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Cattivo, an almost unnoticeable bar in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood was the site of a punk/metal uprising the other evening. Call it “crossover” or thrash or plain old punk, this Friday night gig was one of the most unhinged I’ve ever attended. Iron Reagan, a side project formed by alumni of Municipal Waste and Darkest Hour, came barreling out of Richmond, Virginia’s hotbed of a metal scene in 2012, and since then have been burning it...

  This was a night for those who miss hooks, clean vocals, and melodies in their metal, the curmudgeons who gripe about the supposed drought of “good” current bands. In 2014, some friends and I managed to catch Chicago’s High Spirits; once in Pittsburgh and again in their hometown as part of the Alehorn Of Power festival, which was headlined by Slough Feg, who drop in next month. The festival is where I also first...

When Overkill skinsman Jason Bittner played the intro to Judas Priest’s “Painkiller” as a warm-up exercise, I knew we were about to be pummeled into oblivion. Despite having seen this grizzled band of streetwise avengers numerous times over the years, a feeling of unpreparedness overcame me. It was as if I were a teenager once more, and this was my first gig ever. The sold-out crowd that filled The Rex Theater in Pittsburgh were as...

It’s funny how when I meet and speak with musicians, I end up discussing bands they’re not in more than the band they’re in currently, and the bands that come up in conversation are surprising sometimes until they themselves take the stage. That’s when it all comes together and makes sense. Smoke Wizzard began things with a short set of humorous, harmless stoner metal. Think Primus and Sleep getting together for munchies after a few...

The metallic, burnt taste of the outer limits were in our mouths as extreme music permeated and pummeled our ears. For several hours, we were adrift in space, and yes, we could be heard screaming as we were hurtled towards suns and planets inhospitable.   Ulthar, an upstart Oakland, California act signed to recently transplanted label 20 Buck Spin, released what many believed to be one of 2018’s death metal masterpieces in Cosmovore .  And...

Children of Bodom turned a Sunday night into a blackened power metal odyssey amidst the storms that howled outside in the sleepy, Old World borough of Millvale. A frail looking Alexi Laiho had no time for jokey pop covers, opening with the vampiric blitz of “Are You Dead Yet?” to the delight of the respectably-numbered crowd who clapped and shouted along to everything as if it were Wacken Open Air. From there on in, it...