The Best Thing I’ve Heard All Week: Kilter – La suspendida


I’ve been a huge fan of the progressive metal band Kilter since their Axiom album back in 2020, and they’ve kept busy with the amazing Sys album and, coming in March, La suspendida. This upcoming album is an experience on a whole other level.

First off, the album is sold as a jazz-metal opera about a woman discovering herself through death, and for this occasion they brought together Folterkammer singer Andromeda Anarchia, the impossibly cool Growlers Choir, and the Seven Suns string quartet, and that’s without mentioning dancers Fanny Coulm and Yutaka Nakata, who are central to the … Read more

The Best Thing I’ve Heard This Week: Vicarious – Esoteria



So apparently the thing that makes me pick up my keyboard again is having so much fun listening to an album and seeing that it has literally zero person who bought it on Bandcamp.
Because that’s the injustice that’s happening right now.
Vicarious seems to be the brainchild of bassist-vocalist Brad Williamson (who has an absolutely wild Youtube channel). Those who’ve been reading this blog for a while will know that I crave good bass. Being a bassist myself, this is hardly surprising—everyone’s a little bit chauvinistic, I guess—but let me sell you on Esoteria.
So, first … Read more

Live Show Review: Poil Ueda and John Zorn at the FIMAV

FIMAV, photo by Martin Morissette

It is well known that I seldom venture out of the comforts of my abode to seek the fellowship of likeminded individuals in a live music ritual. However, upon seeing the delightful programme that the FIMAV (the French acronym for Victoriaville’s International Contemporary Music Festival) had to offer this year, I was tempted—and later fulfilled these temptations—to journey beyond the borders of my realm and into the unknown. You have to hand it to the organizers of this festival for the awe-striking programme: Poil Ueda (opening the festivities), Ikue Mori, Zoh Amba, Fred Frith, Guy… Read more

Review: Scorched Moon – Obsidia

The Music

The Words

Scorched Moon is a band featuring my buddy Trapper Lanthier (the band’s lead guitarist and one of the main songwriters), who actually attributes his love of Metal, to me! for introducing him to Blind Guardian through an anime music video I made back in 2003. Trapper has shown me some demos of his music over the past few years, which always impressed me, but this debut album, Obsidia, is on another level!

Obsidia is a sci-fi concept album, something that’s right up my alley. The lyrics and tone fit the concept … Read more

Matt versus Dragoncorpse: The Drakketh Saga Review

From premise to name, Dragoncorpse is not a band that exactly begs to be taken seriously. The elevator pitch of “power deathcore” gives you an honest and clear idea of what to expect: a gimmicky juxtaposition of two genres that are generally gimmicky to begin with. (Leading off the album with a guest appearance by a member of Brojob doesn’t help matters.) They’ve taken the “Dragon-” prefix that is necessarily required to indicate your power metal status. My friends and I half-started a joke band called Dragondragon more than a decade ago mocking this very phenomenon. Toss on “-corpse” to … Read more