Here we go! Part THREE of my Favorite Albums Series!

I’m just gonna start diving into each album from here on out!

This time – I’m sharing three more of my fav albums! And bonus – they’re all Canadian!

The Trews – Time Capsule – 2016

Back in 2003, The Trews released their debut album ‘House of Ill Fame,’ and I was immediately excited. The two stand out track – ‘Not Ready to Go’ and ‘Tired of Waiting’ – were phenomenal then and remain phenomenal now.

For whatever reason, I stopped listening to them for over a decade. It wasn’t until 2014’s self-titled album that returned me to being a huge fan. The lead single of ‘The Trews,’ titled ‘Rise in the Wake’ had me grinning like a maniac. Featuring amazing guitar work, a huge sing-along chorus and as close to an Alternative Canadian Rock Breakdown as you can get, the track had me exploring all of their music I’d missed while not listening to them.

Then, in 2016, they released a ‘Best Of’ titled ‘Time Capsule,’ and though it may seem like a cop out to choose a ‘Best Of’ on a list of fav albums, this collection has everything magnificent the band did up until that year. Their latest album, ‘The Bloody Light,’ just came out in October of 2025 and songs like ‘Manifest’ and the title track indicate we should be getting many more years of phenomenal tunes from this band.

Stand out tracks – ‘Not Ready to Go,’ ‘Tired of Waiting,’ ‘Paranoid Freak,’ ‘Sing Your Heart Out.’

Live – Yes! July 1st, 2017! And the reason for me remembering that exact day is because for Canada Day, my father-in-law, my son and I went to Spruce Grove and watched them perform for free for the Canada Day celebration. It was Auryn’s first concert and The Trews put on a simply amazing show!

Sam Roberts – Lo Fantasy – 2014

Much like The Trews, Sam Roberts debut album ‘We Were Born in a Flame’ also came out in 2003. And much like with The Trews, I loved Sam’s debut instantly. Hearing ‘Brother Down’ for the first time sold me and made me a lifelong fan. Between the lyrics, the music and the music video of Sam in a boat on wavy waters, I couldn’t get enough.

Fast forward and when ‘Lo Fantasy’ was released, I couldn’t stop listening to it. This was the album I was listening to when we found out my wife was pregnant and to this day I remember driving to all of the check up appointments with this album playing. Each song is an earworm and each song will make you bob your head and sing along.

Stand out tracks – ‘We’re All in this Together,’ ‘Metal Skin,’ & ‘Chasing the Light.’

Live – Yes! Edmonton has an annual festival called K-Days and I think it was 2018 when Sam Roberts performed there. It was such an amazing concert.

The Glorious Sons – A War On Everything – 2019

How’s this for connectivity? When The Glorious Sons debut album came out, the guitar player from The Trews produced their ‘Union’ album. Fast forward and in 2025, the singer and guitar player of TGS produced The Trews newest album. Cool eh?

Considering my love for Canadian music, TGS came onto my radar shamefully late. It was only a few years ago that I heard their song ‘S.O.S. (Sawed Off Shotgun)’ on the local radio station, THE BEAR here. I checked out more of that album and loved the songs ‘Everything Is Alright’ and ‘Comedown.’ Then, in 2023, their album ‘Glory’ was released and that album is near perfect. Songs such as ‘Mercy, Mercy,’ ‘Cellular,’ ‘Speed of Light’ and ‘You Stay Young,’ are magnificent and I’m constantly going back to that album, as it’s so good. But for some reason, I never checked out 2019’s ‘A War On Everything’ until early this year. Not sure why I never got around to listening to it, but as soon as I did, I was blown away. To me, this is their best album (so far) and I’ve probably listened to it close to a dozen times a week since I snagged the CD some months back. The song mix on this album are both a perfect example of the high energy tunes they write, but also the emotional, atmospheric music they create.

Songs such as ‘A War On Everything,’ ‘Wild Eyes,’ ‘One More Summer,’ ‘These Wicked Things,’ & ‘Pink Motel’ are some of the best songs you’ll ever hear.

