You get grunge and then you get grunge. And then you get Camden grunge. I am the mom of a totally adorable (if I may say so myself) 9-month-old baby girl. Everyone loves her… including the hobos, the dustbin-diggers, the unbathed, the toothless, the druggies, the drunkards and the mentally challenged – all of whom inhabit the wonderful town of Camden, where I live. Before I proceed, I need to say that: I love North London, I love Camden and I am of the firm belief that babies are for sharing (not in a gross paedophile way but in an ‘aah sweet, look at the lovely baby’ kind of way). The privilege of being a parent does not form everyone’s lot in life and I am well aware that motherhood is, indeed, a privilege. The aforementioned life-philosophies that share space in my brain with the ‘I will never live in South London’ philosophy, have placed me in a predicament. Babies bring delight to so many and what kind of person denies the odd head-stroke or hand-touch? Except when the Camden grunge are concerned. Camden grunge has nothing to do with torn stockings, Dr Martins and over-sized dresses, but rather, old food, dirt and oil. Let me explain. Read the rest of this entry »

Corey Taylor strikes again. The all-American-rock-accentuated-by-hints-of-metal sound of Stone Sour’s third studio album will bowl over fans with a gust of listenability. Audio Secrecy is a multi-layered tribute to alternative music, and is best described by Stone Sour’s frontman: “It’s heavy, it’s melodic, it’s dark, it’s slow, it’s light and it’s beautiful. You’ll hear something different with each listen.” Testament to Stone Sour’s fan clout, the triple-Grammy nominated band, which includes Slipknot’s Jim Root on guitar as well as Josh Rand (guitar), Shawn Economaki (bass) and Roy Mayorga (drums), recently headlined the second stage at 2010’s Download festival. Audio Secrecy is likely to propel the band further forward to the ‘bigger and better’. Read the rest of this entry »

It all began with Vlad the Impaler and Stoker – Bram Stoker that is. Vlad came first. He was also known as Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia or, more simply, as Dracula – Drakyula in Romanian. According to folklore, tyrannical Vlad was sadistically cruel. His victims numbered between 40,000 and 100,000 (depending on who is telling the story) and favoured methods of punishment, other than the infamous impalement, included torturing; burning; skinning (skinning the feet of thieves, thereafter placing salt on the wounds and allowing goats to lick off the salt was a favourite); roasting and boiling people; feeding people the flesh of their friends or relatives; cutting off limbs; and drowning. Edward Cullen clearly missed out on Vamp101.

Most researchers agree that there is a connection between Transylvanian Vlad and Stoker’s Count Dracula; the extent of the association between the factual man and the fictional character is, however, a point of debate. More important than what inspired Stoker’s prolific character is how influential that character has been. The vampire trend has dipped in and out of consciousness since Dracula was published in 1897. In 2010, not only has vampire lore staked a large claim to popular culture but has also called into question the moral fibre of the community and thus raised a hullabaloo similar to the one elicited by Stoker in 1897. Gone is the attraction of long-haired Fabios waggling their penises around the lusty loins of hot blondes in Mills and Boon escapades. Vampire sex is IN; it’s dangerous, possessive and most importantly animalistic. And no tale exposes vampire magnetism better than Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mystery novels – recently translated into hit show True Blood. Harris has built on Stoker’s legacy; she has written a social satire that uses a seemingly innocent gal from Louisiana as a agent for astute commentary and shrewd observation. Read the rest of this entry »

Metal’s favourite doll killing maniacs have injected some uber-attitude into the scene with the release of their second Roadrunner album Women and Children Last. Murderdolls’ driving duo Joey Jordison (Slipknot) and Wednesday 13 (whose band goes by the same name) have put together an album that brings horror-punk-metal to the masses with a vengeance.

Women and Children Last is permeated with the “scum, filth, anger and greed… chaos [and] darkness on a violent binge” that is mentioned in album opener The World According To Revenge. The vision of Joey Jordison (guitar, drums) and Wednesday 13 (vocals, guitar) is realised with the boisterous bellow of speedy guitar riffs and accelerated punk drumming with a touch of metal bashing along the way, which is set to “ piss people off and shake things up”. Jordison went on to tell Kerrang! that “Everything is such a product or a fucking formula these days… Fuck formula! Fuck the norm! (Kerrang! Exclusive! Murderdolls are back). And goal achieved: Women and Children Last is pure, perfect, unadulterated pandemonium. Read the rest of this entry »

