Greg MacPherson Band
Fireball
(Disintegration Records)
4/5
Talk about underrated: Greg MacPherson is easily one of Canada’s greatest singer/songwriters. Yet, the guy gets no credit. He can lay down rocking party stompers like “Goes Like This” next to smooth, pensive cuts like this disc’s title track as if both flow smooth like a river.
And while the rockers are fun (here, opener “1995” is catchy, moving, and a good time all at once) it’s moodier cuts like “New-Jazz Trios” and “Tourists” that really paint a picture and deliver a mood.
On this album, MacPherson proves he’s come a long way from his first couple, which were excellent in their own way and provided a wonderful soundtrack for that period of my life. This one, unlike his last two albums, recapture that vibe of his old material (nowhere moreso than on “New-Jazz Trios”), but with a newer, more energetic and positive, edge. I look forward to it being the soundtrack to the next era of my life.
-Greg Pratt
Toxic Holocaust
Chemistry of Consciousness
(Relapse Records)
4.5/5
Forget the multitude of metal genres and consider this for what it is: pure, unadulterated heavy metal. These are the kind of necro-blasts that made the children of the grave bang their heads to classic albums by Slayer, Discharge, Motorhead, Celtic Frost, Kreator, etc.
Portland’s Joel Grind has been toiling away in the crusty sewers of metal sludge since 1999, when he made Toxic Holocaust his one-man band (usually the death-knell of most metal bands, Bathory notwithstanding), playing every crash, bang, and distorto-twang the band churned out, until he finally found some metal brethren to play with in 2008.
This is when Toxic Holocaust really took off, Chemistry of Consciousness being the bloody evidence that Grind needed to focus his energy on writing barn-burners like “Salvation Is Waiting,” “Out of the Fire,” and “Deny the Truth,” instead of being responsible for every damn instrument.
As a vocalist/guitarist, Grind sounds like a dude possessed, growling and screaming along to riffs that implode all over your brain-hole.
-Jason Schreurs
Dave Hause
Devour
(Rise Records)
4/5
It’s a shame that Dave Hause’s name is so closely attached to punk rock bands, as the Philadelphia guitarist/vocalist produces astoundingly high-quality music that goes way beyond the punk rock tag. Take this, his second solo album: songs like “We Could Be Kings” have a sound and, importantly, a feel that brings the listener back to the early Bruce Springsteen albums. It’s a feel that great things are happening… and they are.
True, any reference to “hulking maniacs” in a song as intensely nostalgic as this album’s “The Great Depression” is bound to pull at the heartstrings of any wistful mid-’30s dude, but it’s more than cheap shots at emotions at play here.
Take, for example, the tune “Bricks,” and the way Hause spits out the line “San Francisco would be fine.” It’s not even the way he delivers the line: it’s the way he delivers the word “fine.” The power in these details proves that, like Springsteen, Hause is creating some timeless art here.
Let’s hope the world listens.
-Greg Pratt