Angry Metal Guy

Evile //Five Serpent’s Teeth
Rating: 3.0/5.0 —Fresh from the Department of Redundancy Dept.
Label: Earache Records
Websites: evile.co.uk/theBand/  myspace.com/evileuk
Release Dates:  EU:  26.09.2011 US: 10.18.2011

My, how times and tastes change. When I first signed on as a newbie writer for Angry Metal Guy Industries, I was happy and content with all the musical trends in the metalsphere (save anything core, of course). Now, a scant year and a half later, I’m pretty much burned out on black metal and I’m even getting weary of my (formerly)  beloved retro-thrash wave. At this point, the trend feels beaten back to life then back to death again. While a few of the recent thrash releases stood out (Toxic Holocaust for one), as a rule the scene feels tired and old like it did toward the end of the original wave. That brings us to the U.K.’s Evile. Their 2007 release Enter the Grave was a nice shot in the arm of vintage thrash but their follow-up Infected Nations took on too much of a progressive mid-period Metallica vibe and bored more bashed (although AMG dug it well enough). I was hopeful they would return to their more aggressive style on Five Serpent’s Teeth and while they did, this ended up too generic and unoriginal to really get me worked up into a thrashy lather. However, its undeniably well-executed, generally engaging speed with enough technical ability to impress and a few standout cuts. Continue reading

Rival Sons // Pressure and Time
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — Holy time warp Batman!
Label: Earache Records
Websites: rivalsons.com | myspace.com/rivalsons
Release Dates: EU: 2011.06.20 | US/CA: 06.21.2011 [digital] / 07.26.2011 [physical]

Ah, the 70s. Bell bottom jeans, afros, Volkswagen vans, key parties, all the amusing trends that won’t be missed [How could you miss Pet Rocks!? Oh, and cocaine! - AMG]. What is missed however is quality Rock n’ Roll with balls, integrity and real chutzpah. Well, thanks to this very surprising release by Los Angeles based Rival Sons, the 70s rock ethos comes roaring back in a BIG way (thankfully without the bell bottoms). While Pressure and Time is their third release, I’m shamefully late to the party and let me say, I’m fucking impressed as all hell. Fusing elements of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Mountain, The Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival and healthy doses of blues (and even hints at Motown), this thing rumbles and rattles with an authentic 70s rage and energy that I wouldn’t have believed possible in 2011. From start to finish Pressure and Time blasts away with powerful, emotive and fun rock like they don’t make anymore (except these guys apparently) and its a helluva ride. This sounds like some long lost rock masterpiece, exhumed in a time capsule and finally released. It ain’t exactly metal as we know it in 2011 but it’s hard edged, rowdy, raw and loud enough to win over all but the most extreme metal fans. 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

And Hell Followed With // Proprioception
Rating: 1.5/5.0 – Painfully medio-core
Label: Earache
Websites: myspace.com/andhellfollowedwith
Release Dates: US: Out Now | EU: 26.07.2010

Steel Druhm likes NOT this whole “deathcore thing.” There, I said it! Now, all you deathcore teen weenies can pull your collective jaws off the floor and prepare to dismiss the following review as biased, or perhaps, “reviewed in bad faith,” whatever the fuck that means. However, before you do so, kindly consider that the reason for my dislike of Proprioception, the second album by Michigan’s And Hell Followed With is way more because of how bland and average the material is and less because of its regrettable deathcore style. Sadly, this material isn’t good regardless of the genre.

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Annihilator // Annihilator
Rating: 2.0/5.0 – Alice ain’t well.
Label: Earache
Websites: annihilatormetal.com | myspace.com/annihilatorofficial
Release Dates: Out Now!

