Angry Metal Guy

Soen // Cognitive
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Causes a little dissonance
Label: Spinefarm
Websites: myspace.com/soen | facebook.com/soenmusic
Release Dates: EU: 2012.02.13 | US: 02.21.2012 (?)

I guarantee you the guys from Soen have to brace themselves for every review they’re going to read for two reasons. The first of these is that this band contains Steve DiGiorgio—heavy metal’s best bassist and best fretless for hire—and oh, right, Martin Lopez who we last saw as a member of Opeth. I have to say that I’m partial to these two guys as musicians (nothing against Ax, but Lopez is a special drummer) and so when I heard that this record was coming out I did some begging and got me a copy for review. Apparently there are other musicians in this band, but we don’t actually care The rest of the band is made up of by two Swedish guys—Eklöf, the vocalist and Platsbarzdis, the guitarist—for what is a four piece of alternative or kind of groovy progressive metal. Not progressive like Opeth or Vintersorg or Porcupine Tree but progressive like Tool. And by that I mean, they sound exactly like fucking Tool (that’s the second reason).  Continue reading

Loch Vostok (ViciSolum Productions) is a Swedish progressive metal band from Uppsala, Sweden. This was enough for me to take a look at it [Tjena grannar!] because, well, there aren’t a ton of metal bands from Uppsala, really. Not that they don’t exist or anything, but they’re just few and far between and most of them aren’t playing progressive metal. Apparently these guys, who I’ve never heard before mind you, formed in 2001 and Dystopium is their fourth record. And yeah, for fans of progressive metal, Swedish death metal and more modern sounding metal might really dig this disc.  Continue reading

Vyrion // Vyrion
Rating: 4.5/5.0 —A light amid the blackness!
Label: Rockdale Records
Websites: vyrion.com/ myspace.com/vyrion
Release Dates: Out now!

Steel Druhm doesn’t ask for much. Beyond undying devotion to the Angry Metal Guy website and Steel Druhm personally, I expect so little. In a rare moment of selfishness however, I deigned to demand more innovation in the field of black metal music. Predictably, much brouhaha ensued and I was labeled a rabble-rouser, blasphemer and enemy of the scene. Happily, I can now report my heartfelt demand has been masterfully answered by a crew of Aussie upstarts by the name of Vyrion. Never heard of them? Don’t feel bad, I didn’t either until I stumbled upon them quite by chance. It was a fortuitous stumble indeed, for their self titled debut is a mammoth slab of progressive blackness with scads of death, doom, traditional metal and post rock blended in seamlessly. After only a few minutes of listening, I knew this was something special. Across the length of this interesting creature are myriad surprises, twists and turns and the end result is an exceptionally well done and very heavy slice of innovation. For those who regard black metal as a static art form, immune to the fickle influences of time and trend, this will be like a loathsome disease. If however, you agree with me that the genre is badly in need of a newness injection, don’t let this one fall through the cracks. Continue reading

Theocracy // As The World Bleeds
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — On the seventh day, God rocked your socks
Label: Ulterium Records
Websites: theocracymusic.com | myspace.com/theocracyband
Release Dates: Out now!

Here’s a band I bet most haven’t heard of and some actively avoided due to their “christian metal” tag. Well, its time you heard of them and stopped worrying about such silly tags. However, for those diehard, anti-christian, pagan warriors of Wotan, try replacing “christian metal” with “white metal” or “good metal.” Okay, that probably didn’t help AT ALL but the point is, Theocracy is a really good band and their third album  As The World Bleeds is an exceptional dose of progressive power metal. Once a one-man project helmed by Matt Smith, Theocracy is now a fully functioning band and these altar boys can really play! Sounding like a mash-up of Avantasia, Axenstar, Balance of Power, Eden’s Curse and Shadow Gallery, they deliver hyper-polished, super-slick, technical, proggy power with a ton of melodic hooks and a fair amount of heavy edge to boot. Songwriting is first-rate, musicianship is very impressive and heck, God will appreciate you listening to it. When was the last time you hordes of miscreants could honestly say that? Yeah, that’s what I thought, sinners! In all seriousness, this is a great power metal album, regardless of religious inclination. If you dig melodic metal, follow Steel Druhm through the desert of this review and he’ll deliver you to the Angry Promised Land. Continue reading

Cormorant // Dwellings
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Deep and enjoyable
Label: Unsigned (DIY)
Websites: cormorant.bandcamp.com
Release Dates: December 7th, 2011 – Worldwide

Cormorant is a band that I probably would have never found on my own. Instead, I just randomly got an e-mail from their promoter a couple years back, where she hooked me up with the band’s 2009 release Metazoa. I was duly impressed by what these coasties had to offer, so when I saw that these guys had a new record coming out, I definitely reached out to get a promo of it. And I’m happy that I did, though I think that Dwellings is a different beast from Metazoa. Bad? Definitely not. But did the band grow and get a lot better? It seems like the maintained a pretty even keel during the two years away.  Continue reading

As we’ve done the last two years, it behooves us to point out all the shit that we’ve missed in the last year. And 2011 has been mighty full of oversights from our side. This has been a pretty crazy year, but let me just say that I apologize and hope we can really make it up to you by throwing out a few awesome or pretty awesome records that we’ve managed to overlook due to time constraints or limited attention spans.

