Hello music enthusiasts and welcome to the third instalment of Dr.Gonzo’s ‘Diagnosis Series’, where I go through a band or artist’s studio recordings and find their strengths and weaknesses, recommending a few things along the way. Today we’ll be looking at San Francisco’s venerable legends Faith No More to unpack their capricious career, which ultimately led to a sublime streak of near-perfect albums, as well as the iffy ones. So grab Bjork’s fish and prepare to gasp in excitement or terror.
Band/Artist: Faith No More
Origins: San Francisco, California, U.S.
Founded: 1979
Current Members: Mike Bordin (drums)
Billy Gould (bass)
Roddy Bottum (keyboards, rhythm guitar)
Mike Patton (vocals)
Jon Hudson (lead guitar)
Previous members:
Mike Morris (guitar, vocals)
Wade Worthington (keyboards)
Courtney Love (vocals)
Mark Bowen (guitar)
Chuck Mosley (vocals)
Jim Martin (guitar)
Trey Spruance (guitar)
Dean Menta (guitar)
Studio albums: 7
Active: Hiatus(?)
We Care a Lot (1985)
The Doctor’s rating: 2/5
Analysis: I feel like Faith No More’s trajectory was very similar to how Iron Maiden started out their career. Like Iron Maiden, FNM started out with a very different sounding vocalist for their first two albums, and although Di’Anno and Mosley both bring…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 25th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: August 25th, 2023 –
Alice Cooper: Road
Genre: Hard Rock/Metal Label: earMUSIC
The Armed: Perfect Saviors
Genre: Hardcore/Noise Rock Label: Sargent House
Hello music enthusiast, and welcome to the second edition of Dr.Gonzo’s ‘Diagnosis Series’ – where I go through a band or artist’s studio recordings and find their strengths and weaknesses. Today we’ll be looking at the eccentric El Sobrante trio, Primus, delving into their weird and wonderful world filled with renditions of old children’s stories, big brown beavers, race car drivers, and fishermen. So grab a cold one and prepare to sail the sea of cheese.
Band/Artist: Primus
Origins: El Sobrante, California, U.S.
Founded: 1984
Current Members: Les Claypool (vocals, bass)
Larry “Ler” LaLonde (guitars)
Tim “Herb” Alexander (drums)
Previous members:
Todd Huth (guitars)
Vince “Perm” Parker (drums)
Peter Libby (drums)
Robbie Bean (drums)
Tim “Curveball” Wright (drums)
Jay Lane (drums)
Brain (drums)
Buckethead (guitars)
Danny Carey (drums)
DJ Disk (turntables)
Studio albums: 9
Active: Yes
Frizzle Fry (1990)
The Doctor’s rating: 5/5
Analysis: Primus are one of those rare cases where an act will walk right out of the gates with their sound, ready and willing to discharge it onto the placid masses. Unlike Paradise Lost who spent decades honing their craft, Primus busted out Frizzle Fry and unleashed a sound so idiosyncratic, it’s eccentricities would blindside an entire…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of July 7th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: August 18th, 2023 –
After Earth: The Rarity of Reason
Genre: Melodic Death Metal Label: Independent
Ally Evenson: Big Lie
Genre: Indie Pop Label: Independent
Amaka: Oasis
Genre: R&B / Soul Label: Venice Music
Atreyu: The Moment You Find Your Flame
Genre: Metal Label: Spinefarm Music Group
Birdy: Portraits
Genre: Indie Pop / Pop Label: Warner Music UK
Ciara: CiCi
Genre: R&B / Pop / Hip Hop Label: Beauty Marks Entertainment
The Circle: Of Awakening
Genre: Post Black Metal / Melodic Death Metal Label: AOP Records
Caroline Cotter: Gently as I Go
Genre: Indie Folk Label: Independent
Cyhra: The Vertigo Trigger
Genre: Melodic Death Metal Label: Nuclear Blast
Dizzy: Dizzy
Genre: Indie Pop Label: Royal Mountain Records
Genesis Owusu: Struggler
Genre: Hip hop / R&B Label: AWAL Records
Gregory Alan Isakov: Appaloosa Bones
Genre: Indie Folk Label: MNRK Records
Gretta Ray: Positive Spin
Genre: Folk / Pop Label: Ballarat Pty
Chepang are a mostly Nepali grindcore band. On Swatta, Chepang get a little crazy. The way they do it, a slow-motion, frenzied collapse of their furious machine through the gradual opening of the insanity throttle over 50 minutes resonates pretty deeply, given the various cultural crossroads we find ourselves at. The gleefully frenzied envelope-push of Sides B, and especially C, are grandma’s cozy cableknit sweater knitted from miles of talent and that wonderfully punked-out grind desire to get completely batshit. The hay we could make of Side D’s absolute fuckstorm of an AI driven genre disintegration could feed the entire farm. But Chepang’s thrills ain’t cheap, and even when they’re immediate, they’re well earned. There’s a carefully thought-out progression to their program, to their gradual rattling loose of all but the barest ideas of structure and composition and the tropes that make up the genre. It’s a program that tries, patiently and gradually, to shake off all order, to leave just the boiling cerebral fluid of the genre formerly known as grind. By the end of this thing, the feeling arises that punk is dead, grind is dead, humanity is dead, the idea of grind as a category characterized as the sum total of its musical elements has been fed through a wood chipper and glued back together like a grotesque humanoid meat sculpture. Things get a little crazy sometimes. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold, mere anarchy and all that. Sometimes our obsession with order, with…
By absolutely no demand, welcome to Dr.Gonzo’s Diagnosis series, where I go over a band or artist’s career and by the end of it pick out their roaring strengths and vulnerable weaknesses. Today’s edition follows Northern England hard-lads Paradise Lost, on their epic thirty-five-year peregrination that sees a sprawling sixteen studio albums, a fuckload of drummers, and an impressively disparate array of genres to pick from. So sit still and await the verdict.
