So I created a playlist on Spotify (unfortunately all y’all that don’t have it are going to have to cope, I’ll figure out a way to do an iTunes version, but that means buying a bunch of tracks, that’s pretty lame). You can check it out here: Veckans Spellista v. 34.
If you have a very similar CD collection to me you could re-build this list on your home computer. Unfortunately for Spotify users, certain songs I wanted to use aren’t on the list I created originally. It’s in 90 minute mix-tape format, for those of you who are old enough to have made such things as music infatuated youth.
Side A: At the Gates – “Slaughter of the Soul” The Black Dahlia Murder – “Miasma” Anathema – “One Last Goodbye” (from Hindsight) Enslaved – “As Fire Swept Clean the Earth” Finntroll - “Den Sista Runans Dans” (replaced with “Solsagan” on Spotify) Hypocrisy – “Craving for another Killing” Amon Amarth – “Valhall Awaits Me” Blind Guardian – “Battlefield” Bloodbath – “Eaten” Månegarm – “Eld”
Side B: Shining – “Besvikelsens Dystra Monotoni” Dimmu Borgir – “The Insight and the Catharsis” Opeth – “Serenity Painted Death” Blaze – “Stare at the Sun” (this is from The Night that Would Not Die on the Spotify version) Einherjer – “Wolf-Age” In Mourning – “The Art of a Mourning Kind”
EDIT! BONUS LIST!
So, there’s a thread on the Iron Maiden fanclub website about the top 10 best modern tracks (i.e., from the last 4 albums). So I bit and made this truly fantastic playlist that is built for flow, not by favorite (since they all rank highly for me). This album would be a 5/5 75 minute record..
“Montségur”
“The Alchemist”
“Brighter than a Thousand Suns”
“Coming Home”
“Blood Brothers”
“The Pilgrim”
“Face in the Sand”
“The Longest Day”
“Isle of Avalon”
“The Legacy”
Heathens // Oh, Mock the Heavens and Let the Heathens Sing Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Definitely worth checking out. Label: Unsigned Websites: myspace.com/heathensband Release Date: Out now…
The bread and butter of a heavy metal is the unsigned band. If you are patient enough to dig through piles and piles and piles and piles and piles and piles and piles and piles of shit, you will find the prototypes of up and coming bands. Bands in their infancy, but who are producing something that is heretofore unheard of. Or maybe they’ll just be doing something old remarkably well. Or maybe it’s a blending of the two, successfully putting together a sound that few have heard and being super kick ass at the derivative stuff. In any case, what I’m trying to say here is this; you’re bound to find a band that stands out after enough time reviewing underground stuff. However, knowing where to look is a bitch. So when I was directed to the South African black metal band Heathens by Lord Doom, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to like the material or not. Fortunately, Lord Doom is a man of impeccable taste.
Iron Maiden // The Final Frontier Rating: 4.0/5.0 — A great record… Label: EMI Websites: ironmaiden.com Release Date: EU: 08.13.2010 | US: 08.17.2010
Iron Maiden is the greatest heavy metal band to ever live. Thirty years after the release of their self-titled album, they are arguably just as relevant as they ever have been—not resting on their laurels and imitating a hits jukebox, but instead touring the world playing their new material to the joy of fans everywhere. After what was a rousing success with their most recent record, the 2006 release of A Matter of Life and Death, there is actually maybe a bit more pressure on the band to produce something that is quality, memorable and, frankly, classic. Especially with the rumors floating around that this is Maiden‘s final album, spurred even further on by the fact that Steve Harris helped write every song on the record, the pressure cooker of fan scrutiny is reaching fever pitch. And so it falls to this Angry Metal Guy to try to put all of this into some sort of context; to try to listen to my favorite band with fresh ears—and I’ve come to some realizations about the band in the process. Continue reading
Bonded by Blood // Exiled to Earth
Rating: 2.5/5.0 — Re-run of the mill Label: Earache Websites: myspace.com/bondedbyblood Release Dates: EU: 16.08.2010 | US: 08.10.2010
Here comes another entry into the retro-thrash movement, for better or worse. Exiled to Earth is the second album by California thrashers Bonded by Blood and much like their debut, it’s firmly rooted in the 80’s thrash movement. Back in the days of the original thrash invasion, for every top-notch band like Slayer or Exodus, there were ten sub-par, generic clones like Atrophy, Devastation and Gothic Slam. Sadly, this release falls closer to the latter category. Continue reading
Djerv // Headstone EP Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Highly entertaining and pretty unique Label: Katapult Music (Indie Distro) Websites: myspace.com/djervmusic Release Dates: August 3rd, 2010
I don’t make a real habit of reviewing an EP because EPs aren’t really considered to be a “happening” in the musical sense of the word. They aren’t an event in the traditional sense that an LP is—rarely longer than about 15 or 20 minutes it’s hardly not anything to get too excited about. But Norway’s Djerv, a combination of vocalist Agnete Kjølsrud (Animal Alpha), Erlend Gjerde (Wardruna) and Stian Kårstad of the mighty Trelldom, have created a fascinating fusion of sounds that was something that I didn’t want to pass up. Continue reading
It’s been a while since I’ve updated a “classic record”, hasn’t it? But I think I’ve hit another one that is a must have for anyone who likes good metal. I mean, any kind of good metal at all. When I was just an Angry Metal Teenager I first was introduced to a bunch of stuff that I just couldn’t get into because it was too much for me. But there was one band that really pumped out a kind of music that I latched onto that was both heavy and melodic, but also extreme and cool. That band was Norway’s Theatre of Tragedy and that record which really turned me onto the band and later the “beauty and the beast style” (often imitated, but never improved upon) was the record Velvet Darkness They Fear.
