and April just flew by (metal reviews but no show for me)

April is turning into a dead month for me in terms of live music (at least two years running). It's not that the music isn't happening. The problem seems to be that the paths I'm moving on this month (and for many Aprils past) don't support my concert-going habits.

In the meantime, I've spent a fair number of hours listening to new music. And if I've bothered to listen to it, chances are I liked it, at least a little. In some cases, a lot.

So here I offer a little taste of what I've been hearing...

I have a nostalgic attachment to Primordial's Storm Before Calm, a re-release this year, so that album keeps showing up on my playlist. But, as you can read at exclaim.ca, I'm enjoying their new one too: Primordial – Redemption at the Puritan's Hand (Metal Blade).

A few other releases from last week caught my ear as well: the neo-folkishness of Aerial Ruin (Valleys Of The Earth, Vendlus), the black metallishness of Krallice (Diotima, Profound Lore), and the science fictionality of Graviton (Massless, Translation Lost).

The week before it was SepticFlesh that sparked my most alert attention, as my review at hellbound.ca explains: SepticFlesh – The Great Mass (Season of Mist). For a little contrast, I was also enjoying Graveyard's blues retro hard rock (Hisingen Blues, Nuclear Blast), and dipping into three (industrial/gothic) Lacrimosa re-releases.

Now onto a new month, more new releases, and more live music!