Post-pandemic reality for San Diego’s only sake brewery Brian and Israel talk with Josh and Kim from San Diego’s own, Setting Sun Sake Brewing Company. They discuss the history of Setting Sun Sake, the impact of the Metal Swap Meet on their business, their Ronin Recovery program as well as metal bands and their future….
Metal Swap Meet Update [video]
Brian, Israel, and Vince chat about what’s new We talk about metal ticket giveaways, Setting Sun Sake Ronin Recovery, and the Wacken Metal Battle at Brick by Brick.
San Diego Metal Swap Meet 2021 Highlights [video]
It was an incredible day I finally finished up a video with hilights footage from the Metal Swap Meet in October, 2021. The event had Bloodfeast, Cave Bastard and Malison perform live, as well as DJ Katon (Hirax) spinning the great metal between bands. Thank you to everyone who attended, and the over 70 vendors…
Agathodaimon – “The Seven” Review
Their first album in 9 years, Agathodaimon return in 2022 with “The Seven”, their seventh full length album released on Napalm Records. Identity Crisis My first introduction to Agathodaimon was their 1998 debut, “Blacken The Angel“. They performed symphonic/melodic black metal with melodic tremelo picking, such as the opening track “Tristetea Vehementa” on that first…
Behold! Three Bands’ Odes to Bal-Sagoth
“Whatever happened to Bal-Sagoth??”, you say? Well…, when the insane mastermind of anything and everything Bal-Sagothian (Mr. Byron Roberts) decided to put the band on a very permanent hold back in 2013 to become a writer, poet, and whatever else…, it created a huge sad gap in the Symphonic Blackened Metal scene. Or did it…?…
Dark Funeral – “We Are The Apocalypse” Review
Legends Dark Funeral have been putting out crushing black metal since 1996 beginning with the seminal debut “Secrets Of The Black Arts” – which happens to be the album that hooked me to the black metal genre. With many line-up changes through-out their career, Lord Ahriman being the only remaining founding member; despite this Dark…
Sabaton: The War To End All Wars review
As most of you already know for better or worse, the Swedish metal machine Sabaton have been creating war-themed hymns since 1999 to the delight of fans and detractors alike. Sabaton is not everyone’s cup of tea but for many folks they are an entertaining and greatly talented lot. I fall somewhere in the middle…
Bandcamp Bonanza: Four More Random Things to Check Out in 2022 (and One To Ignore)
For laughs sometimes I go to the Metal section on the main page on Bandcamp, and randomly poke around. It is organized and updated continuously to always show the latest releases first, so there is always something new to check out there. Huge big-name bands, one-shot demos from broken up bands, mainstream acts, underground groups,…
Vio-Lence – “Let The World Burn” Review
“Let The World Burn” is the latest release from thrash legends, Vio-Lence, released March 3rd, 2022 on Metal Blade Records. Marching over to Metal-Archives.com, it also appears to be the newest material since 1993’s “Nothing To Gain”. You can say it’s been awhile. Thrash Legends Mark Their Return I have a confession to make: I…
Crowbar “Zero And Below” Review
The sun rises, the sun sets; the tides ebb and flow. Like death and taxes, some things are inevitable – and inevitably reliable. Along those lines, you can always rely on Crowbar‘s Kirk Windstein to bring a 55-gallon drum of sludge to anything he touches. Is that reliability a help or hindrance for their 12th…
