seeming to draw from the likes of Monolord, King Buffalo, All Them Witches, Soundgarden, Baroness and a lengthy list of others, the trio’s full-length debut is reportedly features material that pairs drop-tuned grunge riffs, doom song structures, soaring melodies, groove-driven rhythms and psychedelic harmonies — but while rooted in the band’s musicianship.

Demons Seem To Gather‘s latest single “Make Them Pay” is built around a face-melting mix of sludgy power chords, thunderous drumming, Black Sabbath-meets-Soundgarden/Alice in Chains-like solos and crooned vocals with an expansive song structure. While touching upon some familiar styles, “Make Them Pay” is powered by dexterous and impassioned musicianship and earnest purpose.

Directed by Lu Salinas, the accompanying video for “Make Them Pay” was generated using AI, and it captures a fiery hellscape that sort of resembles the one we’re marching lockstep into right now.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: BORIS Set to Reissue 2002’s Classic Heavy Rocks, Share Sludgy “Heavy Friends”

Formed back in 1992, Japanese, experimental heavy rock outfit Boris ((ボリス, Borisu) — currently core members Takeshi (vocals, bass, guitar), Wata (vocals, guitar, keys, accordion and echo) Atsuo (vocals, drums, percussion and electronics) with Mucho (drums) — settled on their current lineup in 1996. Since then, the members of Boris have tirelessly explored their own genre-defying take on heavy music.

The acclaimed Japanese heavy rock outfit released their landmark album Heavy Rocks back in 2002. Its original release only circulated domestically in Japan, leaving listeners globally eager for physical copies. As record pressings were in production, a fire broke out at the plant and the stamper was lost, rendering the album out-of-print for many years — and it quickly became a cult classic.

21 years after its original release, Third Man Records and Boris will be re-issuing Heavy Rocks (2002) on LP and digital formats for the first time ever, along with a CD re-press. The reissue, which will be out digitally on August 18, 2023 and physically on September 18, 2023 was restored from the original TD master.

The re-issue of Heavy Rocks (2002) will also coincide with a recently announced Stateside tour with Melvins this summer aand fall. The bands have circled each other with reverence for many years; they first played a show together in 1999 during Melvins’ first time in Japan, and ever since they have deepened their friendship and enjoyed opportunities to play together whenever possible.

For their first tour together, both bands will be playing a full set of material from their classic and beloved albums: Melvins will be playing material from 1991’s Bullhead and Boris will be playing material from Heavy Rocks 2022.

 “Could anyone have predicted such an astonishing event, that Boris and Melvins would tour the entire USA together? Since the mid-1980’s, Melvins have had an enormous influence on artists of all genres not only limited to heavy music, and have brought forth a surge of faithful followers over the years,” Boris’ Takeshi says. “Needless to say, Boris is just one of these many bands influenced by the mighty Melvins, and we took our name from a song title off of the 1991 album, Bullhead.”

“40 years as the Melvins!!! What better way to celebrate that unlikely milestone than by setting off on the ‘Twins of Evil Tour’ with our friends Boris!!” Melvins’ Buzz Osbourne adds. “This will be a stone groove!”

Tickets for the Boris + Melvins Twins of Evil Tour will go on sale Friday, June 9, 2023 at 10:00am. Tour dates are below.

You can pre-order Heavy Rocks (2002) here. You can also check out a new line of Heavy Rocks merch here.

In the meantime Boris and Third Man Records share the re-issue’s album opening track “Heavy Friends,” a sludgy and stormy dirge, featuring some blazing guitar soloing that would make both Melvins and Soungarden very proud.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay LohArano Shares a Forceful Ripper

Over the past couple of years of this site’s 13 year history, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering the Antananarivo, Madagascar-based JOVM mainstays LohArano. Since their formation, the Malagasy metal outfit  — Mahalia Ravoajanahary (vocals, guitar), Michael Raveloson (bass, vocals) and Natiana Randrianasoloson (drums, vocals) — have received attention both nationally and internationally for a unique, boundary pushing sound that features elements of popular and beloved Malagasy musical styles like Tsapiky  and Salegy with heavy metal. 

LohArano’s sound and approach represents a bold generation of Malagasy young people that still honor, reveres and respects the traditions and practices of their elders, but are also inspired by contemporary Western genres and styles.

Continuing upon their reputation for being one of the hardest working and prolific acts in the global scene, the Malagasy trio recently released their latest EP Bae Nosy, which translates into English as “beloved island.” Bae Nosy EP‘s latest single, EP title track “Bae Nosy” is a urgent, mosh pit friendly ripper built around rumbling down-tuned bass, thunderous drumming and Tom Morello-like guitar work paired with Mahalia Ravoajanahary furious roar. But at its core, the song evokes a very modern sense of nihilism and ennui with the song thematically suggesting that everything’s gone to shit, so we might as well have a little fun and enjoy our loved ones for a few minutes at least.

