summer metal festing (Heavy TO and more)

Now that we're half way through June I'm starting to look ahead to my summer concert plans a bit more seriously. This year I'll be staying fairly close to home, but just in southern Ontario there's more coming up than I can possibly make it out to. Here's a rundown of some of the shows I'm considering or recommend.

I already mentioned this one - this weekend, Invasion Infernale Fest 2012, a two-day black/viking metal festival here in Hamilton. It takes place at The Doors (tonight) and The Corktown (tomorrow).

Though there are some more worthy events planned in June, I might save myself (and my money) until July 2, when The Scorpions hit Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto. If I don't see these guys before they retire my life will be incomplete.

The next couple of weekends look to be a busy one. 3 Inches of Blood are scheduled to play the Casbah in Hamilton on July 5. Plus there's a memorial event at the Opera House in Toronto for fallen metal warrior Rob Cranny on July 7.

Friday the 13th is Iron Maiden day in Toronto, another Molson Amphitheatre show, and they're dragging Alice Cooper along to Sarnia the day after for Bayfest. That same night Shockwave Festival, featuring Voivod and Fear Factory rolls into Toronto, swinging back around to Buffalo the following week (July 21).

Agalloch with Taurus and Muskox hit Toronto on July 23 - a highlight of Inertia Entertainment's strong summer line-up.

And it looks like our local metal festing culminates in August.

• Heavy TO: Last year was a blast and this year's line-up looks to be even more diverse. Never having seen Marilyn Manson or Slipknot, I'm hoping for memorable spectacles from both. Plus I feel a little warm and fuzzy about seeing old favourites like Overkill and Suicidal Tendencies. And I'm definitely looking forward to the bombastic onslaught of Fleshgod Apocalypse (or, as I prefer to call them, Fleshgods of the Apocalypse) and a host of other bands.

• I've never been, but Southern Ontario Metal Festival looks to have some cool bands lined up, including Blackguard and Unexpect.

• And August comes to a close with D-TRASH fest 2012 at the Cave, part of the wind-up to the release of a brand new Schizoid album. (more to come on that in future posts)

 Looks like I might have to stock up on vegan protein balls or something to power me through!
 

just another tweeter (and more reviews)

Now on twitter. More to follow.

scimetalvegan

an opinion or a few:

Vintersorg – Jordpuls @exclaim.ca

Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising @exclaim.ca

Agalloch live in London ON @exclaim.ca

Turisas – Stand Up and Fight @hellbound.ca

march metal continued

A reissue:

Woods of Ypres - Woods IV: The Green Album

A new release:

TesseracT - One

And a page full of Hellbound playlists.

Next up: Agalloch live in London, Ontario!

Catch today's Heavy TO line-up announcement? As much as I love Megadeth, Opeth, and Auf der Maur, and enjoy most of the other bands on the list, it's not much different from last year's Heavy MTL line-up. (my socks have not been rocked)

more agalloch. more live black metal.

Every once in a while I somehow keep managing to get something written.

Like this Agalloch Q&A (already a few weeks old), now posted at exclaim.ca.

And this Dimmu Borgir / Enslaved /Blood Red Throne / Dawn of Ashes live review (with a delightfully green photo by Adam Wills).

A few more sentiments on the show that didn't make it to the exclaim site...

Cold rain creeping into ice and snow seemed like the right kind of weather to welcome Dimmu Borgir and their “Darkness Reborn” tour mates to Toronto, and the early blackening of the skies complemented the blackened sounds within. The line-up wasn’t an obvious match-up but fairly well rounded, revealing at least three different takes on extreme metal. Performing before and after Enslaved wasn’t really fair to any of the other bands and, in retrospect, the others might have been more impressive without that overshadowing presence.

(I also tried to say that Enslaved's 45 minutes might as well have been show-stopping, not that it might as well have been Enslaved...)

pre-winter december reviews (though it's definitely cold outside)

It's that time of year again. Cold. Hints of snow (or lots of snow depending on where you are). And end-of-year best of lists rolling out from various music publications. Exclaim's and mine have nothing in common, almost. You wouldn't even know I'd cast my votes. Stay tuned to Hellbound for what I expect will be a more complementary version of the best of 2010 in metal (and perhaps my own lists reproduced in full).

In the meantime, I have managed to review an album and a show (and mark, theorize, strategize and paint a ceiling - but that's another story or four).

