Kevin Stewart-Panko

Expain – Vancouver Band Acts Like Wise Acres, Premiere’s New Song and Eviscerates Classic Tune

June 12, 2014

So, this band from Vancouver called Expain (formerly known as The Almighty Excruciating Pain), who are as indebted to thrash as they are to quick-change jazz, Weired Al Yankovic’s discography and dusty recordings of the old Doctor Demento radio show, has a new album coming out. It’s self-released (well, sort of, as it was aided…

A Gruesome Salute to Death

June 5, 2014

Hearing about Exhumed’s Matt Harvey joining forces with ex-Malevolent Creation drummer Gus Rio, Possessed guitarist Daniel Gonzalez and Derketa bassist Robin Mazen to form Gruesome, a band designed to be “basically a Death tribute band – as the County Medical Examiners are to Carcass, this pretty much is to Death” got me pretty excited. I…

The Great Sabatini Premiere New Album, Don’t Drown Despite What it Looks Like

May 29, 2014

Montreal’s kings of noise rock diversity and awesome promo photos, The Great Sabatini (who we have mentioned on this blog previously), have a new album in the starting gate. It’s called Dog Years and you can listen to the whole damn thing below while you read guitarist/vocalist Sean Sabatini discuss the record’s nuts ‘n’ bolts…

Video Premiere: Throne of Vengeance’s “Live Evil”

May 22, 2014

Calgary’s Throne of Vengeance was one of the bands mentioned in a recent edition of our “Throw Me a Frickin’ Bone,” the magazine’s space for demos and self-releases as curated and delivered by some half-black Canadian nerd face.

Sandrider: Preview of “Dogwater,” Non-T-Shirt Version.

May 20, 2014

We used to love Akimbo around these parts. I say used to, not because they suddenly betrayed their clangy, mathy roots for a combination of slick radio rock and Drake covers, but because they up and broke up. So, I guess in a roundabout way, we still love Akimbo even though the band doesn’t really…

“We Like to Write No-Brainers from the Heart,” and Other Quotable Gems: Anti Ritual Interviewed

May 15, 2014

With 17 billion bands, labels and PR people all clamouring for a piece of the attention pie, it sometimes gets to the point where you want to grab a small stack of classics and go stick your head in the proverbial sand of that deserted desert island people claim to be listening to their favourite…

Misery Index’s Jason Netherton Talks About Extremity Retained

May 8, 2014

I’m not exactly sure where Jason Netherton finds the time and energy to do everything he does, but he does. Most of you are probably familiar with him via Misery Index, a band he formed after his departure from Dying Fetus. However, it doesn’t stop there. Presently, he’s kinda-sorta uprooted from his Maryland home and…

Psychotic Gardening: Video Premiere and Interview

May 1, 2014

While the moniker may conjure up images of retirees bashing each other over the head with hoes, slashing at their wrinkly skin with hand rakes, Freddy Kruger-ed up gardening gloves and lots of screaming while being chased by gnarly pairs of razor-sharp hedge clippers, Psychotic Gardening is actually a band. You may have made that…

Hey Everyone, Gather ‘Round for KSP’s Over-Intellectualisation of Impaled Nazarene

April 24, 2014

Admittedly, I haven’t been an obsessive listener of Impaled Nazarene since their formation back in 1990 in the shadowy flanks of Finland’s goat brothels.

It’s About Time: Playing Enemy’s I Was Your City Issued on Vinyl

April 17, 2014

This bit of news may be a week or two old, but considering the connection to the Decibel family and that this album is one of the unsung, unheralded, un-everything albums of the 2000’s that you probably don’t own but should, we felt it merited some more mention. Here are a few informational snippets from…

Interview with Thou’s Andy Gibbs and Bryan Funck

April 10, 2014

Baton Rouge doom/sludge prolific over-achievers, Thou has returned from an almost unheard of (for them, anyway) two years of silence as far as releases are concerned with their latest and greatest full-length, Heathen. We recently sent guitarist Andy Gibbs and vocalist Bryan Funck a bunch of questions to respond to via email. It would appear…

Fuck Winter. Listen to an Exclusive Stream of Blistered’s New EP

April 3, 2014

Blistered is a five-piece metallic hardcore outfit who call Tampa home and came to my attention courtesy the good folks at 6131 Records who are releasing their latest offering, and EP called Soul Erosion, which you can stream below. As winter goes on and my stir-craziness hits epic proportions, part of my decision to give…

Into Mosh Pit: Nervosa Interviewed

March 27, 2014

Sao Paulo, Brazil thrash brigade, Nervosa had their debut album, Victim of Yourself hit the streets very recently, although the buzz in the patch-jacketed ‘n’ bullet-belted underground has been swirling around this trio for a couple years. Being a trio of staunch and avowed all-tits-no-dicks thrash heads hailing from a faraway, sun-kissed land will always…

Kevin Stewart-Panko’s 7 Inches of Pleasure, Pain and Mediocrity

March 20, 2014

I get sent a lot of shit* to review; more than I can fit in any one place at one time. But because folks out there take the time to send me their wares, I usually feel obligated to give some sort of mention, nod, kudo or deliver a full-on scathing, hatchet job to those…

Rock Out With Your Frog Out: Barren Womb Interviewed

March 6, 2014

Norway’s Barren Womb may have a blue plasticine frog as their mascot, they may have just set themselves up for a lifetime of ribbing by titling their debut album The Sun’s Not Yellow, it’s Chicken and a good number of their promo photos may have the general public wondering how serious they should be taken,…

