Rotting Out
Ronin
Pure Noise (2020)
Back in March, I attended a stop on the American Nightmare "reunion" tour, celebrating twenty years since they self-booked their first show at a church in Maine. While I still remain loyal to my wheelhouse of early- to mid-2000s hardcore, I hadn’t been to a show in nearly a decade. What I found there was somewhat expected yet still disheartening -- the crowd was sparse at best, I only saw a handful of familiar faces, and the energy that I reminisced about was largely absent. Even the band looked distinctly aged, understandably subdued in that youthful vitality of years past. Their set was solid and thoroughly satisfying, but the crowd didn’t react accordingly in my estimation -- I couldn’t even stagedive; you call this a hardcore show? Needless to say, while it was nostalgic and both sides of bittersweet, I couldn’t help but feel that those days are well in our rear-view mirror by now; like Wes says, “Recall the memories of yesterdays and better ways / and know the innocence is gone; move on.”Rotting Out formed in 2007, towards the tail end of that heyday of the hardcore scene, playing a tried and true style in what was then … Read more
Talk Me Off
Cursed
Smartpunk Records (2020)
There’s a lot to like on Cursed, the debut full-length by Richmond, VA’s Talk Me Off. But as much as … Read more
Gaahl's Wyrd
GastiR - Ghosts Invited
Season of Mist (2019)
Kristian Eivind Espedal, otherwise knows as Ghaahl has been a polarizing fixture on the Norwegian Black Metal scene since the … Read more
Mark Lanegan
Sing Backwards and Weep
hachette Book Group (2020)
“If I was honest, there was nothing but shame in the way I lived my life. I was nothing if … Read more
