“It’s nice to have some actual dialogue after my solitary confinement to Shape Without Form. That’s right, tubthumpers: Ghost Toast are an instrumental band! There’s been a lot of that lately, and I’m not really sure why, but I was bound to deal with something of the sort sooner or later, and now here we are, Ghost Toastin’ it up.” Rye revenants abound.
“I feel bad for bands who release albums in December. We are so focused on crafting our year-end lists (and panning each other’s) that we really aren’t that interested in listening to even more new music. Still, Perihelion hold a special place in my heart. Not many bands hail from my ancestral breeding ground of Hungary. I’m sure there’s more, but these guys and Thy Catafalque are the only two that come to mind. And two years ago Perihelion released Örvény, which was quite a nice piece of work. Now comes Agg, the band’s third full-length.” Hungary for more.
“In my mental compendium of underappreciated metal treasures, Hungary’s Sear Bliss holds a somewhat unique position. Though they’ve only released one truly great album in my eyes (2007’s The Arcane Odyssey), they have a relatively extensive back catalog of solid records, making them an easy selection whenever I want to throw on an uncomplicated black metal album that offers a few unique instrumental twists. The band’s incorporation of trombone had always delivered a distinct sense of heavy, brassy atmosphere that effectively combined second wave tropes with Summoning-esque majesty. With Letters from the Edge, the latter has stayed intact, but the former has fallen to the wayside in favor of something a bit more absorbing and melancholic.” Blackened trombone.
“Looking back at what I wrote about Ektomorf’s Aggressor in 2015, I was clearly exasperated; Ektomorf seemed to lack some complexity or authenticity I was searching for in metal. Reviews reflect not just where the author was but what he thinks and why, if written successfully. On Fury, Ektomorf have predictably remained the same.” A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little bands.
“After four long months, the moratorium on Huck N Roll reviewing albums with non-English singing has come to an end. And as luck would have it, this venerable reviewer managed to snag something from Hungary, AKA the Old Country. Perihelion isn’t a very Hungarian word, but the band makes up for that with a plethora of umlauts, accents, double acute accents, and other glyphs throughout their song titles. That automatically makes the band trve and is worth 0.5 bonus marks ” Umlat what your country can do for you.
“Metalheads saying “I’m a pagan” is, generally speaking, our chosen genre’s equivalent of wine-guzzling middle-aged single women who say they’re “not religious, but spiritual” during those book clubs where Eat, Pray, Love is read in perpetuity. It’s empty posturing made to make someone sound more profound and “enlightened” than they actually are. So-called pagan metal is generally melodic stuff with a lyrical eye to old folklore but, other than that, the definition doesn’t give us a whole lot to go on.” Only join Book of the Dead clubs.
“Imagine your basic symphonic black metal, say, Emperor. One day, Ihsahn’s on a big electronica kick, so he throws some cash at the latest Toontrack update, digs out his high school band instruments, and rolls all his artsy friends over for a weekend. No blasting, no razor thin production, just a full plate of programmed drums and defied expectations. This is the sound of Tamás Kátai’s Thy Catafalque.” And what a sound!
“Given how Ektomorf sounds (hint: like Soulfly), you’re probably surprised to see my name up there in the author’s hot seat instead of Dr. Fisting’s due to existing AMG precedents. Cards on the table: I brought this upon myself.” Took one for the team, he did.
“Metal has been extremely retro in the last 5 years. From rethrash to retro death metal, the whole scene has crawled into its proverbial ass in order to wallow in the digested remnants of metal music that is just plain better. Rethrash celebrates the 2.5 years when thrash was the heaviest and most exciting music on the planet. Retro death celebrates a time when bands would scrape together their last Swedish kronor to put a record together that would still sound like total shit. All the bands who wish they were Black Sabbath celebrate a time when amplifiers didn’t actually have overdrive. But all of these celebrated sounds appeal to us because they were authentic: times when newness and creativity gave the world something exciting and special. One such scene for me is the melodic death and black metal scenes of the Scandinavian 1990s. It’s an era when metal was heavy, engaging, abstract, and yet melodic—it felt exciting and new. While not all of the best ideas from this era were executed perfectly at the time, it laid the groundwork for the late ’90s and the early aughts when great metal bands produced great music.” What the hell does this have to do with anything? Click and find out!
“Hungarian power metal sages Wisdom continue to spin the tale of the adventures of the mysterious figure “Wiseman” on their third full-length album Marching for Liberty. The Budapest-based quintet favor power metal at its most grand and bombastic, in the style of Rhapsody of Fire and Dragonforce, with the symphonic leanings of Nightwish or Stratovarius. Those who favor an understated or reserved interpretation of power metal should look elsewhere, as Marching For Liberty is an example of the genre with hyper-drive engines fully engaged.” Hyper-driving power metal sounds pretty okay, if you’re into that kind of thing. Read and find out what Natalie thinks about it.
