In 2011 Abel Tesfaye was a mere blip on the radar. Having dropped out of high school a few years prior, he was living in Parkdale with a few friends, dabbling in excessive drug use and partying, but behind all this, a true star was being made. On March 21st, Abel would become The Weeknd when he released his first official project titled House of Balloons. A mixtape that would start his journey from a lowly misfit out of Scarborough to one of music’s biggest artists. Moreover, his dark, atmospheric, and moody take on R&B would shift the genre in…

If there’s one band who refuses to be boxed into one style or sound that would surely be Bring Me The Horizon. Since their inception in the early 2000’s, they shifted from earsplitting death-core on their debut Count Your Blessings, to melodic metal-core starting with 2010’s There Is A Hell… to full-blown pop-rock meets electronica on last year’s Amo, my favourite album of 2019. The change in sound has certainly divided their fanbase, but the quintet is more than confident with their choice to constantly subvert expectations, and the results have been quite stellar. …

Armed with a bass guitar and a drum kit, Royal Blood has made waves onto the British rock scene since their debut back in 2014. The band’s unique sound of Mike Kerr’s sludgy bass riffs and Ben Thatcher’s pounding percussions have dominated live shows and festivals, making them one of rock music’s most exciting new bands. Their first two albums are arguably some of the best rock albums to come out this past decade, 2014’s self-titled LP and 2017’s How Did We Get So Dark? showcased the band’s sheer power as a duo that was equal parts gritty and catchy.

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The wait is over, after what felt like a decade, God of War is finally here. I haven’t been this giddy about a game since The Last of Us back in 2013, and with the rave reviews, the game has been getting, who wouldn’t be? God of War has been getting 10/10’s, 5/5’s, and damn near-perfect scores across the board, currently sitting at a 95 on Metacritic, making it the highest-rated game on the PS4. It’s unbelievable!

Over the past few days, I had the chance to play God of War and I have to say, Sony Santa Monica might…

Insomniac Games’ PS4 exclusive Spider-Man is one of fall 2018’s most anticipated titles. The game has received numerous amounts of hype leading up to its launch this past Friday and has most certainly lived up to the hype with critics and fans agreeing that this is one of the best superhero games to have come out in the past few years. Initially, I was going to wait until the game went on sale but I caved in last weekend and ended up buying it, I really wanted to see what Spider-Man was all about. Did Insomniac Games really make the…

I’ll admit, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Kid Cudi at first. While I loved his breakout single “Day N’ Nite”, the rest of his music fell flat for me. Maybe because I was trying too hard to compare him to his contemporaries like Kendrick Lamar and Drake or perhaps I just couldn’t get into his style of psychedelic rap, but I passed on him for a while. …

If there was one good thing that happened last year it was Freddie Gibbs finally getting the recognition he so rightfully deserves. Gibbs isn’t exactly an underground artist, rather he fits into that niche category of having a fairly sizeable following with a few big-name co-signs, but just barely reaching full mainstream attention. I can’t call myself a longtime fan of Freddie, as I only starting really listening to his music about 2 years ago, but his lyricism and beat selection caught my attention almost immediately. …

The history behind Death From Above 1979 is a bit rocky. Starting nearly 20 years ago, the duo came onto the Toronto music scene in the early 2000s with raw and unrefined energy that felt missing from most rock music at the time. With their 2004 debut, You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine they solidified themselves as a fierce rock duo, and then disbanded almost immediately after. Reuniting a decade later and dropping music sporadically in the past few years (2014’s The Physical World & 2017's Outrage! Is Now) It’s almost as if they never left, despite their limited discography.

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