This is the fourth album from Greyhaven, a hardcore band from the US.
I’ve been looking forward to this. 2022’s This Bright and Beautiful World placed second from the very top on my end of year list, and I loved catching them live at the start of the year. So, with this much expectation, is disappointment inevitable, or can the 41 minutes of music on Keep it Quiet rise to the challenge? Continue reading “Greyhaven – Keep It Quiet (Review)”
This is the third album from US hardcore band The Callous Daoboys.
Full of genre-splicing, creative sounds, and adventurous ideas, I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven is a 57-minute embarrassment of riches. It’s a diverse record, ripe with captivating riffs, reflective introspection, huge breakdowns, pop hooks, and much else. Continue reading “The Callous Daoboys – I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven (Review)”
Now this is a lineup. All three bands I’d go and see in their own right, let alone all touring together. Tonight I feel like I’m in for a real treat. Morale is high as I enter the Academy 3, and it’s about to get a whole lot of busy. Continue reading “Better Lovers/Frontierer/Greyhaven – Academy 3, Manchester – 19/01/25 (Live Review)”
So here we are again. It’s December, and year end lists are flying around like shrapnel. Due to the inherent subjectivity of music it’s always interesting to see what people have made of the preceding year.
For me, I made a concerted effort to drag myself away from the depths of black metal’s always-enticing abyss to spend some more time with other genres and styles that I also love. I said something similar last year, but I feel this year I was more successful in achieving that end. Of course, I still love black metal, still listen to it constantly, and you’ll still find some great examples of the blackened arts in the list below.
2022 was a strong year for death metal for me, and I enjoyed more death metal bands in a deeper way than I have done for some time. In every year there are standout releases, but I felt this year the standard was raised throughout. Possibly I was simply more receptive to it. Either way, you’ll find more death metal-related acts, and in higher spots, in this selection than you’ll have seen in my lists for a while.
As with last year, grindcore was largely absent from my year, disappointingly, as was hardcore. Additionally, the sort of lengthy, ugly, abyssal doom that I love so much has been largely lacking too. It’s all probably out there somewhere, but I didn’t catch it.
The top two spots this year are both claimed by albums/bands/styles that I simply could not have predicted would be at the pinnacle of my list by the year’s end, (one of the bands I hadn’t even heard of in January). I hope you enjoy these excellent records even half as much as I do.
Lastly I just want to say a big thank you to any and all that might read this site. It’s only a small endeavour, and I do it purely for the love of all things METAL and to support bands that I enjoy in whatever minor way I can, but if this is you, a heartfelt thank you for enduring my scribblings.
On to it! Continue reading “Wonderbox Metal End of Year List – Best Metal of 2022”
Another month, another explosion of quality metal albums to listen to and fall in love with. Peruse the five standout releases below from April and let me know what tickles your fancy… Continue reading “Monthly Overview – the Best of April 2022”
This is the third album from Greyhaven, a hardcore band from the US.
Greyhaven play a form of modern post-hardcore that takes influence from a range of places. On the one hand they clearly follow the Every Time I Die template of hardcore, with raucous heaviness mixed with emotive cleanly-sung sections. On the other hand though, they also follow a sort of progressive post-hardcore Continue reading “Greyhaven – This Bright and Beautiful World (Review)”
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