Master reviews category heading. All review topics fall below this one based on item.
Hey Friends, I am back with the second installment from the recent Big Apple Comic Con that was held only a few days ago at the New Yorker Hotel. As I’ve already mentioned, the convention now seems to be a one-day affair and has locked in the late fall and winter season as a “Christmas Con” of sorts. Let’s continue along with the awesome artist John Holmstrom from Punk Magazine and much more.
Continue reading Scenes from Big Apple Comic Con 2024: Part Two
The Big Apple Comic Con is the longest running pop culture convention in New York City. While smaller in scale than the mega-event known as New York Comic Con, the Big Apple event truly focuses on the comic book medium and many creative legends. It’s been held at the New Yorker Hotel for several years now and I’ve attended as media on a semi-regular basis. Sometimes that workaday life gets in the way of the fun but here I was and ready to explore the findings.
The show seems to have settled on the Fall season and has become a one-day only event. I preferred a two-day event but hey I’m not in the marketing and finance team about the plans so I will take what they dish out. As expected, this walkaround will be mostly photos with some editorial commentary peppered in and my hope is to do a number of artist interviews as well. I always love doing them and they help broaden the Pop Culture stuff that we have been doing on the site for quite some time now.
Continue reading Scenes from Big Apple Comic Con 2024: Part One
Artist: Kaleido
Title: “Halloween” (Single)
Date: 10/5/2024
Rating: 5/5
If you’ve yet to indulge in the music coming from Detroit’s high-energy Alt-Punk band Kaleido, then there is no better time to start than right now as the band has offered up a cover of one of the legendary Misfits most seminal numbers “Halloween”. Starting off with heavy chord from guitarist Johnson and some sweet intro drums by Fava, the track rolls over you with the necessary speed for a Punk number like this. Singer Chriss sings with her own register and doesn’t aim at emulating Danzig at all which is refreshing. While its sometimes necessary to do so, I prefer when a band plays a cover like this as themselves and I’ve been a fan of Christina’s voice for a number of years now.
Continue reading “Halloween” (Single) by Kaleido
Artist: Kerry King
Title: “Residue” (Single)
Label: Reigning Phoenix Music
Date: 4/12/2024
Rating: 4/5
With just about a month to go before the release of the Kerry King debut album “From Hell I Rise”, its time to get another taste from it as the folks at Reigning Phoenix Music have delivered another single from the album. It was only a couple of months ago that I gave their first single “Idle Hands” a spin and clicking the hyperlinked text will let you see that one. As mentioned before, Kerry King has assembled a solid lineup that features Phil Demmel (Machine Head), Kyle Sanders (Hell Yeah), Mark Osegueda (Death Angel) and Paul Bostaph (Slayer) for the new album and touring cycle. While I don’t like to use the term “super group” since its been overused so very often, this truly amounts to one considering the lengthy Metal resumes that each of the players have coming in to the group. The latest track is titled “Residue” and starts off with some solid, driving drumming patterns from Bostaph before the truly head-banging riff takes over. As a drummer myself, I love the solid double-bass pattern that flows along with the riffs and as I listened a little more closely trying to envision this in the live sense I could almost envision the pit forming. Demmell is putting some great lead guitar work into the material while Mark sounds awesome and one of the main things that I like is that its not a Slayer 2 band but a group that’s managed to bring their individuality together and make it something special. Moments of thrashiness on top of slow chugging groove that ends up quite satisfying. I felt that I enjoyed both “Residue” and “Idle Hands” equally and cannot wait to hear the full on release. So far so good but if you are going to be stoic about this material not bringing you right into the Slayer moshpit then you might be a hard sell of it. Don’t be that Metalhead. Instead, sit back and crank it up and enjoy these players united for new Metal material.
Continue reading “Residue” (Single) by Kerry King
Artist: Kerry King
Title: “Idle Hands” (Single)
Label: Reigning Phoenix Music
Date: 2/4/2024
I guess it was only a matter of time after Slayer decided to formally retire that we’d be getting some new music from their legendary founder Kerry King. King has assembled a super-powered lineup that features Phil Demmel (Machine Head), Kyle Sanders (Hell Yeah), Mark Osegueda (Death Angel) and Paul Bostaph (Slayer) and together they are ready to deliver some molten hot Metal on a still growing record label, Reigning Phoenix Music. The first track released from the group comes via “Idle Hands” and I’ve spun it a few times before penning these thoughts. It’s a nice and thrashy number and Mark does a great job with the vocals here and despite his years fronting Death Angel I didn’t feel that he sounded like he was from that band. Bostaph is as solid as ever and after so many years on the drums for Slayer surely knows how to keep the time paced nice and fast with King delivering the riffs. “Idle Hands” is an energetic track that I can see inspiring some circle pit activity in the fans at a live and if you are wondering if it sounds like a Slayer track, well it doesn’t at all. At least to me it didn’t, it sounded like a new chapter from the creative mind of King. Great lead guitar work from Demmel and solid bass from Sanders make me interested in what is yet to come.
Continue reading “Idle Hands” (Single) by Kerry King
