Angry Metal Guy

Wykked Wytch // The Ultimate Deception
Rating: 2.5/5.0 — Deeply flawed
Label: Goomba Music
Websites: wykkedwytch.com | myspace.com/wykkedwytch
Release Dates: Out Now

Wykked Wytch are based in Miami, Florida, have been active since 1994. The band was founded by vocalist and frontwoman Ipek, who has helmed the band artistically and remained the one static member for almost 15 years. The Ultimate Deception is their fifth full-length record. The first thing that struck me about The Ultimate Deception is the jagged, clumsy hybrid that is the sound, composed of a death metal backbone, meaty black metal riffs and blasts, and aching hardcore vocals with a smattering of syth and symphonic elements. The various techniques are slammed together in an ill-fitting way, so that the album shambles forward clumsily. The haphazard nature of this juxtaposition of various styles makes for a few interesting moments, when sounds grate against each other just so, but does not allow for the construction of a cohesive album. In a previous interview, Ipek stated that she was initially unsure whether or not to release this as a Wykked Wytch album, considering how drastically the band’s lineup had changed prior to the recording. The weight of those changes have clearly left their mark on The Ultimate Deception, in it’s gangly ungainliness. Continue reading

Rage // 21
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — A 15. Hit or stand?
Label: Nuclear Blast [EU | US]
Websites: rage-on.de | facebook.com/OfficialRage
Release Dates: EU: 2012.02.24 | US: TBA

Rage has been around for fucking ever. If you consider that this is the band’s 21st record (I’ll bet you could’ve never told from the name), that means that these guys have been one of the most productive bands in the history of metal. Where other bands seemingly get to the point in their career where they’re putting out an album every four or five years, these guys have just continued being productive. However, just because they’re productive doesn’t mean that everything they’re putting out was golden. One can think about the drop off from 2006′s Speak of the Dead to 2008′s less than stellar Carved in Stone. But, of course, the band recouped and put out Strings to a Web with all the gumption a band of their caliber should have. So now here we have it, the band’s 21st record, named for the event, and coming out in just a few days.  Continue reading

Corrosion of Conformity // Corrosion of Conformity
Rating: 4.5/5.0 – Go get this fucking thing
Label: Candlelight
Websites: coc.com 
Release Dates:  EU: 2012.02.27 | US: 02.28.2012

Corrosion of Conformity fans can generally be divided up into two teams: aging hardcore guys who only enjoyed the band’s first few records from the early ‘80s, and metal dudes who prefer the band’s more recent incarnation with Pepper Keenan on vocals. These two teams don’t like each other, and Team Hardcore really doesn’t like latter-day COC. This conflict has been going on for decades, but the battle lines shifted recently when the three founding members of COC decided to reunite, sans Keenan, to record new music as a trio for the first time since 1986. Would the band finally deliver some crossover thrash to satisfy the old-schoolers? Or will they continue along the sludgy path they’ve been traveling since 1994’s Deliverance? Continue reading

Pharaoh // Bury the Light
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — Invest in this pyramid scheme!
Label: Cruz Del Sur Records
Websites: solarflight.net/ | myspace.com
Release Dates:  EU: 24.02.2012 | US: 03.06.2012

I’m a fan of Pharaoh, have been since their 2003 debut After the Fire. These Philly fanatics are the present and future of the new retro wave of traditional heavy metal (NRWOTHM) and over their short but solid career, they’ve fused retro ideals with prog and enough thrash sensibility to kick the required ass quotient. While they wear their Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon influences on their leather sleeves, they also follow in the spiked footsteps of American titans like Jag Panzer, Iced Earth and Helstar. Their output has been consistently classy, polished and full of fantastic guitar fireworks from the phenom that is Matt Johnsen. Ever since their Ten Years EP hit last year, Steel Druhm has been one anxious attack doggy waiting for this platter to arrive on his doorstep. Despite my slavish Pharaoh-boyism and consequently unrealistic expectations, I’m happily surprised by the quality of Bury the Light. It shows an increasingly proficient and able Pharaoh maintaining their winning  sound while managing to advance it in interesting new ways. This is an album awash with wicked guitar licks, powerhouse vocals, adrenaline, melody and most importantly, great songs! As fist-in-the-air as metal gets and loaded with charm and character, this is an early contender for album of the year. Interested yet? Continue reading

Pallbearer // Sorrow and Extinction
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Doom with a view
Label: Profound Lore Records
Websites: facebook | myspace
Release Dates:  EU: 27.02.2012 | US: 02.21.2012

My oh my, doom is getting more and more epic (read as long-winded) and it seems the genre is increasingly stricken with chronic Metallica-itis (inability to edit or cull songs). With bands such as Pilgrim and Swallow the Sun releasing albums loaded down with mega-long, droning numbers, attention spans everywhere are being tested and found wanting. Now we can add Arkansas’s Pallbearer to the list, with their huge debut Sorrow and Extinction. Like the others, it features song after song of weighty, long-playing, ponderous doom. It’s the type album that sends our attention challenged AMG scurrying back to his therapeutic moss gardens to contemplate his navel. And while slow, mournful doom can be a wonderful thing, even I concede it gets tough to take when songs approach the ten minute mark. Mercifully, Pallbearer largely avoids the doomdrums due to their style and stellar songwriting abilities. Fusing the traditional doom approach of While Heaven Wept with the post-rock fetishistic nothingness and shoe-gaziness of acts like Altar of Plagues, these southern gents walk the line between drone and overdone. There are also the requisite nods to greats like Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus and Warning as things drag and grind along, and its an enjoyable ride for those that can sit up and pay attention long enough (22.3% of the metal populace by my calculations). Continue reading