The Malagasy JOVM mainstays are currently on tour across the UK and France. Their French tour features opening slots for the legendary Fishbone. Adding to a growing national and international profile, “Bae Nosy” has received airplay from FERAROCK, which broadcasts across France, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada. The track has also received praise from Best Magazine. The EP’s previous single “Koitra,” landed on Spotify’s All New Metal and New Blood playlists, Deezer’s Metal Detector and Women of Metal playlists, Tidal’s New Metal playlist and over 250 other playlists. The track also has received airplay from over 50 radio stations globally. They’re taking over the world — and you’ve heard it from me first.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Share an Enormous, Thrash-Inspired Ripper

Back in 2019, the members of the acclaimed Aussie JOVM mainstays King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard released their thrash metal concept album Infest The Rats’ Nest. The album allowed the band to tap into their inner metalhead, to commute with the pre-teenage selves. Written as an off-the-cuff experiment, Infest The Rats’ Nest quickly became a fan favorite, and the album’s headbanging, mosh pit stirring rippers are highlights of their live shows. And although, it was initially intended as a one-off, the band has head the siren call of metal in the wind.

“When we made Rats’ Nest, it felt experimental,” King Gizzard’s Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitar) says. “Like, ‘Here’s this music that some of us grew up on but we’d never had the guts or confidence to really play before, so let’s give it a go and see what happens’. And when we made that album we were like, ‘Fuck, why did it take us so long to do this?’ It’s just so much fun to play that music, and those songs work so well when we play them live. So we always had it in our minds to make another metal record.”

Understandably, the band was wary of repeating themselves. So when Gizzard’s core trio of metalheads — Mackenzie, Joey Walker (guitar, bass, vocals) and Michael “Cavs” Cavanaugh (drums) — convened to began writing the material that would eventually comprise their remarkable 24th album, and second foray into thrash metal, the double LP PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation, they approached the creative process and the project in a radically different way for them. “We worked on it the same way we started our Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava album last year,” Mackenzie explains. “We wrote a song a day, and we came into the practice space with no riffs, no tunes, no ideas, and started from scratch. And we jammed, and recorded everything, and pieced the songs together from that. I’d sketched out the story the songs would tell, and I’d portioned it out into seven song titles, with a short paragraph of what would happen in the song. I guess we kind of made the record backwards.”

PetroDragonic Apocalypse owes a ton to fantasy lore — I mean, look at the title, right? “We wanted to start the story in the real world, and then send it to hell,” grins Mackenzie. “It’s about humankind and it’s about planet Earth but it’s also about witches and dragons and shit” he laughs. Superficially, the album’s lyrics are fun, but they’re profound if the listener digs a bit deeper. Shakespeare and the Bible inspired the vice of some of the lyrics, which play out in the album’s blackly comedic and bleakly destructive tale, delivered with high drama. Sonically, the album’s material is reportedly pure headbanging thrash metal riffage that also channels the prog-influenced vibe of the genre’s late 80’s apex.

PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation is slated for a June 16, 2023 release through the band’s own KGLW. The album’s first single “Gila Monster” is a headbanging, hard-charging, ripper, built with layers of crunchy, power chord-driven riffage, thunderous drumming and the Aussie JOVM mainstay’s unerring knack for mosh pit friendly hooks paired with Mackenzie’s snarling delivery. While clearly indebted to late 80s thrash metal, “Gila Monster” sees the band stepping past their influences to create something that sounds remarkably period specific — but absolutely new.

The accompanying video, directed by SPOD is fittingly bonkers and hits every metal trope. It features wizards, demonic-looking rituals, animals that could be simultaneously friend and foe and cinematic vistas. “I wanted to shoot Lord of the Rings 4 but also make a video game, so I mixed both mediums and came up with this majestic journey for truth and power in a cursed world,” SPOD explains. “I mixed 3D animation, modeling & live footage in a 3D video game program to create this marvelous voyage of man & beast.  Friend or foe?”

Now, if you’ve been following the Gizz over the past decade, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that the band is currently putting the finishing touches on album 25, another seven-track concept album that was started around the same time as PetroDragonic Apocalypse, and followed its improvised, one-song-a-day method. “I’m not a tortured artist, I’m more of a mad professor,” admits Mackenzie. “And after a bunch of records crafted out of jams, we’re very much ready to make records in the old-fashioned way of writing the songs before we enter the studio, once these ones are done.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Minneapolis’ Spit Takes Share a Mosh Pit Friendly Ripper

Minneapolis-based punk outfit Spit Takes — Vanessa McKinney (vocals), Monet Wong (guitar), Angie Lynch (bass) and Charles Gehr (drums) — formed last year. Influenced by Amyl and the Sniffers, X-Ray Spex, Bikini Kill, and The Slits among a list of other acts, the Minneapolis-based punks pair crunchy guitar riffs with raw, unapologetic lyrics.

