Lollipop Magazine

Kylesa – Static Tensions – Review

June 1, 2009

Ridiculously rhythmic throb full of great songs and boiled over energy surge. The innerlocked double drummers and meshed guitars work like a big pumping heart.

Grief of War – A Mounting Crisis… As Their Fury Got Released – Review

May 1, 2008

Tokyo’s Grief of War barely make the grade. They sound too complacent to rub elbows with thrash metal revival bands as goods as Evile and Municipal Waste.

The Esoteric – Subverter – Review

June 22, 2007

Formed by circular riffs and eloquent and raspy vocalization, the band end up with a blend of grooves and pummeling rhythms, but that’s about it.

Light This City – Facing The Thousand – Review

March 16, 2007

That amazing voice is female. Laura Nichols, she’s got the goods. The fretboard-hopping fills and singing leads are classy. The drummer is a freakin’ beast.

Wolf – The Black Flame – Review

March 12, 2007

I have a soft-spot for some of this. Not an ironic, winking love, I mean I like and respect it, goofy or not. But Wolf is more Hammerfall than Sonata Arctica.

Burn In Silence – Angel Maker – Review

November 6, 2006

A mixture of clean and screaming vocals, chugga-chugga breakdowns, and In Flames rip-off riffs. But Burn In Silence add something unique: Symphonic keyboards.

Himsa – You’ve Seen Too Much – Review

April 28, 2006

Weened at the nips of San Francisco thrash and NY crossover, and raised through the hardcore gladiator school, Himsa heaves up fully articulated metalcore.

Light This City – Remains of the Gods – Review

June 1, 2005

Bay Area metal band who know their thrash history, and dig melodic death. Plus a female singer. It’s a debut.

The Acacia Strain – Thirtysevenfifty – Review

April 25, 2005

Much like metalcore leaders Lamb Of God. Production is massive, as are the vocals, with the guitars and bass smeared together by perpetually slammed cymbals.

The Esoteric – With the Sureness of Sleepwalking – Review

April 13, 2005

Ex-members of Coalesce and Reggie and the Full Effect. Played with Converge, Mastodon, Blood Brothers, and Killswitch Engage. A bit of each has rubbed off.