By Jason Coldiron

What started as a side project has become the main dish in the California rock scene. In December, 2011 a group of musicians came together from five other bands looking to create another outlet for their artistic expression. Hailing from bands like Skinlab, Deconstruct, Colma and Ratchet, the men went into the lab to do what had to be done. Jump ahead a year and half and skip over a couple of lineup changes and a million hours of their own hard work, Dedvolt sits poised to stake claim among today’s rock giants.   Continue reading →

By Andrew Bansal

Longstanding Maryland-based rockers Clutch are ready to release their tenth studio album ‘Earth Rocker’ on March 19th via Weathermaker Music. This one has taken a long time coming, with the previous album ‘Strange Cousins From The West’ dating back to early 2009. Being a band that has experimented and progressed through varying styles of heavy music, a new album by Clutch is always an interesting prospect, and raises curiosity about the kind of musical direction they’re going with. This time though, it’s extremely difficult to even categorize the record into a specific sub-genre, and it’s a wholesome, rock n’ roll record in every sense. Continue reading →

By Andrew Bansal

Swedish melodic death metal band Soilwork are ready to release their ninth studio album ‘The Living Infinite’ on March 1st in Europe and March 5th in the US via Nuclear Blast, and this is an album that’s perhaps as important for the band’s career as anything they’ve previously put out, for a number of reasons. This is their first ever double album, with 20 brand new original tracks on two discs. It’s also their first album after the departure of guitarist Peter Wichers, who left the band for the second time due to ‘creative differences’ with the other members. Without him in the lineup, it has become even more crucial for the band to prove themselves, and the prospect of a double album heightens the anticipation further amongst fans. And thirdly, with a previous album as incredibly catchy as the 2010 release ‘The Panic Broadcast’, it was always going to be interesting to hear how their sound developed since then, specially with new guitarist David Andersson as an integral part of the songwriting process. Continue reading →

By Andrew Bansal

In their continual pursuit to support old school hard rock and heavy metal, Nuclear Blast Records have unearthed yet another potential gem. Swedish classic hard rock quartet Free Fall recently signed to the label and are now all set to release their debut full-length album titled ‘Power & Volume’. Hitting stores in Europe tomorrow February 22nd, in the UK on February 25th, and in the USA on March 19th, this is the band’s first effort at presenting what they describe as ‘freedom rock’. The country of Sweden never ceases to amaze me with the sheer multitude of heavy rock and metal bands it keeps on producing. Free Fall is the newest one to be introduced to us, and based on this set of tunes, it’s safe to say that they’re not here to simply make up the numbers. Continue reading →

By Andrew Bansal

Every once in a while, I visit the BandCamp website and click on ‘Discover’, to see if I can find anything worthwhile. I usually see a number of bands featured on there that would otherwise be out of my radar, simply due to the fact that they’re not signed to big labels or PR agents, and they don’t feature in any of the dozens of press releases that are emailed to me on a daily basis. This means I have to make an effort on my own to go and look for bands that deserve the attention. I would consider myself and this website a failure if I didn’t do so and just stuck to covering the signed bands, and so I went on a BandCamp adventure earlier today. Seattle-based one-man project Shroud Of Spiders was the one that impressed me the most this time. Here is my review of the self-titled debut EP, a five-track instrumental piece composed and recorded by Thom Beckman, mostly on his solid body electric mandolin. Continue reading →