Browsing All Posts By Sammi Chichester
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News 2
Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman Dead at 49
The Scoop: Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman died Thursday, May 2 of liver failure at a hospital in Southern California. He was 49. Hanneman hasn’t toured with Slayer since ...
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Album Reviews 6
Frank Turner: Tape Deck Heart
“So on the first night we met you said well darling let’s make a deal/ If anybody ever asks us well let’s say that we met in jail/ ...
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Album Reviews 3
Ghost B.C.: Infestissumam
While there are some bands busy claiming they are saving rock and roll in an ironic fashion, there is truth to the point that rock’s lost its magic ...
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Album Reviews 8
Kvelertak: Meir
You’re going to love this record and not understand a word of it. Er, probably not anyway. Meir, the sophomore release from Norwegian hardcore band Kvelertak, is something ...
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Album Reviews 7
This Is Hell: The Enforcer EP
Kids, get your vest and stitch those patches because This Is Hell has a new EP. The Enforcer EP is the Long Island, NY hardcore thrash band’s latest ...
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Album Reviews 4
Hatebreed: The Divinity of Purpose
Apparently CNN found it pertinent to research hateful racist hardcore bands last year after the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting. Despite being a national news organization and if they ...
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EOTY Lists 1
Sammi’s Top in 2012
10. Birds In Row – You Me & The Violence 9. Gojira – L’Enfant Sauvage 8. God Seed – I Begin 7. Aborted – Global Flatline 6. The ...
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Album Reviews 2
Deftones: Koi No Yokan
If sound was space, you could fall through it and never hit the bottom with Koi No Yokan. It is no longer sounds on tape or variations of ...
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Album Reviews 0
All That Remains: A War You Cannot Win
You have to admire A War You Cannot Win’s ability than to do at the very least maybe piss off whoever is listening to it. That’s a feat ...
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Album Reviews 20
Pig Destroyer: Book Burner
Vocalist J.R. Hayes is holding a cigarette right in the press pictures. That’s burning, but so are these books. It’s been five years since the grindcore legends released ...
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Album Reviews 2
Dethklok: Dethalbum III
At least you don’t have to endanger your life by listening to this Dethklok. It seems insane that this cartoon death metal band from Metalocalypse is talked about ...
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Album Reviews 2
Converge: All We Love We Leave Behind
Upon opening the Axe to Fall record it says, “We may get better/ We won’t get well.” Are you sure? It’s been over three years since Axe to ...
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Editorials 3
How a Metalhead Understands NBC’s The Voice
I’ll be the first to admit I know nothing about pop culture. Last week’s Twitter rant for me was about certain metal bands’ insistence on taking Satanism seriously. ...
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Single Reviews 0
Thoughts on the new Converge song: “Aimless Arrow”
It is nice to have a plan. So I figured being prepared for guerrilla warfare on ears was the best approach. Actually, “Aimless Arrow” was a little more ...
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Album Reviews 1
Birds In Row: You, Me & The Violence
At the beginning of this year on MEB I boldly wrote, “There is literally nothing to dislike about Birds In Row.” And I will not be corrected. There ...
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Editorials 13
Sikh temple shooting is about the deceased, not metal
Earlier this week, tragedy struck a Wisconsin Sikh temple when a shooter opened fire on people at the service. The alleged shooter, Wade Michael Page, age 40, killed ...
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3 Of The Week 0
3 Of The Week: (6/26/12)
“So, like, why Russia?” That’s my cynically least favorite question I get about studying abroad in St. Petersburg for the next few weeks. Look, I get it. This ...
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Show Reviews 6
Show Review: Against Me! in Albany, NY
“Laura! Laura! Laura!” The usual restless Against Me! crowd has waited long enough. They are ready to jump around. They are ready to shout the words to well-memorized ...
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Album Reviews 8
Xavier Rudd: Spirit Bird
I must admit that the real reason Xavier Rudd piqued my interest for his seventh album, Spirit Bird, is that it was released on SideOneDummy Records. I thought, ...
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Editorials 4
Was Ulrich right? Does the metal community have its head up its ass?
The rant starts out like this: Lars Ulrich, drummer of Metallica, basically says the metal community is up its own ass. This little tidbit obviously became the news ...
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Album Reviews 1
Rise and Fall: Faith
This Belgian hardcore isn’t going to give you a headache but it might rattle your brains enough to displace them. If you’re okay with that, Rise and Fall’s ...
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Album Reviews 3
3 Inches of Blood: Long Live Heavy Metal
Oh man, the ripping falsetto days. There once was a time when people were breaking the law with Halford and running to the hills with Dickinson. That time ...
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Album Reviews 4
Municipal Waste: The Fatal Feast
From party thrash to space thrash, we present Municipal Waste! The Richmond, Virginia crossover thrash band is back after quite the absence since 2009’s Massive Aggressive. The theme ...
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Album Reviews 10
Tim Barry: 40 Miler
Tim Barry…it’s like even his songs are sepia toned. The Carhartt-wearing Virginia artist’s next installment of train hopping songs is 40 Miler. That title is “ironic” as it’s ...
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Album Reviews 5
Lucero: Women & Work
There is something about Lucero that just makes you feel… real. Okay, maybe the posters of a blue collar lady lighting her cigarette with a blowtorch aren’t realistic, ...
