Metal and Hardcore

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Interview: Glenn Danzig

The horror-punk legend on Deth Red Sabaoth , comics, and vast global conspiracies
There was a moment, while I was on hold on the phone as Glenn Danzig was being summoned by his publicist, where I was a tad intimidated. And not just because I was about to talk about one of the more legendary and divisive figures in the history of punk and metal.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | June 21, 2010

Mission accomplished

Isis call it quits with a last-hurrah tour
After 13 years, singer/guitarist Aaron Turner and the band (all New England kids except Ohio native Meyer) have announced that they're packing it in.
By MATT PARISH | June 21, 2010

The Big Hurt: Enduring the Billboard ‘Active’ chart

Who charted?
If you're not in the radio business, you might not know the term "Active Rock." It's not a genre, thank Heaven, but a radio format — the worst radio format.
By DAVID THORPE | June 01, 2010

Born Ruffians | Say It

Warp (2010)
Over the past half of Warp’s robust 20-year run, the label’s enduring legacy as a vanguard force in electronic music has drifted as its tastes have gone positively eclectic. The mixed-media future folk of Bibio, the experimental soul of Jamie Lidell, the polished post-punk nuts of Maximo Park.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | May 26, 2010

Ronnie James Dio (1942 - 2010)

Live free or rock
As he lay in a Texas hospital bed in March, being treated for the disease to which he would eventually succumb, Ronald James Padavona, better known to the world as heavy-metal legend Ronnie James Dio, gave an interview to a local TV station. “Cancer? I’ll kick the hell out of you,” he declared, before throwing the devil horns.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 21, 2010

Molten metal

Expanding definitions at the New England Metal and Hardcore Fest
Let’s cut to the chase — metal is back. And not just as a popular musical style, but as a subculture, freely seeping into the mainstream in a variety of strange ways, from the bullet belts you see on a dance floor to the devil horns being thrown by everybody and your uncle’s band.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | April 23, 2010

Photos: High on Fire at the Middle East

High on Fire, live at the Middle East, on April 7, 2010
Phantom warlords High on Fire demolish the Middle East with their bonecrushing steamroller of metal.
By DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN | April 12, 2010

White Wizzard | Over The Top

Earache (2010)
White Wizzard circa 2010 may be a complete fraud to some.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | March 30, 2010

The Big Hurt: Bieber fever

Plus U2’s purported fans, and Keane hits the green
Of the 45 headlines on mtv.com’s music-news section, nine are about JUSTIN BIEBER . That’s precisely 20 percent.
By DAVID THORPE | March 30, 2010

Crime In Stereo | I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone

Bridge Nine (2010)
Crime in Stereo are fighting to grow out of hardcore.
By REYAN ALI | March 09, 2010

The other side of heavy

Harvey Milk scramble your metal detector
Loving heavy rock is a two-step process. Step one is easy: you hear something heavier than you've ever heard before, and you realize, "This is my thing." Step two is a little trickier: you wonder, "What is 'heavy'?" If you can accept the idea that a certain set of limitations leads to ultimate heaviosity, then — kudos! — you are a metalhead.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | March 02, 2010

No moves required

Club nights for ye who cannot dance
Some of us are just better off not shaking it in public. So here are a few recurring options for rad nights of music that require not an ounce of dance mojo on your part.
By MATT PARISH | March 01, 2010

High On Fire | Snakes For The Divine

E1 (2010)
Joining a metal band as a young 'un is a bit like getting hired as a burger flipper: you may dream of one day becoming Ray Kroc, but after years of toil, grease, and ridicule, you'll probably settle for store manager.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | February 16, 2010

Interview: Skeletonwitch’s Scott Hedrick

Catching up with Demi Lovato’s favorite metal band
You know you've made it to rock’s Big Time when interviewers catch you as you're boarding a jet, instead of loading the tour van. And although Athens, OH's Skeletonwitch didn’t happen to be boarding their own Iron Maiden-like 747 when we reached them, they’ve got too much going on these days to make it all happen on four wheels.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | February 16, 2010

Interview: Ozzy Osbourne

The belles lettrist tells all
Long before he bit the heads off bats and doves, Ozzy Osbourne worked in a cheerless abattoir in the hardscrabble Aston section of Birmingham, England, where for 18 months he held such titles as "cow killer," "tripe hanger," "hoof puller," and "pig stunner."
By LANCE GOULD | January 29, 2010

