Check out my latest feature, the 10 Best Deftones songs.
Choosing the 10 Best Deftones Songs was difficult, since they have an extensive body of work. Our list is heavy on ‘Around the Fur’ and ‘White Pony’ songs, as those albums truly represent the band’s artistic and commercial pinnacle. Since the Sacramento band has been active since the early ’90s, choosing 10 songs was a task that was muy difficile.
Read the rest of my 10 Best Deftones Songs feature over at Loudwire.
Read my 10 Best Soundgarden songs feature over at Loudwire!
The 10 Best Soundgarden songs are hard to choose for several reasons, but mostly because they have assembled an expansive catalog that transcends the “grunge” tag, since they existed as an entity years before “grunge” was a category and term. They also honed their sound, which allowed them continued success as grunge and all its offshoot bands began to wane in popularity.
Read the rest of my 10 Best Soundgarden songs feature over at Loudwire!
I reviewed the latest from Down, ‘Down IV, Part 1 – The Purple EP.’
The EP is like a high quality, low-calorie meal. It fills you up, sustains you, gives you energy and makes you feel good, but with none of these excess pounds or throwaway fillers.
Read the rest of my review over at LoudWire.
I reviewed the ‘Vultures’ from AxeWound.
‘Vultures’ is 10 tracks of thrashy, razor-sharp riffery, with vocals that are screamy where they need to be and growly when they need to be. The overall mood is nastier than a hungry Rottweiler. It doesn’t straddle any lines or flounder in the middle of the road.
Read the rest of my review over at LoudWire.
Read my 10 Best Mastodon songs feature over at Loudwire!
Mastodon entered our metal lives only recently, relatively speaking, dropping the ‘Lifesblood’ EP in 2001 and the ‘Remission’ LP in 2002. But they’ve assembled of body of work of great depth and breadth in the past 12 years, and that makes choosing the 10 best Mastodon songs no easy task.
Read the rest of my 10 Best Mastodon songs feature over at Loudwire!
I reviewed the latest song from All The Remains, ‘Stand Up (Stand Up).’
While there are some guitars with bite here and there, the nasty thrash and European-style guitar acrobatics that defined the band’s earliest efforts are pretty much swapped out in favor of cleaner, more accessible riffs.
Read the rest of my review of All The Remains, ‘Stand Up (Stand Up)’ over at Loudwire.
Check out my feature, ’10 Best Pantera Songs’ over at Loudwire.
Their catalog is littered with some of the most memorable riffs of all time, and lyrical declarations that have been tattooed on bodies and were screamed back at them at live shows.
Read my full feature over at Loudwire.
Read my post with Phil Anselmo about the new Down EP, and his new solo project. Says Anselmo,
“My solo record is recorded and has one more mix to go,” he said. The project will be called, simply, Philip H. Anselmo, and the album title is ‘Walk Through Exits Only.’
Read the rest of my interview with Phil Anselmo over at Loudwire.
I spoke with Phil Anselmo recently and we got talking about the drama involving his beloved New Orleans Saints. Said Anselmo,
“The f—ing league has handed out a penalty without having a case,” the singer said. “It’s very interesting that it comes at a time when the NFL is being sued by multiple f—ing plaintiffs about and former players dealing with concussion related things, memory loss and [the recently deceased] Junior Seau. It doesn’t help at all. The Saints are good for the city; we take pride even when we were the biggest f—ng losers, we found pride in that.”
Read what else Phil Anselmo had to say about the suspensions over at Loudwire.
Read my big Q&A interview session with Phil Anselmo. We got talking about the 20th anniversary reissue of Pantera’s ‘Vulgar Display of Power.’
Do you have a favorite song from ‘Vulgar?’
That’s a tough pick. If I had to, I’d go with ‘A New Level.’ The riff is punishing, and once again, those lyrics, man. In hindsight, I look back at them, motherf—er man. It’s not like ‘Oh s—, what happened?’ But ‘Ooooh s—.’ I got it and I got it so young. You grow, go through bulls— yourself, having penned these myself, you think that you are not 24 anymore, you are 34, and now f—ing 44. Jesus Christ, you look back, man, my head was in a more logical place than it is today, but like you, you read into it, let it affect you. I can do that these days, since I am not so close to it anymore, I can step back and listen. I can listen, since I am not as close and not in it. I can sit back and be objective, as a listener. I’m not an outsider, but I can listen to it with a fresh opinion.
Read the rest of my interview with Phil Anselmo over at Loudwire.