Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

"…Recording in a new studio have new dimensions to the bands' sound," reads a matter of fact statement from the bands' latest press release. No sooner was the thought in my head as the combustive "Death In Fire" began blowing through the speakers - "Man, there's one of the few ...

"Been a while since we last heard the name "Animal" bellowed about as the follow up project for W.A.S.P.'s Randy Piper in the wake of his less than ceremonial departure from said Shock-Rockers a decade and a half ago. If I recall it was somewhere around the late '80s that ...

The name has lay buried in the bowels of Black Metal past for the late great kings of the earliest Nordic uprising all those years ago. And concurrently, with the seeming resurrection of Black Mark, the one time rulers of Scandinavian dark, Bathory rises again from a decade long dormancy ...

"Heathen Radio" takes everything that was ever cool about Punk in the first place, rolls it up, chews and spits it out over pasty-faced Pop posers guised as bottom rung bad boys. That is to say, they're a modern day original that don't flash the fashion, and considering how classic ...

Demon Hunter, as the name suggests, seeks and finds solace in spirituality while musically exorcising the beast within. The cover booklet is cleverly designed in "testament" like layout and table of contents as if for a not so subtle reminder that we are onto a new "contractual" obligation with a ...

I love these guys, I mean, they are the voice of, well, discontent. They throw this playful jive at ya, splattering oil soaked lyrics fresh from the local garage and screaming about the world around 'em, stretching a C, D, and E chord progression for every last breath and the ...

Great opening track by this thing called Capture The Flag - feels like I'm listening to early Cro-Mags, circa '83 or '84 with their addictive blend of Metal shred and catchy top of the lungs verses. The Control's one of the later model discoveries by the GK people and combine ...

Before picking apart the track selection and yet another stab at mass market consumption that's seeing them slowly gain ground on Rock band gone capitalist kings in disguise, Kiss, I want to first comment on the absolutely awe-inspiring cover art for the hands down leaders of coincident underground album artistry. ...

Kittie have emerged once again with this seven-track EP that shows their experimental side as they blend their familiar brand of death metal with a gothic and instrumental touch. Formed in 1997, this London, Ontario three piece prove that girls can expel their rage with as much gut wrenching brutality ...

An entire album based upon that place between time and space where dreams and death collide in a crash of fantastical imagery interwoven black and fleeting thoughts of life tick away like the beating heart in its final hour… Okay maybe that's a little deep but then so is the ...

The Discontent… The Hunns? Typhoon Motor Dudes? The Briggs… The Briggs? Huh? Who are these guys and where do they come from? Here's my first clue I was going to dig this stuff… I never heard of most of 'em... and about halfway in, since I started writing, I haven't ...

The Discontent… The Hunns? Typhoon Motor Dudes? The Briggs… The Briggs? Huh? Who are these guys and where do they come from? Here's my first clue I was going to dig this stuff… I never heard of most of 'em... and about halfway in, since I started writing, I haven't ...

Jason Newsted was known for making fairly heavy music in a band called Flotsam & Jetsam several years ago, themselves, a step beneath the popularized Thrash Metal of the time from the reigning "Big 4," and fast forward some eighteen or twenty years later, Newsted's about two years removed from ...

"To Be Continued…" continues where "Cross To Bear" left off in '01, strengthening the bridge between ol' schoolin' rants and rowdiness and barstool blow outs in the finest sea town tradition. Yes, Pressure Point puts an immense load on the still recovering listener seeking a means of escape from cartoonish ...

How much influence does the seventies' have on a resurging Rock music? How bout going all the way back to 1970 for starters. How much influence does Black Sabbath have on Heavy music? Go all the way back to 1995, or somewhere thereabouts, to when a Canadian foursome going by ...

This latest collection features the innovative Detroit hipsters firing 'em off mean and ugly for fourteen rugged renditions of standing classics and studio outtakes that present the MC5 in a gloriously crude condition. Along with The Sex Pistols and Iggy Pop, they may go down in history for having released ...

One of the more extreme of side projects to come out in a while, The Transplants features names like Armstrong, Aston, and Barker with the two outer edges of previous Rancid and Blink fame, with Aston laying down some slammin' vocal tracks.  The record took a while, something like a ...

Is it me, or does it seem like these guys have seen one too many Tony Robbins' late night infomercials? Okay, maybe not, but it's a play on the title here, and not exactly the sunshine boys are they? Then again, credit where it's due, for a band to be ...

Often lost in the shuffle of east side, west side, bay side, bi-coastal, ol' school, hard core, and countless denizens of corner painters of a now era or other, is the fact that American Punk, before it became synonymous with sunny blonde superstars and scream till you get your way ...

Okay, they had me going there a second… But the other band I'm thinking of is Waysted and the album was "Save Your Prayers." Similarities? Hell yeah, actually. Not between the two albums but in that vintage early '80s Hard Rock sound, you know, back when it was okay to ...

From Pressure Point to Whiskey Rebels to bare knuckle brawling and a bottle o' 90 proof to wash it down… The "Sacto" scene appears the latest in a regional uprising that finds a flurry of Punks foaming with pride and power. Got about four or five too many down this ...