Sound Obsession

Black Breath Date:  May 21, 2014 Venue:  Ottobar, Baltimore, MD The twelfth annual Maryland Deathfest (aka "MDF"), apparently the largest metal festival of its kind in North American, officially kicked off in Baltimore yesterday, but any black denim and leather clad longhair who wanted to get a jump on the four day festivities had their chance at the sold out "pre-fest party" at Ottobar this past Wednesday evening - featuring New York veterans Immolation, Baltimore's Misery Index and Noisem, and Seattle's Black Breath.* Black Breath (left to right - Jamie Byrum, Eric Wallace, Elijah Nelson, Neil McAdams, and Mark Palm)  I've had a lot of fun navigating the metal scene at large with its plethora of sub-genres, over the last decade or so, but death metal (and its close cousin grindcore) has been a final frontier of sorts for me.  Like black metal, with its sordid history of violence and controversial politics, death metal isn't entirely ...

I've said it before and I'll say it again - 2013 was an epic year in music and the finest in recent memory.  Those who know me best won't be surprised by my top pick, but the rest of my list might be unexpected.  In 2013, after years of bashful flirtation, I dove headlong into "metal" without pause or irony.  There was an abundance of excellent metal albums this year - many recorded and produced by an always rock-solid Kurt Ballou (of hardcore punk heroes Converge, and proprietor of GodCity Studio in Salem, Massachusetts).  Otherwise, 2013 continued a trend of "retro" with contemporary artists continuing to referencing the sounds of the 70's, 80's and 90's - even some former heroes from those decades made solid comebacks.  These are my favorite albums of the year.*  Enjoy. . . .                1.  Queens of the Stone Age: ...Like Clockwork (9/10) "Risk nothing, get nothing" claimed   Queens of t...

In recent years I've had trouble coming up with ten albums I really liked.  This year I had trouble paring down about thirty albums.  Suffice it to say, 2013 was a great year for music.  The following are my honorable mentions - ten albums that I really enjoyed, but didn't quite make my final "top ten."  Some came very close, but I had to make some tough decisions.  This is basically my runners-up list - not ranked, but ordered alphabetically.* Enjoy. . . . ASG: Blood Drive (6.5/10) 6. I hadn't heard of Wilmington, North Carolina, stoner/sludge rockers ASG until earlier this summer.  Turns out Blood Drive is their fifth album and it sounds like a lost gem from 1992.  All the hallmarks of that era are preserved and resurrected brilliantly here as if Creed and Nickleback never existed to piss all over them - the angst, the beauty, and the riffs.  Vocalist Jason Shi displays uncanny range, emulating both Perry Farrell's nasal rasp a...

Heads up!  Beastmilk Climax full-album stream. Cool albums rarely get released in December, because, frankly, who can compete with Yuletide gems like this ?  Well, ditch your Santa hat and throw on some black leather - fuckin' Beastmilk is here. "He chose, poorly" - guessing that milk went bad Beastmilk (rad name right?) are a Finnish post-punk goth rock band, fronted by a British dude named "Kvohst," who are about to drop (or have already dropped, depending on your locale) their debut album Climax produced by King Midas studio-wiz Kurt Ballou.  These guys synthesize equal parts Danzig, Morrissey, The Cult, Echo & The Bunnymen, Joy Division, and Bauhaus - but with more balls. Climax is streaming in full for free here , and available for paid download ( iTunes , Amazon etc.) and streaming (Spotify etc.) now.  CD and LP available December 10.  Watch the video for "Death Reflects Us" here . 

Heads up!  Skeletonwitch & Russian Circles full-album streams. Skeletonwitch & Russian Circles, two awesome metal bands from opposite ends of the sonic spectrum, with new albums dropping next week - streaming in-full now on Pitchfork Advance.  Skeletonwitch:  Serpents Unleashed - blackened thrash from Athens, Ohio, with scene titans Kurt Ballou and John Baizley together again on production and album artwork, respectively.  Not for the faint of heart.  Just in time for Halloween - this one's a killer.  Listen now   Russian Circles:  Memorial - epic post-metal (soundtrack-y instrumentals) from Chicago with crisp, spacious production by Brandon Curtis (frontman of the underrated prog/space-rock band Secret Machines).  Loving that classy album art too. Listen now

Kvelertak:   Meir Label:  Roadrunner Released:  March 26, 2013 7.5/10 Is it strange that as I hurtle through my mid-thirties, more than two decades after picking up my first "rock" album (Nirvana's Nevermind ), my taste in guitar music leans shamelessly toward "metal"?  Shouldn't I be well onto  mature fare by now - Bon Iver or Grizzly Bear perhaps?  No thanks - not quite yet.  Even Kurt Cobain, often paralyzed by the same self-conscious modesty that plagues today's wet-noodle rockers, had to admit Nirvana's primary musical influences were the Beatles and Black Sabbath.  The catchy, and the crushing.  The essence and power of rock & roll is in the primal, the untamed, and the provocative - the very name itself is a euphemism for "sex."  The sonic frenzy and unhinged antics of the genre's founders - Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many others - bares little resemblance to much of what passes for rock to...