Tag: metal

Sound, Blood, and Lineup: A Review of Howl’s Bloodlines

Bloodlines, Howl’s second full-length album, is due to be released by Relapse Records April 30th.  Fans of the Rhode Island doom metal band will find this work to be just as powerful as Full of Hell, but with some marked differences. The first distinction is that Bloodlines is a lot less sludgy.  If Full of… Continue reading Sound, Blood, and Lineup: A Review of Howl’s Bloodlines

My Heart Lays Bair Before You: An Alternative Control Valentine’s Day Special

Editor’s Note: In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, Alternative Control writers attempted to compile a list of the hottest dudes in local and national metal.  We soon realized that this was an impossible task because the list would be way too long to publish — but Ryan Bair heartily volunteered to put together our initial… Continue reading My Heart Lays Bair Before You: An Alternative Control Valentine’s Day Special

Interview With Matt Mellon of Black Table

  Bass players have a reputation as the underdogs of music.  Jokes abound about the groupie who was dumb enough to sleep with the bass player, the bass player who got locked in the car with the keys, the bass player who just played E… In fact, in a recent interview on a popular metal… Continue reading Interview With Matt Mellon of Black Table

Fuck the Scene!

The “Scene” is dead.  It died a long time ago. There used to be several bands from NYC to New Haven that would regularly play shows across Connecticut, draw crowds, and bring in bands from as far away as Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. This was the result of a large, spread-out-yet interconnected group of… Continue reading Fuck the Scene!

The Mighty, Terrific, Luxurious and Jeweled! An Interview With Lightsbane

Long ago, within a metal scene far, far away, a quartet of mighty superhero musicians were birthed in the secretive and sacred valley of the fifth colony of a massive world power. They immediately sprung to monstrous size, thrashing about their enormous instruments of death upon the ears of the entire valley and beyond. For… Continue reading The Mighty, Terrific, Luxurious and Jeweled! An Interview With Lightsbane

Review of Graven Image’s The Future Started Yesterday

For this writer, concept albums are a hit-or-miss proposition.  The idea needs to both inspire the band musically and power a lyrical thread strong enough to engage the listener intellectually.  Nobody wants to hear Dream Theater grind out eight epic songs about waffles.  (Or do we?)  CT-based metal mavens Graven Image found their muse and… Continue reading Review of Graven Image’s The Future Started Yesterday