Musings on the past and present state of music, film, and pop culture. Get off my lawn.
10 Best Alternative Rock and Metal Albums of 2023: these are the albums that got us through a crazy year. It’s almost time to say goodbye to 2023. And that means it’s time for SLIS to do our annual Best-of Year list. 2023 was not a massive year for rock. But what it lacked in […]
RIP Killing Joke’s Geordie Walker: An Influential Yet Underrated Guitarist Who Helped to Shape Post-Punk, Alternative Rock and Metal For discerning fans of heavy music, a seismic loss has occurred. Kevin “Geordie” Walker, guitarist for UK post-punk icons Killing Joke has died at the age of 65. The band posted the bad news on Facebook: […]
MTVoid ‘Matters Knot’ Review: Tool bassist Justin Chancellor showcases eclectic sounds on sophomore album for project featuring vocalist Peter Mohamed. As fans know, things work slowly within the world of Tool. It took over a whopping 13 years between their last two albums. It seems that this slow but sure pace also extends to the […]
Concert Review: Nick Cave at ACL Live: master songwriter and performer offered an intimate evening accompanied only by piano and bass. Nick Cave has earned a reputation as a thorny character, a gloomy fellow adorned in black, crooning nihilistic lyrics of hell and damnation. He’s most often accompanied by his backing band The Bad Seeds, […]
For our latest podcast episode, we rank the 17 most iconic horror films of all time, including entries from John Carpenter, Alfred Hitchcock, Ti West and more. We’re halfway through October, and you know what that means: it’s spooky season, and horror movie lovers everywhere are making and watching all their favorite horror movies, either […]
Prong frontman Tommy Victor discusses ferocious new album ‘State of Emergency’ on our latest podcast episode. Prong are an eternally underrated metal act, but their fervent underground following has fueled them since forming in NYC in 1986. Over 13 albums and rotating lineups, frontman/guitarist Tommy Victor has unleashed his patented brand of working class angst […]
Metal trio Prong emerge triumphant again on searing new album ‘State of Emergency’, a punchy collection of groove metal featuring an unlikely cover. Always criminally underrated, Prong are one of the most dependable bands in metal. Despite numerous line-up changes and career ups and downs, the power trio, led by sole original member-songwriter-frontman-guitarist Tommy Victor […]
Filmmaker Mike Schiff discusses entertaining doc: ‘The History of Metal and Horror’ that showcases the intertwinement of 2 disparate genres. On our latest podcast episode we’re doing a genre double-dip when I talk to director Mike Schiff about his informative new documentary, The History of Metal and Horror, which features notable luminaries from the worlds […]
Baroness ‘Stone’ Review: stalwart metallers get expansive and reflective on latest release recorded during the pandemic. Baroness return with Stone (Sept 15, Abraxan Hymns), their first album since 2019’s Gold and Grey, and the group’s first effort without a color in the album title. Recorded at the height of the pandemic, the album sees frontman/primary […]
Slowdive ‘Everything Is Alive’ Review: Reunited British Shoegazers prove once again they are a vital entity not dependent on 90’s nostalgia on new album. Slowdive have had quite the career reappraisal. They were critically panned during their 90’s tenure before being dropped by Creation Records and then disbanding, only to garner a massive cult following […]