No metal band has managed to frustrate and baffle me as consistently as Annihilator has over their long career. Their 1989 debut album Alice in Hell was a classic in the thrash genre and showed a band brimming with talent and energy. Founder, lead songwriter and guitarist Jeff Waters was hailed as a rising star and someone to watch closely. Since then, Annihilator has struggled mightily to live up to the hype garnered by their debut and their subsequent albums have come nowhere near that level of quality. In fact, many of those albums were either complete disasters (Refresh the Demon, Remains, All for You) or near disasters (Set the World on Fire, Metal). Each time a new Annihilator release was set to drop, I would pray for greatness and a return to form but mostly get mediocrity. Now it’s 2010 and we get their thirteenth album, simply titled Annihilator, and again the goods are not delivered.

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Enforcer // Diamonds
Rating: 3.5/5.0 – Enforcing your right to have fun.
Label: Earache
Websites: myspace.com/enforcerswe
Release Dates: EU: 24.05.2010 | US: 05.25.2010 (Vinyl is June 8th!)

Another retro 80’s metal album being reviewed on Angry Metal Guy? This place must really be going to hell in a hand basket. Well, at least one angry metal reviewer is enjoying the ride and Enforcer’s new album Diamonds would be the perfect soundtrack for any such hell bound pleasure excursion. Following along with 80’s NWOBHM worshiping peers Steelwing and Stormzone, Sweden’s Enforcer roars back to life with the follow up to 2008’s Into the Night and the results are pretty impressive and more fun than barrel full of monkeys.

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Order of Ennead // An Examination of Being
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Enjoyable
Label: Earache
Websites: myspace.com/orderofennead
Release Dates: EU: 19.04.2010 | US: 05.04.2010 (Import?)

Order of Ennead is the side project of the venerable Steve Asheim, better known as the drummer and primary writer of death metal legends Deicide. While it’s hard to a review like this, particularly on a newer project like this, without referencing the guy’s older work, the responsible reviewer in me thinks that one should probably draw a line here. Instead, I’d like to focus on the content and quality of An Examination of Being, the second record from these Floridians blackened death metallers without taking cheap shots at Glen Benton. So I’ll just take one: Order of Ennead is better because Glen Benton isn’t in it.

Order of Ennead is, indeed, a blackened death metal band. They sound like the kind of thing that could easily be signed to Regain Records these days. A mix of death metal brutality, black metal trem picking and blasting, and the very At The Gates kind of vocal approach that one wouldn’t expect so much from Florida death metal, but instead from the coast of Sweden.  However, unlike some of the misfires in this area over the past few years, An Examination of Being feels extreme and honest while still appealing to individuals who like a bit of melody in their metal with solid hooks and excellent guitar work.

The writing here isn’t revolutionary by any extent of the imagination. This doesn’t necessarily make the album any less enjoyable. Songs like “Conduits to Eternity” and “Lies Upon the Lips of Judas” showcase the groove-based death metal that can still be seen at the root of the music, while “…In the Mirror” and “A Portal to Rapture” sound like they wouldn’t be out of place on a 1349 or Ragnarok CD. These pieces are very well tied together in the best of songs, and sometimes they feel a bit foreign in the same arena, but this is very few and far between. Particularly the piece tying these things together is the guitar work of one John Li who is a highly competent guitar player who litters most tracks with phenomenal solos.

While Order of Ennead does a very strong job of building dark, entrancing songs this record does feel a tad repetitive and long. The problem with that critique is that An Examination of Being clocks in at 39 minutes long. This speaks for itself, I think. After hearing the first few tracks and really liking them, it wasn’t until the final song on the album “A Betrayal of Self” that I  felt really engaged in what was going on again (there’s a really great solo in a clean part that I really liked). Structurally this lull kind of kills the album for me, slipping in one ear and out the other.

So, I have mixed feelings about Order of Ennead, while I certainly like it better than later Deicide, this lands nowhere near the territory of a band like Dissection or Necrophobic. I suspect that these guys could definitely get better, particularly given the obvious skills of the band involved. But if you check out this record and you can’t get over the feeling that you’ve heard this all before and you can’t quite place it, don’t be surprised.

