gloomchen

Website: High Blue Star The Inside Pulse: Minneapolis’ High Blue Star isn’t a project for everyone; electronic-based yet hauntingly pretty, it’s certainly more art than music. Seeing them live, this is readily apparent as they create a visual spectacle alongside the music itself. Their eponymous debut effort does its best to recreate the atmosphere of [...]

Website: The Beast presents: Invaders The Inside Pulse: It’s a stoner metal haven on Invaders, a compilation of eighteen bands spanning metal genres from psychedelic to straight-ahead hard rock. Established names like High On Fire and Pelican ride alongside many other names which may be unfamiliar. The common thread is a vibe, a groove that [...]

And now, the exciting conclusion of the music staff’s first impressions! 7. “Foxey Lady,” Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced? Greg W. – I wasn’t there so I have no idea how he did it. This aggressive song about lust, with the some not so loving lyrics (“Here I come, baby. I’m coming to get [...]

Website: Panzer AG The Inside Pulse: It seems Icon of Coil’s Andy LaPlegua can’t sit still for three minutes. His second effort under the Panzer AG moniker, he’s perfectly content to split his various tastes in electronic music between several projects rather than attempt to make them all work together. Your World Is Burning combines [...]

Continuing down from yesterday, our music staff counts down the best first tracks from artists’ first albums… T-13. “Good Times, Bad Times,” Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin Tom D. – While the band would ultimately modify the direction it was headed (and its overall sound for that matter), the opener “Good Times, Bad Times” stands tall [...]

Website: Katatonia The Inside Pulse: Katatonia’s signature atmospheric, dark brand of symphonic metal is once again embodied fully with their latest, The Great Cold Distance. While the fans of this Swedish band have come to expect this sound from them, this latest effort moves farther away from the sounds of traditional metal and more into [...]

Introduction by Greg Wind: It’s a pristine canvas for an artist or band to set new expectations for music. There are any number of reasons to follow the path of the easily-described or the ready-for-radio, and while many of the below became radio hits, how many of those making a first impression also took the [...]

As usual, I saw a whole lot of local bands playing the last couple of weeks. Tasha’s Laughter: They started playing, I was unimpressed. Straight-ahead Gin Blossoms type of boredom rock. But somewhere around the fifth song, they played some crazy instrumental and from that point on, it was like Tool minus the boredom. Brilliant [...]

Website: Rage The Inside Pulse: It seems as though in Germany, metal bands just aren’t allowed to die. Rage — who has been releasing albums since 1985 — has gone through a number of lineup changes over the years, but keeps marching forward with Speak of the Dead. The first half of the disc is [...]

Website: Oomph! Is Oomph! a new name to you? Glaube Liebe Tod is their ninth full-length studio release. Unfortunately, that’s the way of the world when European bands record in any language other than English, unless you’re recording industrial or other electronic music. And that’s where Oomph!’s anonymity remains a mystery: once a purely electronic [...]