By Greg Maki Four long years. I hadn’t attended a festival since Rock on the Range in May 2018, first due to the birth of my son in 2019 and then—well, everyone knows what happened in 2020. My long-awaited—for me, anyway—return came on the weekend of July 15-17, 2022, at the Ohio State Reformatory in... Continue Reading →
REVIEW: Saint Asonia – ‘Introvert’
By Greg Maki I’m not sure if it's criticism or praise to say that “Introvert,” the new seven-song EP from Saint Asonia, sounds exactly how one would expect it to sound. Probably a little of both. The band, of course, is based on the musical partnership of ex-Three Days Grace frontman Adam Gontier and Staind... Continue Reading →
Mötley 101: Ranking the Crüe’s discography
By Greg Maki With “The Stadium Tour” finally underway, Mötley Crüe is officially back in action, playing its first shows since “The Final Tour”—supposedly sealed with a legal contract—wrapped on Dec. 31, 2015. Though known for spectacle and its band members’ outrageous lifestyles—immortalized in “The Dirt,” the book and movie—more than anything else, the Crüe... Continue Reading →
REVIEW: Motionless in White – ‘Scoring the End of the World’
By Greg Maki Looking to build off the success of 2019’s “Disguise”—particularly the singles “Brand New Numb” and “Another Life”—Motionless in White has returned with arguably its most complete album to date in “Scoring the End of the World.” Like its most immediate predecessor, the record leans heavily into the hard rock aspect of the... Continue Reading →
REVIEW: Crobot – ‘Feel This’
By Greg Maki With warm weather here and the official start of summer just around the corner, there isn’t a batch of tunes more suitable for this season of good times than “Feel This,” the fourth full-length from Pennsylvania rockers Crobot. In a just world, “Better Times” would be the song of summer 2022, a... Continue Reading →
REVIEW: Mark Tremonti – ‘Tremonti Sings Sinatra’
By Greg Maki And now for something completely different … Hear the name Mark Tremonti and you’ll think of Alter Bridge, Creed and his eponymous solo band. Most of all, you’ll probably think of guitars—huge, muscular riffs and shredding solos. I’m reasonably sure that you won’t think of Ol’ Blue Eyes. Mark started talking up... Continue Reading →
REVIEW: Halestorm – ‘Back from the Dead’
By Greg Maki After the COVID-19 pandemic wiped away touring—the lifeblood of any legitimate rock band—for more than a year, “Back from the Dead” feels like a restatement of purpose for Halestorm. It sees the band tossing aside its dalliances with pop and country music and finding its way back to its hard-rocking roots. While... Continue Reading →
REVIEW: Fozzy – ‘Boombox’
By Greg Maki From classic metal cover act to legitimate metal band of its own to rock radio stalwart, Fozzy has had one of the most unlikely paths to success imaginable. After the 2017 album and single “Judas” propelled the band to new heights, Chris Jericho, Rich Ward and company seem concerned mostly with sustaining... Continue Reading →
REVIEW: Stabbing Westward – ‘Chasing Ghosts’
By Greg Maki No band defined my late-’90s musical tastes more than Stabbing Westward. Something about Christopher Hall’s emotive vocals and the heavy guitars layered on top of dark, electronic rhythms spoke to me. “Wither Blister Burn & Peel” (1996), featuring the hits “What Do I Have to Do?” and “Shame,” made me a fan,... Continue Reading →
REVIEW: Corpsegrinder (self-titled)
By Greg Maki While I appreciate its completely uncompromising nature, I’ve never been able to fully embrace death metal. Imagine my surprise then at how much I’ve been enjoying “Corpsegrinder,” the debut solo LP by George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, the voice of Cannibal Corpse, one of the most revered bands in the subgenre’s history. Perhaps that’s... Continue Reading →