Driving Force: Wayne Rudell (Powered Wig Machine)

By: Salvia Hex

In this edition of Driving Force, we journey south to Americas' borderlands to track down the mysterious leader of Powered Wig Machine, the infamous Dr. Wayne Van Halen Rudell Esq. Our good friend Wayne is not only the driving force behind heavy Western rockers Powered Wig Machine, but he has also recently started to establish Sierra Vista as a regular tour stop for traveling bands by reaching out to a local bar named JR's Pub and enticing them to open the doors to bearded, vest wearing rockers from across this continent. We tracked Wayne down as he was attempting to sell some nu-metal kids a BOSS Metal Zone pedal (no mods) outside the local Hastings and forced him at donut-point to answer some questions for us.

Reviews: 500 Cunts/Stab/Bloody Corpse Dismemberment/Blister Unit "Four Way Split"

By: Garviel Loken

Four bands and a total of forty-five tracks may seem ridiculous at first glance, but like the intensity one might experience during a micro burst, the experience is over all too abruptly. The guilty parties named in this indictment (500 Cunts, Bloody Corpse Dismemberment, Stab, and Blister Unit) have committed numerous and glorious audio atrocities across the breadth of the recording and must now be called to account for them. Some are steeped in the chaos of grindcore, while others wear the crusty outer garments of punk and death metal.

Driving Force: Brett Thomas (Ladybird/Metal Night)

By: Salvia Hex

In this edition of Driving Force, we reached out to the barren, desert wastelands of Phoenix to track down the illustrious Brett Thomas of Ladybird. Aside from being in a stupid heavy sludge band, he's also the main man behind the Metal Nights at the Time Out Lounge, where once a week he infiltrates the world of Bud Lime and Kenny Chesney to drop a heaping slab of heavy wax all over unsuspecting ears. We cornered him outside the local methadone clinic and forced him to either answer these ten questions or we would report him to Sheriff Joe Arpiao's racist posse.

Best Of: 2012 Musician's Picks - Part II

We're back again for the second and final installment in our 2012 Top Ten lists. Part I was posted a few weeks back, and we're pretty stoked about the response we had to it. We gathered up a few more responses and lists, edited them up all fancy-like for your ass, and dropped that shit in your face like a hot load. Lick it up...

Best Of: 2012 Musician's Picks - Part I

For this series of Top ten lists, we sent out a call to duty to all the rockers and ragers that make up Arizona's incredible heavy music scene. We got a good amount of responses this year, so we compiled them all here for your amusement. Give this list a good once over, then hit the Axe's Facebook page to discuss, agree, argue and threaten each other with bodily harm. Get into it!

Best Of: 2012 Staff Picks

By: Salvia Hex

It's about that time of year to hit the internet with our annual Best Of lists. Unlike a lot of music sites, we like to wait until the year is actually over before compiling our lists. So since we're balls deep into January of 2013 now, it's a good time to get these things rolling. We'll start you off with the staff picks from myself and Garviel Loken. The lists we gathered up from a number of Arizona musicians will be following in the next post. Hopefully you can find something on here new to listen, or at least something to argue about.

Reviews: American Standards "Still Life"

By: Garviel Loken

Clocking in at less than twenty minutes, the seven tracks of "Still Life" by American Standards are a breath of fresh air for those in the hardcore scene who are suffocating from boredom and apathy. Unlike many bands in this genre that re-hash the same old ideas or rely on technique alone to stay relevant, American Standards has cleverly sidestepped these pitfalls. Bridging the gap between late 90s hardcore and the modern era of metal, "Still Life" rings true on all fronts.