My appreciative take on Agalloch's latest, Marrow of the Spirit. (interview forthcoming)

My blurry impressions of Watain and company live in Toronto.

Now if it wasn't so cold I'd go put up some outdoor xmas lights!

2008 metal (and a little 2007)

Every year I struggle with the 'best albums of the year' lists that I, as a reviewer of metal music, am expected to produce. I like the idea of noting what I liked to listen to the most. At a pragmatic level, it helps me sort through my increasingly unwieldy record collection in the future so great albums don't get lost amidst shelves of mediocrity. But I've never been a big fan of ranked lists, or the illusory air of objectivity that can build around music criticism. I could get so annoyed with the whole process that whenever I hosted a New Year's Eve edition of Kill Eat Exploit the Weak I would play my top albums of ten years past instead of the best of the year just ended.

There are other obstacles to coming up with a 'best of the year' list, of course. I'm troubled by knowing that I really only hear a small fraction of the vast number of albums released every year (despite also knowing that an even smaller fraction are likely to interest me or be above average). I have to accept the fact that my mood when I'm writing the list has an impact on the ranking and on who makes the cut, and that the timing of a record's release affects its competitive chances. Plus there's the trickiness of having to come up with my list at the beginning of November, two months before the year actually ends. So I argue with myself about my year-end lists probably as much (or close to it) as other metal fans would argue with me.

Ordinarily a fragment of my list would make it into exclaim!'s year in review coverage. This year, none of my picks made the cut. In other years you would see my list coming out around now in the year-end issue of Unrestrained!. That last issue is likely to be made available in some form in the near future, but when Adrian passed away, Unrestrained! died too. With these things in mind I have decided to post my own 'year in review' list here and document for myself, and whoever else stumbles across this page, what I've particularly enjoyed listening to in 2008. (note: I use the 'metal' label loosely at times. live with it. most of this stuff is heavy in the emotional sense if not in terms of brutal guitars)

1. Virgin Black – Requiem - Fortissimo (The End Records) -- dramatic and powerful, catastrophically emotional doom
2. Primordial – To the Nameless Dead (Metal Blade) -- came out too late for my 2007 list but remains among the best blackened celtic metal
3. Moonspell – Night Eternal (SPV) -- my favourite Moonspell record in years
4. Mar de Grises – Draining the Waterheart (Firebox) -- creatively emotional Chilean doom (see U! #38)
5. Isole – Bliss of Solitude (Napalm) -- blissful and baleful Swedish doom (see U! #37)
6. Daylight Dies – Lost to the Living (Candlelight) -- darkly eloquent complexity
7. Agalloch – The White EP (Vendlus) -- a beautiful (mostly acoustic instrumental) aside to the main Agalloch catalogue
8. October Falls – The Womb of Primordial Nature (Moribund) -- doom-laden blackened metal with a little pagan minstrelsy and a dash of old Katatonia (see U! #39)
9. Amon Amarth – Twilight of the Thunder God (Metal Blade) -- straightforward and a little cheesy but also a lot of fun
10. Woods of Ypres – Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues (Krankenhaus) -- tricksy and not as easy to love as early Woods but it brings together some of my favourite sounds in a distinctively WoY way...
11. Mamiffer – Hirror Enniffer (Hydra Head) -- dystopian musical art
12. Opeth – Watershed (Roadrunner) -- this one made the exclaim! top ten. I agree it's a good record but I've heard Opeth do so much better
13. Mindless Self Indulgence – If (The End) -- more for my fun quota, especially the opening track
14. Krallice – Krallice (Profound Lore) -- discovered this black gem through Unrestrained! (see U! #38)
15. Caïna – Temporary Antennae (Profound Lore) -- checked this genre-bender out based on its deservingly good e! review
16. Cult of Luna – Kingdom (Earache) -- always heard good things about these guys, even from peta2, and finally checked them out (see U! #38)
17. Nachtmystium – Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1 (Century Media) -- accessible extremity that lives up to the buzz
18. Long Distance Calling – Satellite Bay (Viva Hate) -- cool atmosphere, post-rock heavy metal vibe
19. Martriden – The Unsettling Dark (Candlelight) -- one of the more brutal entries on my list, another e! discovery
20. Russian Circles – Station (Suicide Squeeze) -- atmosphere plus intensity, chalk another up to the e! folks

[honourable mention] Gates of Slumber – Conqueror (Profound Lore) -- strong American doom

(possibly coming up later: my favourites of 1998...)