Gazpacho // March of Ghosts
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Like a refreshing tomato-based vegetable soup on a warm, Spanish day.
Label: KScope
Websites: gazpachoworld.com
Release Dates: EU: 2012.03.12 |  US: 03.12.2012

Gazpacho has to be the worst name for a band ever. The soup itself is frankly a little on the unexciting side as it is, being a vegetable soup served cold. It’s actually Spanish or Portuguese, isn’t it? Being Norwegian, couldn’t they have chosen say, lefse or something? Not only is it tastier (Mmm, a bit of sugar and butter and I’m a Happy Metal Guy! NOMNOMNOM!), but it’s Norwegian! Like the band! Get it!? Well, anyway, needless to say I was less than stoked to actually dig my ear-fingers into this record. How could a band that can’t come up with a decent band name come up with good music? I mean, this is an existential question… really. Continue reading

Orange Goblin // A Eulogy for the Damned
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Fighting music for the unwashed masses
Label: Candlelight Records
Websites: orange-goblin.com | myspace.com
Release Dates: EU: 13.02.2012  US: 02.14.2012

We all have those bands we’re aware of for years but never make an effort to hear. I’m not even talking about bands you’re pretty sure you’ll hate (i.e. Korn). I’m talking about the bands you hear about, make a mental note to check out, only to be distracted by something shiny. The U.K.’s Orange Goblin is one of those bands for yours truly. I’ve heard of ‘em forever, heard mostly good things, but just never got up the gumption to track down their stuff. Over their long career, I’ve heard them called doom, stoner, punk and hard rock. While I must confess complete ignorance regarding all their prior releases, what I’m hearing on A Eulogy for the Damned, seems to justify all the monikers to a degree. In a nutshell, Orange Goblin plays a type of gritty, greasy hard rock with elements of 70′s doom and nods to southern rockers like Molly Hatchet and ZZ Top. There are echoes of Fireball Ministry, Black Sabbath, Motörhead and even late period Corrosion of Conformity in their sound. Basically, it’s music suitable for the  kind of bar where you leave a few teeth as the tip. Its also much less stoner/doom based than I expected and way more groove rocking. While it isn’t going to be album of the year, its a grower with lots of rockin music for rowdy folks with outstanding warrants and mean dispositions. Continue reading

Woods of Ypres // Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — Reflections on a grave
Label: Earache Records
Websites: myspace.com
Release Dates: EU: 2012.02.03 | US: 03.06.2012 (?)

Life (and death) can certainly be strange. How else do you explain one of 2011′s most unfortunate events giving rise to 2012′s most unusual listening experience. As you may know, Woods of Ypres singer/guitarist David Gold was killed in a car accident late last year, shortly after completing work on this album, Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light. Those familiar with the group’s material and Gold’s songwriting, know there was always a lyrical preoccupation with loss and death and Gold frequently wrote about his own demise. These morbid reflections continue here, and with his passing, many of the songs take on an eerie, prophetic quality that’s tough to overlook. In essence, this feels like an album written in full awareness the end was near and intended as a posthumous goodbye. Trying to look beyond the dark cloud hanging over this release is ultimately impossible due to the subject matter, lyrics and overall mood of the thing itself. Continue reading

Earth // Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – It’s alright
Label: Southern Lord
Websites: thronesanddominions.com | facebook.com/thronesanddominions
Release Dates: US: 02.14.2012 | EU: 2012.02.13

To those in the know, the arrival of a new Earth record comes with a lot of baggage, mostly due to bandleader Dylan Carlson’s well-known personal struggles and his infamous role in Kurt Cobain’s untimely demise. More significantly, there’s the fact that Earth’s recent output is surprisingly laid back, and bears almost no resemblance to their pioneering doom-drone works of the ‘90s. Old-school Earth fans can forgive Carlson for giving Kurt that shotgun, but they cannot abide by this mellow hippie shit, man. So with the release of Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II, the question becomes: will Carlson a) give the people what they want, or b) continue with the current musical direction, unencumbered by giving a fuck about what people think? Continue reading

Aborted // Global Flatline
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Actually, they haven’t flatlined.
Label: Century Media
Websites: goremageddon.be | facebook.com/abortedofficial
Release Dates: Out Now Worldwide!

I’d been holding off on writing this review because, well, to be frank I’m no grind expert. While I have a working knowledge of most genres and pretty deep knowledge in a several, grind is not one of them. In full disclosure, I’ve not listened to the classics (except Carcass and Napalm Death and Nasum), and I’m probably even fucking up genres when I have discussions about what I think the classics are. So, to pretend to be authoritative on the subject would be disingenuous—at best. Against my better judgement, when I got Aborted‘s Global Flatline I decided that I should review it anyway. But after listening to it about 10 times I realized I wasn’t quite sure how to put what I thought of it, which is kind of my.. job. So, that’s kind of awkward. I went back and listened to the band’s older material Continue reading