As world metal takes the stage, something that is happening more and more frequently these days, we’re going to be seeing more of these bands coming from places where metal just hasn’t ever shown its face earlier. Demonic Resurrection, as those of you familiar with Sam Dunn’s documentary Global Metal already know, are a band from India who play symphonic black metal. The third record in a trilogy The Return to Darkness is being released (as I understand it) as the band’s first international release via Candlelight Records. That Sam Dunn is a rockstar creating machine, it turns out. Though, when it comes to Demonic Resurrection, their music speaks for itself and if you give that music a stage that myriads of metalheads have access to, it’s not hard to see how they managed to break beyond their borders. Continue reading
One of the best parts about being a reviewer, honestly, is getting a hold of records that you’d've never thought to buy on your own and really enjoying them. 2010 hasn’t actually had a lot of those for me. The year has gone pretty much as expected (and a little worse for certain bands, unfortunately). But one of the big disappointments has been the number of bands that I’ve gotten who I’d never heard of that just never pan out to anything. Because obviously it’s newer bands that keep things going and some of my favorite records of the last few years have been from bands that I didn’t even know existed until I got the record to review (Istapp for example, or In Mourning). Gloria Morti is one of those bands that I’d sorta gotten wind of, but never really heard before. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I received Anthems of Annihilation but I was pleasantly surprised. Continue reading
So, Iron Thrones‘ new EP The Wretched Sun which I made the Record o’ the Month and raved about in my review came out yesterday (the 27th of July, 2010). You can order the record from the band via their website (actually, through their store, but go to their site, too) and over at their Band Camp you can download the EP for $6 and you can still download the particularly excellentVisions of Light (the band’s first LP) for as much as you want (i.e. free, if you don’t want to contribute to the band’s well-being).
Oh yeah, it’s also available on Amazon, iTunes and any other number of sources where you can probably find the thing.
Listen to that song above (I hope you’re already doing so) and tell me that it isn’t worth your six bucks. Or wait, it is worth your six bucks. So fucking buy it already.
Edit: Oh right. My friendly competitors over at The Number of the Blog (who shall lose righteously in the Pigskin Destroyer 666 Fantasy Football League) are also sponsoring a tour for the band as well. If you click that link up there, it will take you to their vastly inferior website for the details. Or you could stay right here in the comfort of AngryMetalGuy.com and look at the tour dates.
7/29/10 — Chicago, IL @ The Double Door w/ The Alaya Conscious, Hessler 7/31/10 — Columbus, OH @ The Summit w/ The C.O.A.S.T., Artillery Breath 8/01/10 — Aliquippa, PA @ The Fallout Shelter w/ Sathanas, Dethlehem 8/02/10 — Brooklyn, NY@ The Charleston w/ East of the Wall, Name, & more! 8/03/10 — Allenstown, NH @ Ground Zero w/ TBA 8/04/10 — Worcester, MA @ Tammany Hall w/ Irepress, Frozen 8/05/10 — Philadelphia, PA @ The M Room w/ Monolith, Willing Swords 8/07/10 — Spartanburg, SC @ Ground Zero w/ TBA 8/10/10 — Clarksville, TN @ The Coup w/ Evolve or Die 8/11/10 — Nashville, TN @ The Muse w/ TBA 8/12/10 — St. Louis, MO @ The Firebird w/ Ashes and Iron 8/13/10 — Marshalltown, IA @ The American Legion w/ Anno Domine, Tony Rocky Horror
Here we go again. I have in front of me the new album Into the Crypts of Blasphemy by long, LONG time members of the old school Swedish death metal scene, Interment. These guys existed in the late 80’s/early 90’s alongside the forefathers of the genre like Entombed, Grave and Dismember, but other than a few demos and such, this is their first real release. So where are we going again exactly? Bear with me and all will be revealed. Continue reading