Exmortus – “Foe Hammer” Video Premiere

February 27, 2014

California’s Exmortus blew my ears and balls back with their debut full length, In Hatred`s Flame back in 2008. The quartet seemed destined to take their prodigious talents, love of aggressive 80s-inspired metal, interest in neo-classical shred and proclivity for combining all three of those elements to the top of the then-bubbling thrash revival. Then,…

Hell Goes to America: Hellbenders Interviewed

February 20, 2014

I discovered Brazil’s Hellbenders the old fashioned way: their U.S. publicist pointed me in their direction. However, instead of doing what I normally do and ignoring the histrionic pitch (which, after having the band described as Brazil’s answer to Kyuss/High on Fire/stoner/desert rock, would have been the logical thing to do), I bit. And man,…

Subtracting Proportions: An Interview with Biblical

February 13, 2014

I’ve known Nick Sewell, and been aware of his prodigious skill on the bass gee-tar, since the mid-90s. Good Lord! That’s round-and-about 20 real-life years, which is the equivalent of about 2000 musician/band years. In that time, dude has played in some of Toronto’s most notorious metal and hard rockin’ bands, including Tchort, The Illuminati…

Cooking with KEN Mode’s Andrew LaCour

February 6, 2014

It was day two of a recent KEN Mode tour across Canada on which I was acting as designated merch slinger and person-who-tries-to-make-sure-nothing-gets-lost-or-forgotten-because-he-doesn’t-drink. After piling into the van that afternoon, bassist Andrew LaCour whipped out a bag of tuna cuts that he and his father had smoked a couple days previously. For the next half-hour,…

Streaming (some of) the Monuments Collapse/Breag Naofa Split and Why Physical Copies Don’t Suck

January 30, 2014

The fucking hassle and amount of fucking time I wasted just to put this stupid stream up wasn’t worth it. San Francisco’s Monuments Collapse and Seattle’s Breag Naofa have had a split release available since last month. It originally came out around the Christmas rush and was probably forgotten/ignored for that reason. Here, we present…

Sweet Smooth Smoke Rising. An Interview with Vaporizer

January 23, 2014

Those of you who pay rapt attention to the Throw Me a Frickin’ Bone column might already have taken note of Vaporizer and the kind words I’ve bestowed upon their intense irascibility and how I gave their EP a nod as one of the top self-releases of last year. If you haven’t already checked them…

Did You See Them Live? Sam Black Church Documentarian Duncan Wilder Johnson Interviewed

January 16, 2014

The email came in from Ol’ Man Mudrian a few days ago and it went, in part, like this: “Have you ever heard Sam Black Church? People from the New England area like to blow them incessantly, but people like me who “never saw them live” just think they accidentally invented nu metal. Either way,…

Can’t Stop. Won’t Stop: Biipiigwan Interviewed

January 9, 2014

Ontario’s Biipiigwan is a quizzical beast of a band. From their moniker and line-up’s open-door policy to their sound and members being spread out across this humongous province of ours, questions pertaining to how, why, where and who usually abound when the band is the topic of conversation. The driving force behind this are-they-metal?-are-they-hardcore?-are-they-noise-rock?-are-they-sludge-doom?-just-what-the-hell-are-they? is…

Starting the New Year Off with a Bang: Random Glen Benton Quotes.

January 2, 2014

Long-running, God-poking death metal crew, Deicide released their eleventh album, In the Minds of Evil in late November. This had journalists the world over gleefully rubbing their nubs at the thought of another round of press with the ever-quotable Glen Benton. Those nubs were rubbed a little less vigorously when it was learned that the…

He Who Laughs Last, Doesn’t Laugh With Beaten to Death

December 19, 2013

As long as Oslo’s Beaten to Death exists, debate will exist as to whether they’re taking grindcore into uncharted waters and making the world a better place because of it, or whether they just plain suck for the same reason. Personally, their first album Xes and Strokes and newest, Dødsfest! are two of the freshest…

My Awesome Day Job x 2. The Extended Andrew Carter Interview.

December 12, 2013

Andrew Carter. Who the hell is Andrew Carter? Well, if you ever want/need anyone to blame for giving me a start in the world of (ahem) “professional music journalism,” you can blame him as he was one of the principals who gave me my first paying gig at Terrorizer some 16+ years ago back when…

J.J. Hrubovcak Saves Christmas.

December 5, 2013

When I was a kid, of course I loved Christmas. Gifts, food, candy, chocolate, family and friends dropping by and bringing more gifts, food, candy and chocolate, a fat man breaking into your house and not stealing shit…what’s not to like? Then, during my angsty teenage-and-early-20s, I really developed a rock-solid hate-on for the holiday…

Throwin’ Frickin’ Bones on the Interhole.

November 21, 2013

We threw them a frickin’ bone a couple months ago, and now they’ve taken that bone and jumped eyebrows deep into the fray. Iowa’s Green Death is set to release a CD/DVD combo with the kicker being that they’re doing it all by their lonesome. Hell, at the time of the following interview with vocalist…

An Interview with Obelyskkh (In Which We Only Bug Them About Their Band Name on One Occasion)

November 14, 2013

Germany’s Obelyskkh may have one of the oddest monikers in extreme music today, but just as their choice of band name tests all parts of your pronunciation apparatus, so does their music cover all bases in the world of psychedelic, stoner, sludge, doom rock and metal on new record, Hymn to Pan out on Exile…

Holy Shit! One Dude (Basically) Books this Whole Thing! An Interview with FunFunFunFest’s Graham Williams

October 31, 2013

The 8th FunFunFunFest kicks off next week in Austin and though it may not strictly be an extreme music fest along the lines of the usual multi-day extravaganzas featured in this space, it is one of the largest fests I’ll have the opportunity to write about and still offers a shit-ton of metal and hardcore…