Music, Metal

Killswitch Engage

3 Jan 2007

5 REASONS TO SEE 1 They’re the illegitimate sons of Slayer They are leaders of the metalcore movement that take the blueprint of thrash as laid down by Slayer, but ramp it up with elements of their hardcore roots. In fact, their rock forefathers…

Various - Rough Trade Counter Culture 07

14 Feb 2008

EVERYTHING (Rough Trade) If anything can be gleaned from these expansive, annual compilations its this: try as you might you can’t keep up with all the fine new music around unless you actually run a record store. And while you might have…

Converge

3 Jul 2007

HARDCORE While metal is enjoying something of a renaissance as Mastodon and Tool’s esoteric leanings catch the mainstream’s attention, there’s yet to be a group to prove that hardcore is a bona fide art form. A group to attest hardcore is more than…

Serj Tankian

27 Mar 2008

METAL ABC, Glasgow, Tue 1 Apr System of a Down were a singular prospect in metal – intelligent, intricate and unique. Now vocalist Serj Tankian has released his first solo album, Elect the Dead, and, as you’d expect it’s as distinctive as his former…

Dillinger Escape Plan

14 Feb 2008

Most bands have their share of bad luck. Dillinger Escape Plan have their share and others’ too. The New Jersey noisecore troupe’s misfortunes include: five years between debut and sophomore albums, approximately seven line-up changes (songwriter and…

Korn

4 Jan 2008

These dreadlocked, bagpipe-wielding metal mongers have been through plenty in their time, recently losing a member to Jesus. The band, who virtually single-handedly invented nu metal in the early 90s, may have slipped out of favour somewhat as rock…

Records - Pig Destroyer

3 Jul 2007

GRINDCORE Pig Destroyer have always had more to them than your average grinders, largely thanks to the lit-heavy lyrics of JR Hayes. So, while Phantom Limb plays like the illegitimate offspring of early Napalm Death, there’s a deeply unhinged quality…

Records - Megadeth

21 May 2007

METAL Once one of the most influential thrash titans (part of the ‘big four’ alongside Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer), Megadeth went one faster, one harder than the rest of the metal pack. However in 2002 it looked like frontman Dave Mustaine would…

Trivium - album review

Trivium

2 Oct 2006

METAL Opener ‘Ignition’ is a killer track, all thundering riffs and heavier than thou grooves, if someone told you it was a lost Metallica track you’d have no reason to doubt them. And they count the aforementioned Metallica and Iron Maiden…

Cavelera Conspiracy - Inflikted

27 Mar 2008

VERY HEAVY METAL (Roadrunner) Brazillian metallers Sepultura are pretty much untouchable in the world of thrash. Their Chaos AD and Roots are classics of the genre. However, frontman Max Cavalera split from the band in 1996, going on to form Soulfly…

Dillinger Escape Plan

15 Nov 2007

METAL Ire Works (Relapse) Having written the definitive math-metal album with 1999’s Calculating Infinity debut, DEP have faced incessant criticism from a select few for daring to expand the sonic palette. Ire Works looks set to provoke further…

*Hitlist

3 Jul 2007

• T in the Park 80,000 folks have over 100 reasons on stage to get down this weekend, from Arctic Monkeys to Wu-Tang Clan (pictured) and all in between. See full running order . Balado, Fri 6-Sun 8 Jul. (Rock & Pop) • The Skids After Green Day and…

Aereogramme

3 Jul 2007

FAREWELL SHOW When Aereogramme released their aptly-titled third album My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go earlier this year, it was to a certain critical warmth and a gust of commercial tumbleweed. Now that they’ve knocked it on the head…

Records - Will Haven

3 Jul 2007

METAL After splitting up, re-forming, and then losing vocalist Grady Avenell, Will Haven’s continued existence has been in question of late. But with the arrival of long-time friend Jeff Jaworski, the California metal quartet has finally found a…

Iron Maiden

6 Dec 2006

5 REASONS TO GO SEE 1. Over 70 million sales Humungous sales are often wrong - just look at Celine Dion - but not in this case. The legendary heavy metal outfit have shifted gargantuan numbers of albums, and are rightly considered the biggest metal…

Converge - album review

Converge

11 Nov 2006

METAL OK, so metal is generally the ‘duh’-centric domain of Beavis & Butthead but amidst the OTT-ridiculousness of it all, there are groups who have pushed the genre past artifice into art. Boston’s Converge, are such craftsmen. In a 15-year…

Various - Butchering the Beatles - album review

Various

11 Nov 2006

METAL UP YOUR ASS If you’re the kind of sick fuck who’s always wondered what a heavy metal Beatles would’ve sounded like, wonder no more. Here, a host of metal luminaries massacre the fab foursome’s back-catalogue, with surprisingly entertaining…

Mastodon - preview

Mastodon

28 Feb 2007

METAL While metal continues to splinter and cross pollinate into a million different subgenres, each more wilfully obscure and self-conscious than the last, it takes a band like this quartet of Atlantans to reunite these individual pieces under the…

End, The - album review

The End

27 Feb 2007

METAL (Relapse) 2006 wasn’t the most exciting for metal. So it’s a relief that The End have come out of nowhere (well, Canada) to restore the faith and push the genre into new forms. Gone are the tonsil-tearing screams and mathcore chaos of…

Manatees

Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, Tue 7 Oct

6 Dec 2006

METAL Let’s call it the Isis effect. But nowadays with the Boston group gaining mainstream exposure thanks to a recent support with Tool, the number of bands playing epic, shoegazer, soundscape rock is a lot more than it used to be. Thankfully…

Cradle of Filth - album review

Cradle of Filth

27 Nov 2006

METAL There will always be a place in the history of metal for Cradle of Filth. They’ve been reliably upsetting our self imposed moral guardians since their inception. However, this is Cradle’s main problem - as an idea they’re like a bolt from the…

Mastodon - CD review

Mastodon

4 Sep 2006

METAL Loud, for some reason, has always been equated with stupid (Spinal Tap have a lot to answer for presumably), but as these four fairly well-adjusted young men from Atlanta prove, metal can be both big and very, very clever. They still indulge…