Spit Takes’ second single, the breakneck ripper “God Bless (Holy Tits!)” is a decided pub rock-take on punk rock, reminiscent of Amyl and the Sniffers. Of course, there are big riffs and thunderous drumming paired with mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses. But at its core, it’s a hilarious and defiantly crude, feminist anthem delivered with a zero fucks given aplomb.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Slumbering Sun Share Horror Movie-Influenced Visual for “Dream Snake”

Austin-based doom metal outfit Slumbering Sun — Monte Luna’s James Clarke (vocals), Destroyer of Light’s Keegan Kjeldsen (guitar), Temptress‘ Kelsey Wilson (guitar), Monte Luna‘s and Scorpion Child‘s Garth Condit (bass) and Destroyer of Light’s Penny Turner (drums) — is an All-Star band featuring acclaimed members of Texas’ underground metal scene. 

After the breakup of their previous band, James Clarke and Keegan Kjeldsen resolved to forget the bitter pain of an album that would never be released, by creating something new. They decided to start a new band with an album that Kjeldsen wrote between work on other projects. The pair continued the creative process at their rehearsal space with a few songs strummed on a clean, electric guitar: Clarke began to write melodies with the pair finishing lyrics. 

Clarke and Kjeldsen recruited Temptress’ Kelsey Wilson, who made the commute from Dallas for the writing and recording process. Scorpion Child’s Garth Condit and Destroyer of Light’s Penny Turner, who played in other bands with Clarke and Kjeldsen respectively were recruited to be the band’s rhythm section — and from that point on, Slumbering Sun was a full-fledged band. 

Released earlier this year digitally and on cassette and CD, tthe Austin-based doom metal outfit’s full-length debut The Ever Living Fire was recorded in a week-long recording session this past summer. Sonically, their full-length debut sees the band exploring broader melodies than their previous work while drawing from Celtic folk, doom metal act Warning, as well as 90s grunge rockers Soundgarden and Alice In Chains. 

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about three singles:

  • “Liminal Bridges,” an expansive song featuring an atmospheric introduction with swirling, shoegazer-like textures, followed by stormy, power chord-driven riffage and thunderous drumming paired with Clarke’s melodic crooning and enormous, arena rock-like hooks. The track sonically brought — to my ears, at least —  The Sword  to mind — ok but with a prog rock-leaning sensibility.

  • “Dream Snake,” an equally expansive track that opens with Black Sabbath and Soundgarden-like intro with fuzzy, power chord-driven riffage, thunderous drumming and a soulful solo paired with Clarke’s Ozzy Osbourne-like delivery until roughly around the five-minute mark. At that point, the song morphs into a sludgy doom metal dirge for the next two minutes or so before a gorgeous string arrangement carries the song into a gentle fadeout. Lyrically rooted in longing and heartbreak, “Dream Snake” sees the members of Slumbering Sun drawing from different eras one metal and doom metal and crafting something both familiar and new.

  • Album title track “The Ever Living Fire.” Continuing a remarkable run of expansive, mind-bending material, the song begins with a gorgeous 35 second, acoustic guitar-driven introduction before quickly exploding into an expressive and soulful doom metal dirge, built around sludgy power chord-driven riffage, thunderous drumming and Clarke’s crooning. And around the five minute mark, the band introduces a melodic hook that shifts the song in a trippy display of densely layered guitars. The song ends with a roughly minute-long, gorgeous acoustic gutter driven coda making it one of the more prog-leaning songs of the album’s released singles. 

Continuing to build about the attention the album’s first three singles have received throughout the course of this year, the Austin-based doom outfit recently shared the video for “Dream Snake.” Directed by the band’s James Clarke and Keegan Kjeldsen, the video follows four buddies driving to their regular dive bar for drinks and hijinks. They all happily greet their bartender, who serves them all their regular drinks. The bartender offers them a special stash of drugs called Sumatran Dream Flower with devilish delight. “Y’all really wanna get fucked up? Well I gotcha,” he seems to say. Fittingly, after snorting the Sumatran Dream Flower, they start having wild and paranoid visions of evil creatures wanting to kill them. Little do they know, it’s not a hallucinogen-fueled fever dream; it’s very real. B movie horror menace and bloodshed ensue to hilarious, goofy effect.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 68th Birthday, Angus Young!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Angus Young’s 68th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 75th Birthday, Steven Tyler!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Steven Tyler’s 75th birthday.