Salvation
Uncorrectable
Independent (2022)
Do you folks watch the show Queer Eye? Last season had an episode with a school. The kids that were graduating got to bury a time capsule. I have no clue when that capsule is supposed to be dug up. Listening to Salvations debut album Uncorrectable made me think of this episode a lot. The main reason being that Uncorrectable … Read more
Sam Russo
Back To The Party
Red Scare Industries (2020)
Anytime it’s just one person on the stage, the music being created is going to be intimate and personal. Sometimes it’s so personal that it doesn’t bridge the gap from the stage to the floor. Fortunately, Sam Russo isn’t one of those artists. When he sings, you know it’s about his own life experiences, but it sounds like it’s coming … Read more
Samamidon
All is Well
Bedroom Community (2008)
Whether or not a band is unknown is pretty subjective. While I was at the Portraits of Past reunion show in Berkeley recently, many passers-by and uninformed parents continued to ask who was playing. They saw the line of 500-plus kids and couldn't believe that this line was for a band they had never heard of. In this case, sometimes … Read more
Samiam
Orphan Works
No Idea (2010)
We haven’t heard a new album from Samiam in 5 years. However, in 2010, they did release a rarities collection of outtakes, radio performances, and live recordings. Even some covers recorded in Billie Joe Armstrong’s basement made it onto this compilation. Orphan works pulls from 6 years of material during the band's Clumsy and You Are Freaking Me Out eras, … Read more
Samiam
Whatever's Got You Down
Hopeless (2006)
Samiam have been around since the birth of time, big in Europe, and just happen to be one of my favorite bands ever. They did break up in 2001 after the release of Astray. However Samiam mainstays Jason Beebout and Sergie Loobkoff decided to get Samiam back together by finding some new members and put out their seventh album. Needless … Read more
Samothrace
Life's Trade
20 Buck Spin (2008)
Doom metal is something that's an acquired taste; either you're a fan of it or you're not, and those who are fans of it will probably go crazy over Kansas four-piece Samothrace's latest offering, Life's Trade. It's a four song album that's roughly fifty minutes long and has no shortage on heaviness. Samothrace are one of the more interesting bands … Read more
Samothrace
Reverence To Stone
20 Buck Spin (2012)
Doom quartet Samothrace follow up 2008’s widely acclaimed Life’s Trade with the majestic and tragedy filled Reverence to Stone. Comprised of two tracks, “When We Emerged,” - a reworking of a song found on their 2007 demo - and “A Horse of our Own,” Reverence to Stone is thirty-five minutes of wonder and solemnity. Having disappeared somewhat after Life’s Trade … Read more
San Salvador
La Grande Folie
Music Development Company (2021)
There’s nothing like a good vocal driven ensemble am I right? Well, I don’t know about you but I find myself impressed to the highest degrees by such bands. It has to do at least partly with the steep mastery curve of the human voice as a musical instrument as well as its phenomenally unique tonal characteristics at an individual … Read more
Sanctifying Ritual
Sanctifying Ritual
Iron Bonehead (2020)
Most death metal bands exhibit a morbid quality to their sound but few would be believed if they said that their music was actually recorded in a catacomb. However, if the German death-thrash thrallers Sanctifying Ritual confessed as much to me, that their raw and cavernous debut was recorded in such an odious environment, it would be a sheer act … Read more
Saor
Origins
Season of Mist (2022)
Saor is back and this brings me a lot of joy. I only started digging into the band at the recommendation of a friend for folk infused metal sometime late in 2020. The first thing I started listening to was Forgotten Paths and it really managed to lure me in with “Monadh”. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the general emphasis … Read more
Satan's Wrath
Galloping Blasphemy
Metal Blade (2012)
As a disclaimer of sorts I tend to look at bands overplaying the "we're so evil, look at us" card as cheesy and heavy handed. Hence my lack of interest in this record originally between the name and the press release claiming the members need to spread the word of the evil master himself i couldn't help but look at … Read more
Satanic Planet
Satanic Planet
Three One G (2021)
Justin Pearson has a lot of irons in the hellfire. If he isn’t playing with any number of his musical projects - The Locust, Dead Cross, Planet B, Retox and others, he’s tirelessly working behind the scenes as founder of Three One G, an aggressively independent record label dedicated to bringing bands to the masses that would otherwise have fallen … Read more
Saturday Looks Good To Me
All Your Summer Songs (Re-Issue)
Polyvinyl (2012)
Have you ever gone to a show for one artist or band that you look forward to seeing so much and, instead, walk away talking about one of the openers so much more because of the impression that they left (and that is not a knock on the band or artist that you originally went to see in any way)? … Read more
Saturday Looks Good To Me
Every Night (Reissue)
Polyvinyl (2012)
Imagine my pleasant surprise when the reissue of the long out of print vinyl version of the Saturday Looks Good To Me album Every Night was announced, and even pleasant surprise might be underselling just how excited I was to hear that the LP was being reissued because I had been searching for this format of the album for quite … Read more
Saturday Looks Good To Me
One Kiss Ends It All
Polyvinyl (2013)
A void was left in the world for those that enjoyed the jangly indie pop of Saturday Looks Good To Me when the group disbanded sometime following a tour in 2008 leaving us all wondering if we would ever hear the fun and sweet music that only Fred Thomas and company had been providing since they started playing their unique … Read more
Saturday Night Karaoke
Dejection EP
Brassneck Records, Disaster Records, I Hate Smoke Records (2022)
Saturday Night Karaoke is a local band that has produced many joyful stuffs along their career. There has always been a great vibe to their gigs. The band just put out their newest EP called Dejection and this time the band does something different. Pandemic time hasn’t been a good thing for everyone and Saturday Night Karaoke captures how they … Read more
Saul Williams
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust
Fader (2008)
It's been over sixteen years since the death of Robert Lee Maupin, otherwise known as Iceberg Slim. An African-American author and poet responsible for works such as Pimp: The Story of My Life and Mama Black Widow: A Story of the South's Black Underworld, hHis works, while revolutionary at the time, have since been co-opted over the years to become … Read more
Saves the Day
Sound the Alarm
Vagrant (2006)
It's been noted that the names of New Jersey's Saves the Day's records have been somewhat contradictory to the bands' career: Can't Slow Down, Through Being Cool, and Stay What You Are. The release of 2003's In Reverie was marked by a critical panning and a fan reaction that was far from, well, reverie. In some ways, it wasn't surprising … Read more
