“Everything’s good, everything’s fine” so sang Ian Gillan in 1971. And everything’s still good if North Carolinian, dark riffing, blue collar, horror novel rockers Demon Eye are anything to go by. Taking their name from that Deep Purple song, Paul Walz (bass), Bill Eagen (drums), Larry Burlison (guitars) and Erik Sugg (guitars, vocals) play laid-back, bluesy hard rock with more than a nod to their forebears, putting them alongside Orchid and Danava in today’s contemporary scene.

“I was playing with a high energy, MC5 inspired band called the Dragstrip Syndicate. After that I played with some similar styled bands, always tending to borrow from ‘60s Detroit rock or heavy psych groups like Blue Cheer,” explains Erik of how Demon Eye came to be. “When I first met Larry and Bill they were playing with Richard Bacchus from the old New York City rock band, D-generation. Demon Eye was born after the four of us got together to play in a ‘70s rock cover band called Corvette Summer. After about a year of playing tunes by groups like Budgie, UFO and Humble Pie we started writing our own music.

“There are many things that attract me to this music,” he continues of why … Read More

The lyrics to the 12-minute epic track ‘Goddess Of Doom’ could very well be the Nicene Creed of doom metal, Christina Ricci love aside. In the plodding song, Finnish titans Reverend Bizarre chant 33 impeccable band names – the ones that moisten underpants, of course – concluding with the obliging, “We kneel at your altar, we bless thy holy names. You gave Doom to men, we try to do the same.”

Historically, doom has always been this unpretentious; it’d be dismissible if it weren’t so damn earnest and intentionally tongue-in-cheek. Band members celebrate their forefathers and mothers without hesitation, revelling in the mournful cries of their elders and contemporaries, and join forces to spread the despondent credo. In that sense, Vancouver doom act Funeral Circle is a typical doom band. Let the checklist commence: their name was borrowed from track three of the 2004 demo of Australian quartet The Wizar’d. They’ve covered the fist-pump-inducing classics, both obscure and well known – a song by Montreal’s Lord Ryür (‘Pact With A Sinner’) and Witchfinder General (‘Burning A Sinner’). They’re frequently name-dropped by premier German export Atlantean Kodex due to a longstanding friendship, and released a split in 2011 with ex-Bizarre project Lord Vicar. … Read More