The first Corrections House full length didn’t do a lot for me; some of it was “interesting”, but it felt like a lot of disparate elements that each of these well-regarded musicians brought from their regular gigs just didn’t stew into something I really found enjoyable. So, color me pleasantly surprised. Know How To Carry […]

Steve Von Till, a key member of seminal sludge and “post-metal” legends Neurosis, has pursued a fruitful solo career in recent years and released a handful of stark blues and country influenced albums. Blues and country influence, in this context, certainly doesn’t refer to wang dang doodle or how he stopped loving her today. The […]

I’ve read descriptions of this band as “psychedelic stoner metal”, “psychedelic doom”, “psychedelic (insert genre here)” and I must say, it’s too easy to throw that tag onto a genre if someone doesn’t understand the actually influences regarding a sound being conveyed. With Ufomammut I find that descriptor appropriate but moreso in the vein of […]

In the years that I’ve spent on this earth, I’ve come to the conclusion of “everything in due time” or as I like to reword it, “I wasn’t meant to do that before I did”. Case in point: Tad. I never took the time out of my day to venture forth into Tad’s area of […]

Through tremendous work ethics, perseverance and a non-stop willingness to break down and twist the conventions of the doom genre, Eugene, Oregon’s YOB are deservedly regarded as one of the most innovative and revered bands in the modern doom landscape. The formidable trio, led by mastermind Mike Scheidt (vocals, guitar), disbanded following 2005’s excellent The […]

It would be impossible to avoid mentioning Neurosis in this review, so let’s get it over with at the beginning. The bassist and singer from Stoneburner, Damon Kelly, is none other than the son of Scott Kelly, founding member of experimental metal titans Neurosis. Damon has been on tour with his father’s band a few […]

Last year Scott Kelly, founder of the highly influential experimental metal band Neurosis, stated that the supergroup he was involved in with several other metal luminaries, Shrinebuilder, would probably never convene again. Sad as I was at this, the subsequent announcement of his partaking in another side project, entitled Corrections House and containing Sanford Parker, […]

Neurot knows how to pick ‘em. After releasing two monolithic slabs of brain frying doom from Ufomammut this year, they once again reach across the Atlantic to release the latest from sludgy Belgian doomsayers Amenra. Mass V marks the band’s fourth full-length  and first release for Neurot Recordings. It’s got the same panoply of sludge, […]

Rejoice! All ye who’ve hoped and prayed over the past several years for a return of the SnailKing, the second half of Ufomammut’s two part Oro has arrived. Rather than continue on in vein of Opus Primum’s spacious doom, the Italian trio has returned to their gritty sludge roots on Opus Alter with faster and […]

It is said that great art has the power to take us outside of ourselves and bring us closer to ourselves simultaneously. Few bands have accomplished this rare feat on a more profound and consistent basis than NEUROSIS. For nearly three decades, their music has touched the hearts and minds of young men and women […]

Ufomammut has been one of the most consistent doom bands of the past decade. The band released five albums from 2000 to 2010, not including the brilliant collaboration with Lento, and there’s not a mediocre album in the bunch. They’ve cultivated a unique sound that layers ebbing tides of lashing doom riffs with synths and […]

I’ve always considered myself an open minded music fan. While admittedly, I have always most enjoyed those artists who are innovative and creative while still focusing on song craft which is coherent and relatively accessible, I have also always had a yen for the off-the-wall and experimental. John Zorn making his sax sound like a […]

Despite holding a high opinion of Josh Graham’s talent, particularly in his expert handling of the visual elements of Neurosis’s live performances and the stunning A Sun That Never Sets DVD release, I was somewhat let down by his first foray into our collective musical consciousness, that being the pleasantly heavy, if not all too […]

Neurosis frontman Steve Von Till reaps the benefits of his home studio and sows confusion on this second release from his other solo project, Harvestman, a name that either evokes the image of some pagan human-deity hybrid, or suggests a great brand name for vegetarian tv-dinners, depending on how serious the listener or reviewer is […]

Imagine a Civil War battlefield, littered with the lumpen shapes of fallen soldiers from each side. As twilight falls and cries rise up, one man – barely out of boyhood – squirms in the blood-matted grass. His lips cracked with thirst and his stomach knotted in hunger, he drags himself to the canteens and rucksacks […]

Nothing has been heard from the Guapo camp since 2005’s Black Oni on Ipecac Records and founding member Matt Thompson’s untimely departure from the fold. The remaining duo of keyboardist Daniel O’Sullivan (who now assumes all guitars and bass from Thompson’s vacancy) and drummer David Smith take up the helm of this UK-based experimental, mostly […]

Featuring current and former members of Neurosis, Tombs, Unsane and Swans, A Storm of Light is exactly what you might guess based on the title and cover: a massive tsunami of sound and thunder, intent on submerging you beneath its crushing waters. It’s progressive hardcore/doom with a tortured, nautical theme: slow, crashing slabs of guitar, […]

In 1995, Godflesh’s Ben Green retired to a remote cottage in the Cambrian Mountains of Wales, where he had spent much time as a child. For the next year, he virtually isolated himself from the modern world and allowed nature to speak to him in ways in which he previously could not decipher. Equipped only […]

Since 1987, K.K. Null’s noise outfit Zeni Geva has honestly raised the bar on Japanese rock so high that it has yet to be matched. Main throats like Cryptopsy’s Mike DiSalvo and his ilk are still dead ringers for Null’s largely Japanese and broken English growls, though the band has created an alternate metal universe […]