Mattowarrior's Metal Madness

A band that I reviewed previously on these pages, Bad Bones, has just released their new video, Midnight Rider. The video is full of images of guns, motorcycles, skulls, and the moon. You're half expecting Blackie Lawless come out with a razor codpiece, but he doesn't. Nevertheless, the imagery definitely complements the song and you can get out those horns to cheer this very entertaining and fun video!

Paragon Theorem is an interesting act that is releasing its new album on January 25th 2019, Bound By Gravity. No, it’s neither a prog metal band as the name and title would indicate, nor a technical death metal act with super hyper blasts and 800 bpm sweep arpeggios. Instead, Bound By Gravity plays an interesting mix of vintage post grunge influenced slight groove metal, somewhat thrash influenced metal, and hard rock that indicates a plethora of influences. This is a mix of influences that is extremely hard to get right, and I believe that Bound By Gravity nearly does, other than a few quibbles I’m sure they’ll hammer out. But let’s focus on the positives.  The band teeters on the edge of radio ready and a sound that could cultivate a cult following, I’m more fond of the bands that cultivate a cult following, but the band could very well go in either direction.    The album starts out with the groovy and heavy Singularity, a mid paced catchy start to the album. ...

Tahazu are an up and coming Black Metal project from Madison, Wisconsin. Their music features very cold, harsh, and extremely grim soundscapes that leave the listener with a feeling of esoteric dread. It is definitely not an "easy listening" style Black Metal project, and should appeal to those who like their Black Metal or Metal in general, experimental and challenging. I recently had the opportunity to interview their mainman (also going by the name Tahazu), and this is what he had to say:  Tell me about the project, how did it start?  - I started my solo project under the name Tahazu in 2015 after going back and finishing college, had some decent free time while working and had played in multiple prior bands and wanted to start playing my own material and collaborating more consistently.  Since then it's been fantastic in both reception and opportunities, working with artists all over the globe and multiple small and underground la...

                                      Ozzy at his clownish best during the 1986 Ultimate Sin Tour.                                                         Photo Copyright:    Photo: @MarkWeissguy   By now, we live in a different world than we did in the Seventies and Eighties. There seems to be a lack of mystery in music and entertainment, when the vulturous media and twitter shame machine seems to both expose and lay bare anything about anyone with any sort of spotlight. The music business has undoubtedly suffered from a lot of the modern paradigm, but one side element of this is that a lot of our childhood myths have been exposed and debunked. With the saturation of media and exposes and the spotlight on everyone,...

Ba d Bones' press release states the following: " If you can imagine Van Halen, Scorpions, Motorhead and a glimpse of Iron Maiden mixed together, you’ll be getting close to the unique sound of Bad Bones." They are from Italy and their second album, High Rollers was released in 2017.  Interestingly enough, right out of the gate with the first song, "American Days", I was reminded of something that would've come out of Blaze Bayley era Iron Maiden, or even Bayley's former band, Wolfsbane themselves. The Wolfsbane reference is there, not because they particularly sound like them, but because like that band, they will mix more traditional metal sections with hard old fashioned rock. I also hear an AOR sensibility in there (but for the sake of brevity I won’t go into AOR is in this particular review, (but check out this blog in the future into my analysis of that style of music). The production is clear and as cutting as day, It’s coo...

Parasyche are a recently formed technical thrash band coming out of the warmer climes of Chile. Their most recent album, Insanity Origins, came out in 2017, and is a mix of thrashier elements mixed with power metal and more modern and technical elements. The album starts out with "Box of Hate", a midpaced crusher with some wah flourishes. Odd timings put the song slightly in prog territory but for the most part it’s a thrasher.  The second song, "Vesania" has more a faster feel, sounding somewhere between Megadeth and (latter day) Kreator at times. The vocals feature a more melodic feel than the prior one, and this adds to the song’s appeal. The neo-classical solos that pepper the song also contributes to this contrast. "Detonation" is the third song, and it alternates between these two approaches. Political in bent lyrically, it’s an interesting song. The again, maze like riffs of this one, definitely make the song a cut above your aver...

Henry Metal is a new Metal Project/Band featuring the talents of one Henry Metal- calling it new almost feels wrong because the man has accomplished more in two years than some bands accomplish in a lifetime, that is, recording 8 albums of highly diverse Metal that recalls everything from the humor of Frank Zappa to the crunch and aggression of vintage Megadeth and back. Henry Metal has just released his eighth album, the directly titled “8”, and what follows is my interview with this highly talented musician and producer. Tell me how Henry M etal started and what inspired you. It kind of just came together as a hobby.   I didn’t want to overthink it or expect too much from it but just include a whole bunch of cool stuff from the rock and metal lineage in an honest and straightforward way.   I also saw an opening because commercial music seems so over processed and calculated that there’s no room for risks or mistakes.   I love risks and mistakes and wanted...