Metal’s head-banging cellists are currently playing their way into metal heaven. Apocalyptica’s new album, 7th Symphony, marries Brutal to Beauty in a truly magnificent ceremony. The symphonic tone of the Finnish quartet is typical of the style of metal coming out of Scandinavia at the moment. The classical music training common to many of Scandinavia’s metal heroes is evident in Apocalyptica’s technically advanced compositions. Fourteen years ago the band grabbed the metal community’s attention with their expert covers of Metallica hits and in 2010 Apocalyptica continue to impress with innovative creations. Read the rest of this entry »

My paternal grandmother died a week after my baby girl was born. As a new existence replaced an old one, the circle of life was never more vivid to me as it was then. I was not close to my grandmother and I wish that I had been. I called her granny but have never really appreciated the sentiment that is attached to the title. Retrospect can be a wonderful and yet decidedly pointless exercise but on this occasion I’ll allow my thoughts to run their course. I feel like I have been cheated out of a treasure. A treasure called wisdom: a sacred wisdom that belongs to a grandmother and is relinquished in death as a new matriarch, a grandmother’s successor, assumes the role. My grandmother’s wisdom has been lost in the sands of time due to my own apathy as a granddaughter. I’ve ignored the source and missed the scoop. And my head droops further in shame as I admit that I don’t feel sad about the loss of my grandmother, the person, but rather my grandmother, the wise one. Read the rest of this entry »

I went to the park with my baby girl and some gal pals the other day and came back with a whole bunch of little red bites all over my feet. These ‘bites’ had spread to my ankles the following day. Considering I had not been in the park for 24 hours and the bites had multiplied and certainly looked bite-ish as opposed to rash-ish, I was a tad distressed. I showed my husband my ailment in the hope of some sympathy and a little comfort. His version of sympathy went as follows: “you probably have that thing where those spiders lay their eggs under your skin and then hatch”. Hilarious. Luckily the little bites disappeared, slowly but surely, and just when I was getting over the idea of bird-eating tarantulas bursting forth form my skin in a scene reminiscent of Alien, my dad (privy to my misfortune) so generously delivered me an article entitled “Beware of the Superfly with a taste for humans” Daily Mail, Thursday, July 29, 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Steele died. Not many people will care – “Everything Dies”, as the esteemed muso said. But those who appreciate the talent and artistry enveloped in Type O Negative will shed a sad moment. As I have never been a maniacal Type O fan, it isn’t my place to write a gushy Peter Steele tribute, and so I won’t. However, the death of the iconic muso has reminded me of just how powerful music is. Read the rest of this entry »

I am most pleased to reveal that Jaume Collet-Serra’s Orphan recently ended a severely dry spell of horror film boredom. I am a horror junkie and nothing of late has been spine chillingly awesome. Gruesome … yes. Scary … sort of. Predictable … of course. Orphan is a psychological horror as opposed to the supernatural kind and the reason the film is successful is because it is a character-driven story that is played out exceedingly well by the cast.

The film’s protagonist is the Coleman family, consisting of parents Kate and John, and children Daniel and Max. The family is recovering from the loss of Kate and John’s third child, which was stillborn. Kate used alcohol as a coping mechanism and her addiction and recent recovery there from sets her up as untrustworthy – so naturally when things go seriously awry no one takes Kate’s suspicions seriously – in true horror form. The Coleman family is typical: close but flawed and thus easy for an audience to relate to. In order to fill the void ensuing from their loss, Kate and John decide to adopt a child. And in comes nine-year-old Esther. Read the rest of this entry »

Today, two of my favourite things met up, had a chat and raised the roof. No doubt ‘WTF?’ is scrolling through your head at this very moment so I will rid you of the expletive. Spotify has hooked up with Glee and now my life is complete. I have been known to get excited, ecstatically excited, but today I managed to scare even myself. I have been waiting for this moment since the day that Kurt taught the football thugs to overwhelm their opponents with a song and dance recital of Single Ladies (Put a ring on it). Result: paralytic; on the floor; laughter – that was me. Quick interlude: on the subject of Beyoncé; the only thing to ruin my Glee karaoke session was the elimination of Kurt’s Single Ladies cover from the soundtrack. Tangible disappointment. No doubt Queen Diva herself would not give up the rights to her song, or some such thing. But even that biyatch could not dampen my spirits. Back to the point: today DevilDriver, In Flames, Nightwish and co. made way for my Gleek identity, which stays in the closet (unless I am spotted humming a Glee tune as I walk down the street). The Glee cast’s version of LG’s Bad Romance is one of my favourites, and was made all the more endearing when my metal-head hubby said “WTF is ‘caught in a Bankomat’” – undoubtedly his hearing skills were tainted by a bad experience in Florence that involved Bankomat auto-tellers refusing to let us draw cash. It was traumatic. And more to the point, now “caught in a Bankomat” has replaced “caught in a bad romance”. I am sure LG would appreciate the creative license I have taken with her lyrics. Read the rest of this entry »