Band/Artist: Paradise Lost
Origins: Halifax, West Yorkshire, England
Founded: 1988
Current Members: Nick Holmes (Vocals)
Gregor Mackintosh (Lead guitar)
Aaron Aedy (Rhythm guitar)
Steve Edmondson (Bass)
Guido Montanarini (Drums)
Previous members:
Matthew Archer (Drums)
Lee Morris (Drums)
Jeff Singer (Drums)
Adrian Erlandsson (Drums)
Waltteri Väyrynen (Drums)
Studio albums: 16
Active: Yes
Lost Paradise (1990)
The Doctor’s rating: 3.3/5
Analysis: Lost Paradise is the very definition of diamond in the rough. A good chunk of the band’s adulated elements are present here, but they are ill-defined and go largely unchecked. Lost Paradise’s biggest crime is its myopic scope which becomes samey after a while and lacks the distinction their other works would later seize. That said however, this thing can be fucking heavy at times and the band’s proclivity for turning their death metal leanings into this Sabbath-styled sludgy, doom-y dystopia serves them well overall.…
My wife and I spent a good chunk of yesterday evening at the Crystal Ballroom, a small venue in the Boston suburb of Somerville. The main attraction was The Clientele, a cult band making their very first live appearance in the US since all the way back in 2017, with this concert marking the kickoff of a short August tour through the US before fall tour dates in the UK and continental Europe.
The crowd to witness this was pretty small, even by the standards of a rather snug (if classy) venue. My untrained eye would estimate 150 people at most, or perhaps only a 100, all clustered close to the stage to watch the British trio do their thing. If it was a touch disappointing to see a thin turnout for a veteran act with an excellent discography who are still at the top of their game (as listeners of last month’s new record I Am Not There Anymore can attest), the relative quiet and intimacy of the small venue and even smaller crowd was ultimately fitting. The Clientele are, after all, a band known for their gentle and atmospheric sense of melancholy, and if their song interpretations were a bit more rocked-up and loud presented live compared to in studio, they maintained this trademark throughout. The results were captivating.
Following a set by Baltimore-hailing openers The Smashing Times (an interesting act with an album out Oct 30th which I will be checking), The Clientele’s time on…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 11th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
The year is 2023 and rock ‘n’ roll is officially dead in the ground, as recently cemented by Queens of the Stone Age’s latest record In Times New Roman. Sad? Well lemme tell you, this time ten years ago many thought the same – they thought rock’s parent bands had split up prematurely, failed to split up at a dignified age, failed to move with the times, or flat-out lost its grit. Radiohead had once promised us the future: the future was Muse, Coldplay and The Killers. The future haemorrhaged its savings accounts on Chinese Democracy and The Endless River and left a creative dearth so dearth-like that we are today surviving our way through the legacies-to-be of Black Midi and The 1975 because the hacks finally have someone to talk about again.
Dad said everything would be okay as long as rock ‘n’ roll could save us. Fuck you, dad.
Back in the ’10s people thought rock had failed to find new parents. They were (dubiously, but prevailingly) wrong! Radio rock didn’t need a stepdad – it needed a dad who stepped up! The dad was Josh Homme, second only to Dave Grohl on extending gruff-pop-music-played-on-guitars’ lease on popular life, allowing us to remember and savour that ten years before that, the man was churning out classic bangers to which good, dumb, good times were (probably) had in fraternal multitudes.…
Here’s a list of noteworthy new releases for the week of August 4th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors. Or don’t, whatever. I’m not your mom.