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Album Reviews 3
Narrows: Painted
I love technology. Otherwise this record, Painted, wouldn’t exist. Narrows’ hometown is Seattle and San Diego and London. Making an album in the same place sounds like a ...
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Album Reviews 0
Caliban: I Am Nemesis
German metal means one thing to me: power metaaal. Except Caliban isn’t at all and that’s not the association worth worrying about. One minute into “We Are the ...
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Album Reviews 1
Napalm Death: Utilitarian
They teach you in J school (which is bad slang for one who studies journalism) not to talk about older folks as if they are “as lively as ...
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Album Reviews 11
Hopes Die Last: Trust No One
I should probably just turn in my metalhead card for this. Yeah, I listened to Hopes Die Last’s Trust No One and enjoyed myself. My defense is as ...
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Album Reviews 9
Black Taxi: We Don’t Know Any Better
It’s a pronoun problem. Black Taxi is busy blowin’ up Brooklyn’s venues and creeping into other areas of life. Some songs have been featured on television shows on ...
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Album Reviews 0
Anthony Raneri: New Cathedrals EP
It’s fairly obvious that Anthony Raneri doesn’t need advice or an introduction when it comes to his music. Therefore, Raneri’s collection of songs on New Catherdals is vast ...
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Editorials 7
A Dead Format?
For what many may think is a dead format, the fact is that sales of vinyl records are increasing year after year. Nielsen SoundScan projects vinyl in 2011 ...
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Single Reviews 1
Thoughts on the new Anthony Raneri song: “Sandra Partial”
What kind of music do you like? “Oh, everything but country.” If that’s you described above, please move on because you’re missing out. If you’re still with me, ...
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Album Reviews 1
Birds In Row: Collected
There is literally nothing to dislike about Birds In Row. For a relatively unknown aggressive hardcore band from Laval, France, they have an amazing amount of power to ...
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EOTY Lists 7
Sammi’s Top In 2011
10. Polar Bear Club – Clash Battle Guilt Pride 9. Bayside – Killing Time 8. Deafheaven – Roads to Judah 7. Glassjaw – Coloring Book EP 6. Thrice – Major/Minor 5. The Horrible ...
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Editorials 10
This Side of Brightness: Farewell Thursday
Click, click. Chaos. That was the sound I would search for in the parking lot when I was nine years old and my sister would pick me up ...
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Editorials 20
A Brave New World: What is PIPA/SOPA and How to Stop It
“These are unpleasant facts; I know it. But then most historical facts are unpleasant.” Remember reading the sci-fi novel by Aldous Huxley, Brave New World? It was a ...
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Editorials 1
(We Are) The Road Crew: The Metal Suckfest Review
Luckily while looking at the bill, none of the band names mentioned are completely incomprehensible. There was a legitimate fear that they may be. This is Metal Suckfest. ...
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Editorials 0
Show Review: Tim Timebomb’s RockNRoll Theater
It’s obvious this generation and the previous one need to stop ripping off Rocky Horror Picture Show and get our own cult-classic to copy. And like Rocky Horror, ...
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Album Reviews 1
Leviathan: True Traitor True Whore
It’s nothing but mystery concerning everything that surrounds Leviathan. Whether that is splendid or defective, that’s left up to the judge to decide (no pun intended- wait for ...
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Editorials 1
Movie Review: The Other F Word
The aggressive guitar chords heard in the opening of Pennywise’s “F— Authority” are some of the most recognizable in punk rock. They’re also used in the beginning of ...
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Album Reviews 0
Sick Of It All: Nonstop
25 years. When we think of an event being 25 years, it’s usually a huge life event like a wedding or a birthday. It’s a quarter of a ...
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Album Reviews 7
Dead to Me: Moscow Penny Ante
Rally up the punks because misery has never sounded this fun before. San Francisco’s Dead to Me has released Moscow Penny Ante like all select-honored rebels and it’s ...
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Album Reviews 4
Russian Circles: Empros
Most of us are used to words. Then you get about a 40-minute instrumental record and we’re not classical folk, nor are we always that classy. So we ...
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Interviews 4
Interview: Kevin Devine
Being from Brooklyn, reading novels, and playing music for 18 years is just who Kevin Devine is. He loves every part of the job that that he can ...
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Album Reviews 3
Counterparts: The Current Will Carry Us
There has been a lot of chatter and hype about melodic hardcore band Counterparts, but is it justified? I’m not one to add unnecessary hype to musicians that ...
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Album Reviews 14
Star Fucking Hipsters: From the Dumpster to the Grave
They’ve done it again, and yet it’s completely different. The Star Fucking Hipsters’ third release From the Dumpster to the Grave is so schizophrenic that it’s hard to ...
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Album Reviews 4
Aiden: Some Kind of Hate
There is this preconceived notion that all Victory Records bands are crummy. But what if a band included all the aspects of a popular band within the genre? ...
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Album Reviews 0
This is Hell: Black Mass
Lace up your combat boots. Just five seconds into This is Hell’s Black Mass, you cannot sit still as vocalist Travis Reilly screams, “It burns like acid rain”(go ...
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Album Reviews 1
Pathology: Awaken to the Suffering
For those of you who don’t frequent death metal, think Cookie Monster ate a frog, only on a whole new level. That’s a basic summary of Pathology’s new ...
