Angry Metal Guy

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

It’s hard to make this kind of broad list, I just want to say that from the get-go. How do you do this? Do you choose your favorites, or do you choose the genre defining records? Because saying, for example, that some of the following records are really genre defining wouldn’t be true. On the other hand, these are the records that when I go back and look at the 2000s I think of pretty immediately as some of the best stuff and the things that I keep coming back to.

But the 2000s have been an interesting time for metal in a lot of ways. One of the things that happened was that death metal and death metal-influenced music really hit the mainstream in a lot of ways. For the first time since the 1980s there were larger groups of young people who really started getting into metal and there is an entire generation of musicians who have been influenced by the heavy metal of the 80s and the underground of the 1990s (particularly black and death metal). While I believe that metal is on the ebb again (in a popular music sense) and will once again retreat underground to lick its wounds and come up with something fascinating, interesting and new, the 2000s have been a great time to be a fan of the genre.

This list is going to take a lot of hits. I can already hear some of them, and some of them will come out of left field. But, as usual, I refuse to apologize for my taste. The focus on “magazine metal” bands will probably irritate some, and others will argue that my choices from one genre or another aren’t representative of the best of that genre during the period (specifically death metal in this case). But when I look back on the last 9 years, these are the ones that stand out. And trust me, there’s some stuff that I wish I could get on there, but I didn’t include an honorable mentions section since I expanded the list to 15. But there are some amazing records (Moonsorrow‘s Hävitetty, Anata‘s Under a Stone with No Inscription and The Conductor’s Departure, Agalloch‘s The Mantle, Turisas‘ The Varangian Way, Necrophagist‘s Epitaph, Ásmegin‘s Hin Vordende Sod & Sø, Absu‘s Tara, Rhapsody‘s Power of the Dragonflame, Anathema‘s A Fine Day to Exit, Nile‘s Black Seeds of Vengeance, Otyg‘s Sagovindars Boning, Obscura‘s Cosmogenesis, Watain‘s Sworn to the Dark, Akercocke‘s Antichrist, Enslaved‘s Below the Lights are just a few of my major oversights) that came out during this period that haven’t ended up on this list and I’m aware of that.

Anyway, I hope you find this list enjoyable, shocking, provocative and maybe even dead on. Backwards this time…

Continue reading

Fejd // Eifur
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — Excellent
Label: Napalm Records
Websites: fejd.se | myspace.com/fejd
Release Dates: Out Now Worldwide!

Last year I received Swedish folk-metallers Fejd‘s Napalm Records debut with great excitement. I had been listening to the band for a long time and was really impressed with their material in general. Their earlier demos I en tid som var and Huldran had both been constantly on my playlist since I downloaded them (and with good reason). But while I was not disappointed with Storm,  the material didn’t blow me away as much as the earlier demos had. Maybe this was a “slump” or something, but it didn’t quite live up to those standards. Continue reading

Drudkh // Handful of Stars
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Good, but not exactly earth shattering or anything…
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: myspace.com/drudkhofficial
Release Dates: EU: 20.09.2010 | US: 09.21.2010

Not to be snatchy or anything, but I have to say that Drudkh is probably one of the most hyped underground black metal bands of all time (to the point of not really counting as underground anymore, I think). After Microcosmos made a big splash in 2009, I wasn’t sure that they were going to be pulling out a new record in 2010, but the band is back with a record that is proving to be a major disappointment for a lot of fans. It’s not a surprise, however. How do you follow up a record that was hailed as the greatest thing since Varg Vikerness first took a shit on a microphone and called it art? Continue reading

Arise // The Reckoning
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Nostalgic and enjoyable
Label: Regain Records
Websites: ariseonline.com | myspace.com/ariseonline
Release Dates: EU: 22.03.2010 | US: 04.06.2010 [or out now?!?]

Arise was a little late on the uptake on the first go around of the Gothenburg sound—forming in 1996, but really getting their first demo out there in 1998 and getting signed about the time that all the death metal elitists I knew were already writing off the sound as “done”. However, unlike most of the bands from that era, they are still alive and kicking and putting out music of the style that was popular at the time. There’s some confusion about this record, which according to some sources came out last year, but it’s being promoted right now by Regain with a release date of the 22nd of March (which means it’s out now). It has, indeed, been a few years since Arise put out their last album, but even with the departure of two members, they don’t seem to have lost any steam.

Now don’t get me wrong, you could probably hum each of these tunes the first time through. If you’re even slightly familiar with the Gothenburg sound from the early/mid-1990s (Hypocrisy, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, At The Gates) then you have heard this band before a bajillion times. You probably first heard it when the Swedes did it. Then you heard it again when the Americans did it. And now there are some Swedes doing it again, and showing that when done without breakdowns and hardcore screams it can still be a sound that’s engaging and fun to listen to.

The record starts off with a bang, bursting out the door with the track “Adrenaline Rush”, which clocks in at under 2 minutes long, and it’s really pretty much a thrash and headbang fest for the next 41 minutes and 20 seconds. Aside from the track “Pitch Black”, a borderline Meshuggah-esque mechnical metal kind of track, these tracks are all pretty much the kind of thing that you are familiar with from Slaughter of the Soul. But, while not novel, it certainly is well done. Particularly the title track, “The Reckoning” and the final track “End of Days” stood out for me.