I normally don’t spend a lot of time pimping labels attempts to make money off of a band’s discog, but in this case I think it’s too fucking cool not to write about!  Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, the David Vincentless 6th album from Morbid Angel is now being made available on vinyl for the first time. For nerds like me who love vinyl, or at least the idea of it, this is something totally worth having. Here’s the press release:

FORMULAS FATAL TO THE FLESH, the 1998 death metal masterclass from MORBID ANGEL, is out now on vinyl for the first time ever.

Marking the third release in Earache’s “First Time on Vinyl” campaign, FORMULAS FATAL TO THE FLESH marked a new era for MORBID ANGEL upon its release, being the band’s first album with new vocalist and bassist Steve Tucker.

While FORMULAS FATAL TO THE FLESH featured the traditional, blasting death metal for which MORBID ANGEL became known, the album also included more experimental instrumental pieces, showcasing a new diversity and ambition from the band.

FORMULAS FATAL TO THE FLESH is available now on limited edition double gatefold vinyl LP in the following colours:

Lava vinyl – 100 copies – SOLD OUT
Red vinyl – 200 copies
Clear vinyl – 300 copies
Black vinyl – 1400

The official track listing is as follows:
Side A:
01. Heaving Earth
02. Prayer Of Hatred
03. Bil Ursag

Side B:
04. Nothing Is Not
05. Chambers Of Dis
06. Disturbance In The Great Slumber

Side C:
07. Umulamahri
08. Hellspawn: The Rebirth
09. Covenant Of Death
10. Hymn To A Gas Giant

Side D:
11. Invocation Of The Continual One
12. Ascent Through The Spheres
13. Hymnos Rituales De Guerra
14. Trooper

I’d've liked to have seen the lava vinyl, but no pictures were included! Laaame.

White Wizzard // Over the Top
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Would’ve been the kings of metal in 1982…
Label: Earache
Websites: myspace.com/whitewizzard
Release Dates: EU: 08.02.2010 | US: 03.09.2010

There is an interesting irony to throwback bands like White Wizzard and a lot of the other thrash throwbacks that are coming out right now, which is that at one point in time what these guys were doing was forward thinking. I know it’s hard to believe, in a world where metal is used to support stupid ideologies, backwards thinking or just generally brutish and retarded behavior, it’s hard to think of metal as progressive, but in 1980—metal was outside of the box. Bands like Iron Maiden and Def Leppard were just cutting their teeth, Lars Ulrich was busy stealing their riffs and ideas and heavy metal was fresh, young, innovative and above all rebellious and really, really interesting.

These days are long gone. Metal has genrified so much to the point where one can’t hold a conversation with another metal dude who likes exactly the same bands as you, and you’ll probably argue about everything: but you’ll both agree that Iron Maiden slayed back in the day. The only other time in metal history that was as exciting as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, in my opinion any way, was probably the Bay Area Thrash scene (though I’m not the biggest fan) and the Swedish Death scene in the early 90s. But those days are gone… They remain, largely, not forgotten however as is proved by LA native metallers White Wizzard who return in 2010 with an album that would have put them on top of the world in 1982..

Now I won’t be coy: I’ve already unveiled how it is that I feel about retro heavy metal. Sure, it’s got its moments, but all-in-all I think that these styles are better left in the past. However, Over the Top is definitely a record to give a shot if you’re even a passing fan of the style. White Wizzard does a good job of capturing the things that made the scene great: the dueling guitars, the epic riffs and the song structures on Over the Top sound like they come straight out of Killers-era Steve Harris’ playbook. Tracks like “High Roller” and “Iron Goddess of Vengeance” replicate that sound with ease and to pretty good effect. The band is tight and solid and the production is good, showing that real bands playing real heavy metal don’t have 13 guitar tracks so that you can actually hear the bass sometimes. The title track, as well, is old school, rocking and fun to listen to.

On the other hand, just like those old metal records, Over the Top has its share of filler. “40 Deuces”, “Strike of the Viper”, “Death Race” and “White Wizzard” all left me wanting more and feeling underwhelmed. These tracks don’t have the same kind of pop that one would hope to get out of an old school metal band. They lack the kind of fire that I look for when I go back and listen to classic metal. I also thought that the song “Out of Control”, while a pretty good track, had some pretty lame lyrics that sort of point out what’s going on here: a group of dudes who are longing for something that ain’t coming back. And in a way that’s sad.