Stand out tracks – ‘A War On Everything,’ ‘Wild Eyes,’ & ‘Pink Motel.’

Live – Sadly, no. I’m hopeful that they’ll be here again next summer as over the last few years they’ve played five or six times in and around Edmonton, but for various reasons I just haven’t managed to get to a show.

Welcome back to PART TWO of my Favorite Albums Series!

In part one, I shared an album from Knocked Loose and Six Feet Under, two albums that crush it and today’s two picks fall into the same category!

I always love chatting about music and seeing concerts, though over the last number of years, my concert attendance has greatly dipped. So, I’m adding a section discussing if I’ve seen a band live. It doesn’t change anything from the first post, as I’ve not been able to catch either band live yet, and it doesn’t even apply to today’s two albums! But, I figured it’d be a fun thing to mention.

Alright, here we – the next two albums that are personal favorites.

Power Trip – Nightmare Logic – 2017

I have a love/hate relationship with thrash, but when done right, it hits a sweet spot in my musical brain. I tend to lean more towards crossover bands, which I think Power Trip are, in my opinion. That perfect blend of hardcore and thrash, making for some insanely fast riffs but also some brutal, brutal breakdowns.

I first heard their song ‘Hornet’s Nest,’ which was a stand alone single, and when I went to search for more music, I came across their performance for George Stroumboulopoulos’ ‘House of Strombo’ show he had where he’d have bands literally come play in his kitchen/living room or basement. He had amazing acts like The Cult and even Behemoth perform there, but the Power Trip episode (which you can find here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fV0Wdjxyis&list=RD3fV0Wdjxyis&start_radio=1) is fucking amazing and shows the energy the band is known for and the energy Riley brought. That performance had me pop on their album ‘Nightmare Logic’ and get absolutely blasted by how phenomenal it is. It is a perfect example of melding thrash and hardcore together to produce this crossover music that you can’t help but mosh – no matter where you are.

I’m excited to see what the future brings, now that the surviving members have been joined by their new vocalist, Seth.

Stand out tracks – ‘Executioner’s Tax (Swing of the Axe)’, ‘Firing Squad,’ & ‘Nightmare Logic.’

Live – Unfortunately, no.

I – Between Two Worlds – 2006

Oddly, I’m not 100% sure how I came about discovering I’s one and only album, though I think it was from reading reviews in Metal Hammer magazine. I’ve always enjoyed Immortal, but it wasn’t until I discovered this album that I started listening to them in any sort of consistency.

I is a supergroup, made up of members of Immortal, Gorgoroth and Enslaved, who released this album and played a handful of concerts and then continued on with their usual bands, leaving all of us who FUCKING love this album desperate for more. Sure, Demonaz (who wrote the lyrics for the album) released his solo album ‘March of the Norse’ five years later and it has a very similar feel to ‘Between Two Worlds’ – hell, Ice Dale returns on here to play guitar and bass and Armagedda once again plays the drums – but it isn’t a true follow up.

‘Between Two Worlds’ feels much like Six Feet Under’s ‘Haunted’ album does. It’s that Death ‘n’ Roll rumbling that slows down what the members usually perform in their normal bands and focuses on rhythm, head banging and controlled riffs. This album slays from start to finish and if it wasn’t so perfect from note one to the very last, I’d have put ‘March of the Norse’ here instead, because while that album is phenomenal, this one is just a hair better.

Abbath has covered a couple I tracks in his own band, but even then the feel and flow just isn’t the same.

Stand out tracks – ‘Warriors,’ ‘Between Two World’s’ & ‘Far Beyond the Quiet.’

Live – Unfortunately, no.

Music has had a significant impact on my life for as long as I can remember.

Growing up, my parents always had music playing in our vehicles, often country like Johnny Cash, but as I got older, other things grabbed my attention.

I can still vividly remember two key moments in my young, music life.