– List of Releases: August 4th, 2023 –
An Autumn for Crippled Children – Closure Genre: Blackgaze Label: Prosthetic
Annie Hart – The Weight of a Wave Genre: Indietronica Label: Uninhabitable Mansions
Two years on from the critically acclaimed third album from Musk Ox, Inheritance, and a lot has happened in that time. Evan, the band’s violinist departed from the band this year to pursue other creative ventures, Raph has continued to tour extensively with both his solo work and Leprous, and the band’s founder and guitar player Nathan Larochette, it seems, has been very busy indeed. On 21st July Nathan released his second solo album, Old Growth – an austere dark-folk album with an incredible array of tactile moods and an underlining poignancy. I recently caught up with Nathan to discuss his new album, a slew of new content headed our way soon, live prospects, and Musk Ox’s future.
Earth and Sky was seven years ago and since then you’ve done Inheritance, so what made you want to release this album now?
It’s funny because I recorded the album in September/October of 2020, so I’ve had it for a while now and some of the older songs date back maybe ten years. It’s been a project that’s slowly come together, because the main focus was finishing the third The Night Watch album and then working on Musk Ox’s third album, Inheritance – which were these big projects that took so much effort and work. Whereas this album [Old Growth] had similar challenges, but it was a reaction to those other records; they were albums with big, long songs that made it intense, so I really wanted to…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of July 28th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: July 28, 2023 –
Anne-Marie: Unhealthy
Genre: Pop Label: Asylum
Aphex Twin: Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / in a room7 F760
Genre: idm/Ambient/Techno Label: Warp Records Limited
Ashtar: Wandering Through Time
Genre: Sludge/Doom Metal Label: Eisenwald
Bear The Mammoth: Purple Haus
Genre: Progressive/Post Rock Label: Art As Catharsis
Bethany Cosentino: Natural Disaster
Genre: Indie-Pop Label: Concord
BØRNS: Suddenly
Genre: Synthpop Label: Beautiful Glamorous Records
Blue Garden is a cozy and serene little trip of a record, offering more than enough in the way of lush, textural composition and simple beauty to find its way into the heart of somebody who has no idea what “progressive breaks” is. The tender vocal songs punctuating the tracklist offer an inviting hand to me and it’s not hard to find myself enjoying the rest. It is my favorite record of June, and not just because ****** made me write this.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of July 21st, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: July 21, 2023 –
Agriculture: Agriculture
Genre: Black Metal Label: The Flenser
Akercocke: Decades of Devil Worship (Live)
Genre: Death/Black Metal Label: Peaceville Records Ltd
Bloc Party: The High Life
Genre: Indie-Rock/Post-Punk Label: BMG
Blur: The Ballad Of Darren
Genre: Britpop/Alt-Rock Label: Parlophone Records
Greta Van Fleet: Starcatcher
Genre: Rock Label: Republic Records
Guided by Voices: Welshpool Frillies
Genre: Indie-Rock/Lo-Fi Label: Matador Records
Jennifer Lopez: This is Me … Now
Genre: Pop/R&B Label: Hitco
Johnny Booth: Moments Elsewhere
Genre: Hardcore/Metalcore Label: Booth Records
Mizmor: Prosaic
Genre: Doom/Black Metal Label: Profound Lore
Molly Tuttle: City of Gold
Genre: Indie-Rock/Folk/Country Label: Nonesuch Records
Mort Garson: Journey to the Moon and Beyond
Genre: Ambient/Electronic/New Age Label: Emanay Music
Nathanael Larochette: Old Growth
Genre: Folk/Ambient/Classical Label: Anamnesis Arts
ODESZA & Yellow House: Flaws in Our Design
Genre: Electronic/Ambient Label: Foreign Family Collective
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of July 14th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: July 14, 2023 –
Aetherian: At Storm’s Edge
Genre: Melodeath Label: Lifeforce
Alaska Reid: Disenchanter
Genre: Alternative / Singer Songwriter Label: Luminelle
Calligram: Position / Momentum
Genre: Blackened Crust / Black Metal Label: Prosthetic
Cavalera Conspiracy: Bestial Devastation
Genre: Death Metal Label: Nuclear Blast
Cavalera Conspiracy: Morbid Visions
Genre: Death Metal Label: Nuclear Blast
Chamber: A Love to Kill For
Genre: Mathcore Label: Pure Noise
Cosmicdust: Sadness
Genre: Shoegaze Label: UndePanDante
Crown Magnetar: Everything Bleeds
Genre: Deathcore Label: Unique Leader
Daniel O’Sulliven: Rosarium
Genre: Chamber Pop Label: House of Mythology
Deitus: Irreversible
Genre: Black Metal / Death Metal Label: Candlelight
