heavy metal
10 Questions for Lars UlrichTuesday, 08 October 2013
In their new, semi-fantastical concert movie Metallica: Through the Never, the gas-masked marauder who hunts the band’s fictional roadie, Trip, through a nightmare landscape, pictured below, is less cinematically memorable than Metallica themselves... Read more... |
CD: Avenged Sevenfold - Hail to the KingWednesday, 21 August 2013
There is no guarantee of success in any area of rock and pop but those who wish to succeed through sheer graft might look to metal as their main chance. While multiple bands in other genres have fleeting, unpredictable moments in the sun, a decent... Read more... |
CD: Asking Alexandria - From Death to DestinySunday, 11 August 2013
I write as a listener and concerned citizen. It's 2013, the legends of dad rock are facing the death squad: no liquids, no solids, no chance, baby. There's something dead in the water and a new breed is feeding on the remains. Welcome to Deathcore,... Read more... |
CD: Black Sabbath - 13Sunday, 09 June 2013
The original Black Sabbath were a feat of engineering on a par with a classic Land Rover or an AK47. Everything about them was basic, brutal, unadorned and brilliantly functional – and as such achieved a very real, if rather grim, kind of beauty. So... Read more... |
CD: Alice in Chains - The Devil put Dinosaurs HereSunday, 26 May 2013
In its day Alice in Chains’ so-called “sludge metal” – something a bit like the sound of industrial machinery pulled through treacle – was some of most darkly brilliant music to come out of Seattle. Much of this was down to Layne Staley’s drug-... Read more... |
Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 7Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Continuing its voyage through Scandinavia’s music, theartsdesk opens the latest chapter in Norway with Still Life With Eggplant, the 16th album from Trondheim’s prolific, long-lived, occasionally challenging and always vital Motorpsycho.Their last... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Blue Öyster Cult, Celluloid Records, Jimi Hendrix, Fela KutiSunday, 03 March 2013
Blue Öyster Cult: The Columbia Albums CollectionBlue Öyster Cult were about more than the music. They seemingly arrived fully formed with a ready-made mythos and mystery. Their first two albums had no pictures of the band and weird, Escher-esque art... Read more... |
CD: Saxon - SacrificeWednesday, 27 February 2013
Back in the early Eighties, Saxon made the heavy metal equivalent of home-cooked roast beef and Yorkshire pud. Axe-grinding albums like Denim and Leather and a work-ethic straight from the Barnsley pits made Biff Byford and the lads a loveable bunch... Read more... |
Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 6Friday, 11 January 2013
Santa has returned home, but he wasn’t the season’s only visitor from the Nordic lands. The crop of recent music in from the region embraces genre-crossing jazz, vintage-style rock, the expected electropop, cross-border collaborations and a seven-... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Gil Scott-Heron, K.T. Oslin, Motorpsycho, Feeling HighSunday, 23 December 2012
Gil Scott-Heron: The Revolution Begins – The Flying Dutchman MastersKieron TylerThis fine box set has a cuckoo in its nest which has to be dealt with instantly. Like Eric Clapton’s 1976 declaration of support for Enoch Powell, Scott-Heron’s “The... Read more... |
Motörhead, O2 Academy BrixtonSunday, 18 November 2012
As Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister heads towards his 67th birthday does he ever reflect on the strange and fabulous journey his 50 years as a professional musician have taken? I doubt it – navel gazing not being something Stoke On Trent’s most famous son is... Read more... |
CD: The Darkness - Hot CakesSaturday, 18 August 2012
The Darkness are back, and predictably, as they inch towards serious rock’n’roll, they also tourette tic a little preposterousness. “Every Inch of You”, which opens the album, sees Justin Hawkins filling his lungs and screaming “suck my cock". It... Read more... |
