Argentinian Metal

Prion – Aberrant Calamity Review

Prion – Aberrant Calamity Review

“Heaviness is in the ear of the beholder, and you and I just know heavy when we hear it. To me, Devourment is rather heavy; to someone whose understanding of metal begins and ends with Disturbed, Devourment is just noise, and is therefore not heavy. Even this may prove contentious, because some people think “noise” as a genre is legitimately extreme and heavy. Slayer gets ridiculously heavy, both in their old stuff (“At Dawn They Sleep”) and new material (“Catatonic”). I’ve never found sludge to be all that heavy, despite sounding weighty and lacking in treble as it often does. Despite playing guitar in a metalcore band years ago, my younger sibling doesn’t pass muster on this scale; he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother. I cannot produce a definition of heavy in extreme metal, nor can you. We can merely tell people what is and isn’t heavy through bands and songs.” The heaviest matter of the universe.

Lord Divine – Facing Chaos Review

Lord Divine – Facing Chaos Review

“One of the biggest water hazards in the reviewing game is tackling a unknown band with a decent sized discography already in place that you somehow missed out on entirely. Though I usually try to avoid these challenging situations, Argentina’s prog-power wielders Lord Divine made me take a risky play here. A prolific unit, they boast four previous albums in addition to today’s topic of interest, Facing Chaos. I’d never heard of them, but the promo write up checked all the right boxes and mentioned all the right influences, so I took a cautious flyer.” Chaos is a ladder.

Preludio Ancestral – Oblivion Review

Preludio Ancestral – Oblivion Review

“Next up on the AMG stack of rotating power metal promos is the fourth studio album from Argentinian independent sympho-heavy/power entity Preludio Ancestral, a band heretofore bound to digital obscurity in the South American underground. The band’s past fits with my general impression of many underground metal acts from South American nations: a strange amalgamation of Spanish and English lyricism, bizarre album cover art, and a penchant for very eccentric, almost anarchical musical stylings that run the gamut from alternative rock, Manowar-hailing shirtless heavy metal, and Euro-styled power metal across individual albums.” Hail, hail the shirtless.

Vorgrum – Last Domain Review

Vorgrum – Last Domain Review

“Somewhere along my personal timeline of listening to extreme music I formed an imaginary line dividing two equally valid camps of folk metal. On one side, you have your bands of brooding boys who like to pose next to frozen streams for their promo shots in between discussions of just how great Windir was; on the other, you have your gangs of drunken revelers, crowding into the nearest tavern to relate raucous tales of wenches and trolls to any half-willing passersby.” Is that a troll on the cover or are you just happy to see me?