By Stewart
Dust off your medical dictionaries and cadaverously incubate those endoparasites! Carcass, the gods of goregrind are back with their first album in 17 years!
These kinds of extended breaks between albums can have very different effects on different bands. Of late, we as music fans have been rather blessed with the quality of “comeback” albums from rock & metal acts we’d thought were long defunct. So… does ‘Surgical Steel’ keep up with this pleasing trend? Read more…
By Stewart
It’s been 8 long years since The Arctic Monkeys first smashed their way onto the indie rock scene. They sure came out swinging, brandishing the adrenaline fuelled foot stomper “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor” and its parent album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ which both went straight to number one on the UK charts.
Enter ‘AM’. The title’s short… good start, but does it fulfil expectations? Initial sales figures say yes, but that’s never any real indication. Stew says…. Read more…
By Ben
Orange Goblin are rock and roll survivors.
Since their inception in 1995 they have seen many a trend and pretender come and go. The English lads have had their musical style described as “stoner rock, doom rock & good old “heavy metal” over their expansive seven album career.
Humility & integrity from legends of the heavy rock scene is a rare & wonderful thing. The band proved to be really down to earth fellas, as exemplified by vocalist Ben Ward’s willingness to answer a few questions exclusively for SSMB. Read more…
By Stewart
… but the genius of this record is in the way it manages to combine seemingly conflicting emotional states into an oxymoronic whole. The infectious beats, electro-funk, black lyrical content and myriad sonic textures cause a musical bipolarity within the listener which undulates back and forth with expertly controlled violence… Read more
By Ben
What does one do on Saturday night when the insipid performance of your footy team is making you upset, depressed and angry? Head down to the local for some brutally heavy sludge bands of course, that will get you uplifted in no time! Read more
By Andrew
Hieroglyphics come straight from the nineties again with the crew album to remind those out there that gang mentality and ‘sippin syzurp’ are the shitty by-products of the money hungry attitude rap produced but its not the defining essential of hip-hop at its purist. For those that don’t know them, don’t judge this as “just another rap group”. They are “the” rap group. As far as a crew album goes, its pretty much Del Tha Funkee Homosapien who makes it, but that wouldn’t do justice to the others in the crew. ‘The Kitchen’ just proves that Del is not the only good MC in the crew and every man in Hiero is just as legit an artist as Del.
By Andrew
I’ve been a huge supported of NZ music for a long time now and that could be due to family ties but I like to think its because they produce some of the best groove, DnB and dub in the biz. Shapeshifter are one of a trend of groups coming out of New Zealand that specialise in banging beats and smooth, smooth grooves. ‘Delta’ is their latest drop of NZ beat nectar and its no different than their best.
by Andrew
Who the fuck is Naughty Boy I hear you ask? And it’s a pretty legit question as Hotel Cabana is his debut release for a dude who has been in the production business for quite a few years. Shahid Khan is a 28 year old producer from the UK who goes by the moniker Naughty Boy and has had a hand in several UK hits over the past ten years ranging from Tinie Tempah, Wiley and the gorgeous and groundshaking voice of Emelie Sande. In fact, his production of Emelie Sande’s 2012 debut is pretty much the solid base from which Hotel Cabana comes about. And boy is it a pleasant pop surprise.
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