I can’t remember exactly how it happened, but one night I stumbled upon a relatively unknown cluster of Pacific deep-northwest metal bands. They were mostly average in terms of musicianship and appeal, but one act with a couple of singles from a forthcoming album stood above the pack. This band was Bushwhacker, and their since-fully released third album A Fistful of Poison is one of the most creative and polished offerings to come out of any metal scene in recent memory. To call this album “underrated” would be an understatement as big as the Montana sky; at the time … Read more
Italy’s Vektor, Vexovoid, just released their debut album, Call of the Starforger. Despite their name, more reminiscent of Portal than anything else, Vexovoid’s sound lies somewhere between aforementioned Vektor, and Voivod. Their own take on progressive, blackened thrash metal is nothing new, thanks to Terminal Redux being one of the absolute best albums of last year, but this had the side effect of making this special brand of metal highly demanded. Call of the Starforger is great and the flow of riffs is unstoppable, making it a very welcome addition to the not so expansive array of releases …