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Darkness Light Up Boise With Joyful Set; Justin Hawkins Lights Into Crowd Over Cell Phones

The Darkness played a gig in Boise on Saturday night, and as to be expected, the always-entertaining British rockers delivered plenty of theatrics and pleased the crowd to virtually no end.

In what appears to be the Darkness’ first-ever concert in Idaho, frontman Justin Hawkins hammed it up in front of the packed crowd at the Knitting Factory Boise. He leaned hard into the glam-rock swagger that made the band stand out from the pack of detached fashionista indie rockers in the early aughts.

To that end, the Darkness tapped heavily into their 2003 debut, Permission to Land; six of the 20 songs they played derived from that record: “Get Your Hands Off My Woman,” “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” “Growing on Me,” “Givin’ Up,” “Love Is Only a Feeling” and “Friday Night.”

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Snooper’s ‘Worldwide’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Jack White, Snooper, Third Man Records on 11/12/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Snooper have all the support they need to be taken seriously, with Third Man Records serving as chaperone for the band and its second record, as Jack White’s label did with their first two years ago. That said, the operators of the label appear to have removed the training wheels from Snooper’s bike this time around, letting them embrace their id on the band’s second record in defiance of the dreaded-slash-silly “sophomore curse.” Read my Post-Trash review here.

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Wode’s ‘Uncrossing the Keys’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags black metal, Wode on 11/09/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

With Uncrossing the Keys, Wode proved they wanted to make a daring pivot, at risk of alienating black-metal purists, by benching those two trademark qualities of theirs in favor of a far more eclectic listen—an objective at which they succeed handily. On Uncrossing the Keys, Wode finally makes good use of the huge asset of which they didn’t take full advantage in the past: three guitars. Rather than mostly playing in unison, this time around, vocalist M. Czerwoniuk and his fellow axemen—T. Horrocks (who also plays drums and keys) and backing vocalist D. Shaw—engage in intricate interplay for the bulk of the record. The Pittsburgh metalheads’ coal-black alchemy results in an album with more melody than all Wode’s previous albums combined. And that’s really saying something, considering that their debut was one of my favorite albums of 2016. Read my full Treble review.

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Erosion’s ‘Invasive Species’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags 3 Inches of Blood, Aaron Turner, Erosion, Jaime Hooper, Mechanized Apparatus Revolt on 11/09/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Not a second is wasted on this essential entry into the collection of every fan of heavy music who doesn’t like Disturbed and Korn. With that notion in mind, it’s no surprise that one of the most persnickety-yet-always-correct individuals in this sludgy underworld, Aaron Turner, gave Erosion his sign of approval by putting out Maximum Suffering seven years ago. Invasive Species comes courtesy of Canadian underground grindcore label Mechanized Apparatus Revolt, and boy did they luck out scoring this release. Get it here and thank us later — if your head hasn’t exploded by the time you’re done listening to it. Here’s my full Post-Trash review.

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Agriculture’s ‘Spiritual Sound’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Agriculture, ecstatic black metal on 10/27/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Agriculture, the self-categorized “ecstatic black metal” outfit, returns with a second album that is called The Spiritual Sound and is just as singular and spectacular as their debut. Read my FLOOD review.

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Favorite Films: Heavy Heavy Low Low Vocalist Lists His Favorite Flicks as Halloween Creeps Closer

Posted in Favorite Films, Interviews, Lists, Reviews with tags An American Werewolf in London, David Lynch, Halloween, Heavy Heavy Low Low, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Night of the Living Dead, No Country for Old Men, Robbie Smith, The Coen Brothers on 10/25/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

It’s not uncommon for an actor to form or join a band – after all, it takes a certain gene to drive a person to be at the center of attention as much as they possibly can. But this past summer, when we caught up with vocalist Robbie Smith of sasscore squad Heavy Heavy Low Low, we learned that the inverse isn’t necessarily as common.

Sure, he enjoys fronting the band from San Jose, California, and writing and recording their songs – which are so unhinged and berserk that even Guantanamo Bay couldn’t restrain or temper them. Nonetheless, Smith also enjoys stepping away from the physical intensity of the band’s concerts to focus on an artistic endeavor he may value even more than crafting music: filmmaking.

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My Morning Jacket’s ‘Z (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Jim James, My Morning Jacket on 10/21/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Remastered and padded out with 14 outtakes and demos, this reissue of My Morning Jacket’s fourth LP, Z, celebrates their breakout moment of glorious, cosmos-reaching rock music. Read my FLOOD review.

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Perturbator’s ‘Age of Aquarius’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Alcest, Author & Punisher, James Kent, Perturbator, Ulver on 10/21/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Vocals from Ulver, Alcest and Author & Punisher help James Kent thrust his darksynth project Perturbator into lightspeed as it comes closer than ever to a full-fledged band’s sound on Age of Aquarius. Read my FLOOD review.

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Bitchin Bajas’ ‘Inland See’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Bitchin Bajas on 10/14/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

This writer’s interpretation of Bitchin Bajas’ Inland See is that, by using wordplay in its title, the essence of the record is a gentle but assured suggestion to look inside yourself, accept who you are—foibles and all—and arrive at a place of acceptance where the sensation is akin to floating, without moving any of your muscles, above a warm and serene body of water. From there, you re-enter the earthly womb and become reborn: not as an entirely new person, but as the person you are and were always meant to be. Don’t you see? Read my review of Bitchin Bajas’ Inland See on Treble.

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Irk’s ‘Seeing House’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Irk on 10/04/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Irk are here to remind us of that fact, to pester us with the truth that fear-inducing art forms make us feel alive more than any other varieties. Art can make us laugh, but that reaction quickly dissipates. Art can thrill us, but only the duration of the piece of work ends. Art can make us weep, remind us of what love and sex feel like, but that affecting manipulation ends seconds after the observer of art concludes their experience with it. Read my full review Irk’s Seeing House on Post-Trash.

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