Andorra is not a large country. But a couple of years ago Persefone blew progressive metal fans away with Shin-Ken and now in 2011 fellow countrymen Nami have released a record that has been inexcusably overlooked by this Angry Metal Guy. Fusing together melodic death metal, progressive and acoustic tendencies à la Opeth and adding in a layer of Meshuggahesque riffing and polyrhythm Fragile Alignments is a truly interesting and pretty damn unique melodic/progressive death metal record. There is plenty to love here, but there are also a few things that don’t sit as well with me. Let me explain.  Continue reading

Lance King // A Moment in Chiros
Rating: 3.0/5.0 —Good times, bland times
Label: Nightmare Records
Websites: lancekingvox.com/  myspace.com/lancekingvox
Release Dates: Out now!

Lance King, like Elvis, is everywhere. He’s sang for a ton of bands (Balance of Power, Pyramaze, Avian, Empire etc. etc.), he runs Nightmare Records and still found the time to record and release his first solo album, A Moment in Chiros. For those unfamiliar with his body of work, Mr. King is the quintessential prog-power metal singer. His voice is versatile, powerful and his range is impressive. He sounds equally at home alongside melodic power metal and thoughtful prog-metal. For his debut solo project, he’s brought in elements of both and made damn sure everything is super-duper melodic, even symphonic at times. To assist him in this endeavor, he recruited a mighty host of friends, including members of Anubis Gate, Beyond Twilight and Adagio. The final product (which was apparently written and recorded in only three months) will remind many of Empire-era Queensryche mixed with elements of  Dream Theater, Pagan’s Mind, Anubis Gate and of course, Lance’s other units, especially Balance of Power. There are moments where Lance and company shine as bright as the sun and there’s some interesting material here for fans of power-prog. However, A Moment in Chiros struggles with the consistency of quality and this ultimately hurts things, which is a real shame. Continue reading

The Fallen Divine // The Binding Cycle
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – Loosely bound aggregate of excellent fragments.
Label: Unsigned
Websites: myspace.com/tfdofficial | facebook.com/fallendivine
Release Dates: Is it out? I could only find a couple tracks available online.
By: A Prospective Overseer of Unsigned Bands

The Binding Cycle is the first full-length album by Norwegian quintet, The Fallen Divine. Founded in 2009, and with one EP under their belt, the band worked with King Diamond guitarist Andy La Rocque at his studio, Sonic Train, to produce the album. And he produced the fuck out of them. The sound on this album is so clean it sparkles. Which is as it should be, because there is a lot going on and The Fallen Divine don’t want you to miss any of it. A self-described progressive metal band, they have a lot of influences and only one shot at showing you that they’ve mastered them all. Fortunately, they pretty much have. Continue reading

Orphaned Land // The Road to OR’Shalem
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — Pristine. But what’s with the silly English guy?
Label: Century Media
Websites: orphand-land.com
Release Dates: Out Now Worldwide!

It’s no secret that right now my favorite band in the world is Orphaned Land. And if it was a secret, I guess it’s not really a secret anymore. Orphaned Land does what no other band alive does and they do it so very, very well. Mabool was fantastic, but 2010′s The Never Ending Way of OR’WarriOR was my record of the year and is really my standard for what a modern progressive metal record should be like. The mix and production from Steven Wilson was excellent, the song writing was tremendous and it’s one of the very few records over about 45 or 50 minutes that I can even handle these days. So I was super pumped when I got a promo copy of the band’s DVD The Road to OR-Shalem. I’m not a huge fan of DVDs, as I’ve said in the past, but this one is definitely worth your time—both as fans and non-fans.  Continue reading

Damn the Machine // Damn the Machine
Websites: Nope!
Released : 1993 via A&M Records

Here’s another overlooked and underrated gem for those of you searching for new (but old) listening material of high quality. Damn the Machine was the creation of original Megadeth guitar-wiz Chris Poland following his dismissal from Camp Mustaine. Though they only managed to release this self-titled opus, the quality is such that most listeners will ardently wish they’d been more prolific. Forsaking his Megadeth-era roots, Poland steered DTM into thoughtful, progressive metal waters with hints of jazz-fusion sprinkled (sparingly) throughout. He was also wise enough to surround himself with some seriously talented musicians (including his brother Mark on drums) and the result is nothing short of phenomenal. Not overly fast nor crushingly heavy, it successfully walks a fine line between balls and brains and echoes such better known acts as Queensryche, latter day Fates Warning, Black Album-era Metallica and even Kings X. Continue reading