Thinking person’s metal

The Empire Shall Fall rise up on Awaken
Jerky’s Bar continues its hot streak of delivering quality live acts spanning all genres, and next weekend the hardcore metalheads will descend upon Richmond Street for a fistful of metalcore bands, including the much-anticipated return of former Killswitch Engage/Seemless frontman Jesse Leach.
By CHRIS CONTI | November 12, 2009

Ye + Haru Bangs + Batshelter

Music Seen
Who was the least idiosyncratic band at Bubba’s last Thursday? Maybe the (not breaking up, but going on academic hiatus) duo Haru Bangs, who were the only act in plainclothes, but who also unfurled dynamic, punishingly loud fits of drum and effects-mauled guitar which will either strike you as utterly alienating or as novel, dizzying bits of well-composed chaos?
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | November 04, 2009

Dethklok: Even Better Than The Real Thing

With Mastodon, Converge, and High on Fire, live at the House of Blues, October 28, 2009
Heavy metal’s primary contradiction: given a fanbase that is often concerned with detecting what is and isn't "real" metal, so much of what constitutes "real" "metal" is made up of 100-percent pure fantasy.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | November 09, 2009

Hip-hop from Hell

Horrorcore salutes Ice Cube and Alice Cooper
Depraved hip-hop is the biggest thing to hit trailer-trash America since sliced meds.
By CHRIS FARAONE | October 29, 2009

Hip-hop is dead

. . . or undead, rather — just ask Zombie Death Squad
Depraved hip-hop is the biggest thing to hit trailer-trash America since sliced meds — and not just in redneck pockets, where rap music hardly reached before, but in suburban enclaves where acts like Twiztid and Tech N9ne sell out shows with ease.
By CHRIS FARAONE | October 30, 2009

Life in Ruin

The crushing metal of Human Moral Deception
Recently, Bull Moose wondered "aloud" (via Facebook) about the future of metal.
By SAM PFEIFLE | October 21, 2009

Brute forces

Mastodon, High on Fire, and Dethklok lead metal’s latest charge
When you get down to it, most music is an attempt to create auditory allegories for our life experiences, whether they’re joyous Maypole dervishes or nightmarish St. Vitus’ dances of doom.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | October 21, 2009

Baroness | Blue Record

Relapse (2009)
For a band of ultra-prosaic album titlers, Baroness are big thinkers when it comes to their music.
By MIKAEL WOOD | October 14, 2009

Review: Brütal Legend

Brutal is one way to put it
The cover of Brütal Legend sports an interesting detail.
By MITCH KRPATA | October 16, 2009

He is a real composer

And don't you try to tell Joshua Newton otherwise
Joshua Newton wants you to know he doesn't write classical music.
By EMILY PARKHURST | October 07, 2009

Music Seen: Book Of The Dead, Apocryphonic, Surreal Vision

At Geno’s | September 24
With as many talented musicians as there are in Portland, the occasional "super-group" is inevitable.
By DAN CLARK | September 30, 2009

Music Seen: Ogre's farewell show

At Geno's, September 12
It's never easy saying goodbye to a friend.
By DAN CLARK | September 23, 2009

3 Inches of Blood | Here Waits Thy Doom

Rough Trade (2009)
An outsider would peer into the ridiculous world of 3 Inches of Blood — which is inhabited by orcs and advancing scimitar-wielding hordes — and giggle.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | September 02, 2009

Up for the challenge

Rhythmafia: a new breed of mashup
Rhythmafia have been on the scene for about four years, and in that relatively short time the Providence natives — Rob Cinami (drums and backup vox), Jamie Kearns (guitar), Zack Chagnon (bass), and frontman Sam Montes — have successfully delivered a blatantly unique sound through the course of three albums.
By CHRIS CONTI | August 25, 2009

Players only

A peek inside the world of Harmonix
Jessica Smith has spent years booking death-metal shows around Boston. On top of loads of meat-and-potatoes nights at O'Brien's in Allston and Dee Dee's in Quincy, two of her shows — Origin and Malevolent Creation — actually sold out the Middle East upstairs.
By MATT PARISH | August 24, 2009