The first was the Christmas I received a CD player boom box and 3 CDs. It was the first time I’d been given music as a gift, and it changed my life. I had that CD player for a few years before upgrading to the mega 6-disc changer!

Those first 3 CDs? Tiffany’s Greatest Hits, Alan Jackson’s ‘A Lot About Livin’ (And a Little ’bout Love),’ and Tom Petty’s ‘Into the Great Wide Open.’ I played those albums an insane amount in my bedroom, singing along at the top of my lungs.

The second key music moment was hearing our neighbour’s son – Bob Moody Jr. – blasting White Zombie’s ‘La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One’ maybe a year later. Bob was a few years older than I was, and he was the cool guy in my small town. At least in my eyes. He used to catwalk his BMX up and down the road in front of our house and on weekends he’d always have parties – teenagers galore with loud music blasting. He would lend me CDs of his (just like how his mom would lend me her Stephen King books) and his heavy metal loving music mind definitely influenced what I liked. I borrowed countless albums from him. From White Zombie to GnR to Rainbow Butt Monkeys to Bon Jovi and Judas Priest.

Not long after, I discovered Columbia House and from there, my music taste evolved and expanded. (If you’re not aware of what Columbia House was, it was a mail in CD/Cassette business, where you got like 30 CD’s for free to start with and then had to buy 5 over the next few years to fulfill your contract. It was amazing!)

So, while trying to figure out some content for here, I realized that I’d not spent much time sharing the music I love.

I’ve chosen 30 albums that I absolutely adore, though there are far more albums out there that could’ve easily made the list. Some I kept out simply because I wanted to only chose 30 and do three posts. Like The Crow soundtrack. What an amazing batch of songs that album has.

Today, I’m sharing the first two on my list (Which was put together without any particular order of which are my more favs of the others.). For each album, I’ll share how I came to discover the album and some of my fav tracks on the album!

Without further ado, here are the first two albums on my list.

Knocked Loose – A Different Shade of Blue – 2019

I’d previously heard Kentucky’s hardcore punk/metal band Knocked Loose on Liquid Metal before, with their song ‘Billy No Mates,’ and while I didn’t mind it, it didn’t grab me. That changed when their song ‘Mistakes Like Fractures’ was released, and I couldn’t help but bang my head.

It was frenetic, chaotic and an absolute monster, though in comparison to some of the other tracks on the album, it’s not even as heavy as they are. Usually, I’m not a fan of the vocalists screamo approach, for this album, and the subsequent releases they’ve had, it’s grown on me.

From the opening boom of ‘Belleville’ to the insanity that is ‘Forget Your Name’ which has a legendary guest appearance by Keith Buckley, the album simply fucking slams. Their subsequent EP’s and Albums have been solid, but ‘A Different Shade of Blue’ – in my opinion at least – is their perfect album.

Stand out tracks – ‘By the Grave,’ ‘Guided by the Moon’ & ‘Forget Your Name.’

Live – not yet!

Six Feet Under – Haunted – 1995

One of the first albums I ever snagged from Columbia House – which was purely because of the cover art – SFU’s ‘Haunted’ has been in constant rotation for me ever since it arrived. I wasn’t a fan of Cannibal Corpse back then, had never even really heard them before, so I wasn’t aware of who Chris Barnes was or that he’d been kicked out of CC or any of that drama. All I was aware of was when the first song – ‘The Enemy Inside’ – kicked in, I was in for a treat, and the album never relents. To this day, I still think this is the best SFU album they’ve released, though there are many, many solid releases in their discography. Barnes previously said that this album was Death ‘n’ Roll, and I have to agree. Mid-paced for the most part, each song chugs along and delivers atmospherically. There are a few faster bangers as well, but this showcases the band just as they rocketed into stardom and when Barnes was arguably the best death metal vocalist on the planet.

Stand out tracks – ‘Still Alive,’ ‘Human Target,’ & ‘Haunted.’

Live – sadly no!