The high point of the album for me personally is the track “Live Free or Die” which not only embodies the Heavy Metal spirit, but also has the vocalist (I think, or it’s another member of the band doing it) backing away from his metal voice and showing that he’s got some good melodic sense and some good pipes behind his metal shriek. This song and “Iron Goddess of Vengeance” (another just kick ass track) show off the talent that is definitely contained within this band. I just wish that they could do something musically that wasn’t so campy and throwback. But that’s me: I’ll probably be a bitter old guy living in the past some day and I’ll love the Gothenburg throwback bands because they take me back to a time when I was cool and on top of things.

Evile – Infected Nations
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – Pretty good, but certainly nothing revolutionary
Label: Earache
Website(s): evile.co.uk | myspace.com/evileuk
Release Date(s): Out Now in the EU and US

Thrash revival has been a big deal of late.  I mean, thrash is the biggest thing since.. well, thrash, in the metal scene right now.  Bands from all over the world, particularly in the underground, are donning tight jeans, jean jackets, Kreator and Exodus patches and looking for the next big thrash prodigy.  Earache is not the only label releasing thrash revival stuff, it’s coming from everywhere (Candlelight has been particularly prolific with the thrash revival).  Evile is on that bandwagon, whether they like it or not, but they have a different take on it.  That is: they sound a lot more like the mature Bay Area.

Infected Nations is a pretty solid album, with excellent riffing in the classic thrash style that so many of us grew up.  With riffs that bring to mind …and Justice for All and The American Way (by the ever-overlooked Sacred Reich), UK metallers Evile have really brought back a sound of thrash metal that has been missing in the revival.  While bands like have been ripping it up in the old school style of Slayer, Kreator, Destruction and bands of this sort, Evile sounds a lot more like late-80s/early 90s thrash than that.   The introduction to the title track should be a dead give-away for most listeners: beautifully harmonized clean guitars that fade in and lead to a kick ass thrash triplets.

And the whole record is chock-full of kick ass riffs and headbanging monstrosities that bring a guy back to being 9 and discovering Metallica.   There is definitely a certain charm in this and many have lauded praises on the band for “carrying the revival” on their shoulders and stuff like that.   And yeah, Evile is good at what they do!  They really are.. but where’s the progress that we’re supposed to be finding in new metal bands?  Why are we always looking back instead of forward.  Bands like Evile and Havok are almost evidence for a metal scene that doesn’t have anywhere new to go and a generation of metalheads that are disappointed with the state of modern metal: so they’re imitating what’s already been done.

Of course, why stop them?  Metallica quit making good music years ago and even Megadeth has only just regained its glory with a good album: but Evile has put out its second critically acclaimed record in a row and somehow manages to keep a 20 year old sound fresh, for the most part.

Of course, there are some things I’d change about this album.  I like the faster, heavier and techy-er parts, but I find a lot of the mid-paced riffs to be a little bit mind-numbing and I tend to lose myself in them.  Another issue that I have is the vocals, which are classic thrash and also very, very monotonous.  Matt Drake (rhythm guitar / vocals) does his best classic James Hetfield/Chuck Billy impression over every track and after a while it just feels like droning.  There are way better thrash vocalists out there, and I strongly suggest that Drake work on varying his vocals a little.

Honestly, Infected Nations is a good album, but it’s not a whole lot better than that considering everything.  The production is fantastic, the song-writing is pretty good, but it’s missing out on the originality that I’m always hoping for.  Maybe it’s just me, but I like to see bands that use their thrash metal roots for new things.  Even looking at a band like Dragonforce or Luna Mortis that obviously have thrash metal influences, but are able to blend them into other styles to make them new and interesting gives a road-map to thrash influenced bands, because I have trouble imagining how a lot of these bands are going to survive the trend.