Title: Final Boys

Author: John C. Foster

Release date: November 14th, 2025

*Huge thanks to John for sending me a digital copy of this one!*

When this book was announced, I was super stoked for it, purely because of the cover. Honestly, this is a book I’d have read no matter the description, purely because of what the cover suggests. Snow? I’m in. Skull? I’m in! Disheveled people displayed in ‘survival’ mode? I’M IN! Bloody tracks in said snow? YES, YES, I’M IN!

I have this on my ‘to buy list’ and planned on snagging it here this month in my monthly eBook budget I have. (Hey, if I didn’t have an eBook monthly budget, I’d bankrupt us faster than you could blink!) But John reached out to me to ask if I’d like a review copy and knowing I’d be buying this anyways, I agreed, wanting to get this read ASAP for him.

It’s been a number of years since John and I connected, and I’m a fan of his blend of gritty horror. Everything he writes feels like it’s written by an old private investigator smoking a cigar in a dusty office that happens to have a ghost. And I say that without any hint of suggesting John’s old!

What I liked: A group of long time friends meet up at a remote cabin in the middle of nowhere for a sort of intervention. A mental health intervention if you will. One of the friends recently attempted to take his own life, so the group decides to get together, have some laughs and some drinks, in the hopes that being their for their friend will help him.

Unbeknownst to them, the cabin lies near a small town with a mysterious past. One night, everyone disappeared. Some say madness, others a government conspiracy and others UFO’s.

On top of that, the caretaker of the place, a young woman named Lila, is just breaking free of being a member of an extreme cult called Name of God, or NOG.

Foster sets things up nicely, giving us a little bit about each of the characters – for example, the writer Jackson, who recently lost an eye. The group is rounded out nicely and we feel like we’ve known these guys forever, for better and for worse.

Soon though, things start to stack up. A storm rolls in, the story of the nearby town is revealed and, after two hunters have a run in with the group, things start to unravel.

I found myself zipping through this, even as things grow sinister, and then, after a wounded coyote arrives, the body count begins. The arrival of the coyote is a firm turning point. Up until that moment, there’s the threat of violence. A hint of things to come. And once the animal is there, the match is lit and tossed onto the kindling, a fire bursting to life.

It becomes a case of who will survive – hence the title – and we see each member fight – and often fail – to survive against what it is that’s behind this. The culprit/culprits were a lot of fun and their method of killing and decapitation made for some truly gruesome scenes.

The ending was also a ton of fun. There’s a change of location, which allows for some unique set pieces to be put into play and Foster doesn’t squander any of it.

What I didn’t like: A couple things stuck out for me. The first was that the cult element was fairly unnecessary. If it was removed completely, the story wouldn’t change and I was expecting far more from it. If you had Lila be a woman fleeing an abusive ex and they came after her, the story would play out exactly the same with Yomiel’s role.

Secondly, learning the ‘why’ of our crazy killers was fantastic, but I wished it was a bit earlier on, so that we kind of knew what the characters would be up against. Very minor, but with where it was placed in the book, it almost felt like an afterthought.

And lastly – and this one could 100% just be me missing this – but I felt like there were a few things with our characters that we never learned and that would’ve heightened the story. How did Jackson lose his eye? Why was the one character’s nickname Friar? And why did Raymond attempt to take his own life? Would’ve loved to have these discussed and re-referenced a few times as it would’ve really elevated the friendship/group element.

Why you should buy this: Look, I’m pretty much game for anything that has those check box ticks that I listed above. You have a book set in an isolated cabin in a snowstorm and people need to survive? I’m all in and if you love that stuff as well – this one is PERFECT for you!

And, if you love reading cold-weather thriller/horror novels when the snow hits or December rolls around, then this book will be right up your alley.

Foster’s delivered a high-octane, fast-paced thriller set in an isolated, storm battered world. What more could you possibly want? Oh yeah, how about crazy things that come to kill ’em all! SOLD!

This was fantastic!