Fans of melodeath should definitely check this record out. It could be slightly addictive to the right listener, I think, but if you’ve had your fill of the Gothenburg sound then this is probably a record you can skip. That said, these guys are really good at what they’re doing. The songwriting is concise and addictive and the feel is heavy and solid and hasn’t lost any of its original intensity, like some of the other originating bands (who we won’t mention here—but who know who they are!) from the Gothenburg scene. All-in-all this is a very good record, it just lacks the novelty that the metal scene craves to keep itself fresh.

Oskoreien // Illusions EP
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Great! Looking forward to a full length.
Label: Unsigned (Name your price for it at Band Camp)
Websites: oskoreien.bandcamp.com | myspace.com/oskoreienband
Release Dates: Dec. 31st, 2009

Oskoreien is another one of those DIY projects that I was directed to which delighted me to check out. There was a time when you, as a metal guy, probably got friended by Oskoreien on MySpace, when the creator was in full-on promo mode. The tracks that I remembered hearing were very much in the Ensiferum / Wintersun kind of vein. Lots of sweep picking and sort of melodic death influences. So when I got my hands on the Illusions EP I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Turns out that Mr. Valena had released something I wasn’t expecting at all: basically post-black metal. Illusions opens with a short acoustic passage and then launches into the first 13 minute track, a piece called “Transcendence” in good form. The melodies are solid, but simplistic. The guitar work on here isn’t like Ensiferum or Wintersun at all, but instead much more black metal: trem-picked over blast beats and minimalistic, with very little ornamentation. This doesn’t mean, however, that there is no musical sophistication here—just the opposite, in many ways this material feels much more sophisticated than Velana’s earlier work (not to say that it was bad, mind you). The ability to take simple passages, simple harmonies and beautiful chord progressions and make them shine like he has shows a solid understanding of composition and just an all around good ear.

These tracks are quite atmospheric, as one could expect. They land firmly in the Ulver and Agalloch territory with reference to both the acoustic guitar style and composition styles. Jay’s voice is also very similar to Garm’s old singing voice in the early Arcturus, Ulver days like what one hears on Kveldssanger and La Masquerade Infernale. He has a very forceful, vibratoless kind of delivery that is equal parts beautiful and creepy. Sometimes it sounds a little bit too forced for my liking, but it fits the atmosphere perfectly. And let’s face it, he must be doing something right if I *want* to listen to 23 minutes of music split into only two tracks.

My biggest complaint about this is the production, but not in the way that one would expect. The guitars have a lot of reverb on them, which sort of pushes them back in the mix and with the drums so high in the mix, but also so obviously a drum machine, it feels a little jarring sometimes. These are quality samples, but they have that sort of modern “tinny drum” kind of sound that I think should probably be avoided. Other than that, this record shines. Both tracks are well-composed, well-performed and worth checking out. And, once again, it’s a “name your own price” kind of deal, so I strongly suggest you go and download the thing and donate to Oskoreien‘s future.

One of the most surprising records of this year for me and one that I’d sort of forgotten about until recently was Kalisia‘s epic concept album Cybion. Sold online as a single track for very cheap, this is one long-ass amazing progressive soundscape that probably shouldn’t be missed. These guys come from France which puts out some of the best progressive/avant garde metal in the world right now and these guys aren’t an exception to this. Ranging between traditional metal, progressive rock à la-Dream Theater (fortunately sans irritating vocalist) and ranging in towards techno, this is pretty impressive. There are, however, some issues with this CD. First, there is an excessive use of auto-tuned female vocals on it that I found to be really annoying, there is also a little too much techno for my tastes and I wish that the parts were more distinct at times. But this record still really impresses more than not and for the price, you can’t go wrong.

So apparently I’m way behind the times as I’d never actually listened to Swallow the Sun before I got their record recently, and now I’m super bummed that I didn’t get into these guys earlier because their new record New Moon is seriously a fantastic melodic/doom album. There are a few moments where I wish they’d hurry up and get somewhere, but all-in-all this record is fucking fantastic and totally addictive. I think it’s definitely woth a new look if you haven’t checked it out yet, and if you have you should go and spin it again. Seriously, I’ll definitely be checking out the discography.

Be’lakor // Stone’s Reach
Rating: 4.5/5.0 – Excellent melodic death.. after all these years?
Label: Kolony Records (Europe)
Website(s): myspace.com/belakor
Release Date: EU: 30.11.2009 | World: Out on iTunes

Be’lakor is an Australian melodic death metal band that has been getting some serious attention in the underground despite the fact that much melodic death metal has pretty much been declared by the scene to be dead on arrival. I’d been reading about them for some time so I just wrote them a message on MySpace and the guys were cool enough to send me a copy to review. And I can see why they’re so eager to get their music out to the masses—it’s a bit like ear heroin.

Quite the opposite of the many bands who have initially appealing music that after a while you never take out and listen to again (here’s looking at you Sonata Arctica‘s Silence), Stone’s Reach grew on me very slowly over the weeks that I’ve had it. The initial listens were definitely a “OK, sounds a bit like Opeth, Insomnium, and In Flames‘ lovechild, but I don’t get the hype.” Which was shortly followed by a stage where I realized that as I was listening to it I knew every riff and was singing along with them. This final stage was followed by me having the opening riff of “From Scythe to Sceptre” stuck in my head for two days and that was it—I was totally hooked.

Stone’s Reach has everything you want from good melodic death metal in this the late stages of the 00s.. it’s fast and catchy with solid melodies, great harmonies that aren’t too predictable and yet everything is just familiar enough (despite sounding unique) that you’re able to slip into it and enjoy it without having to spend too much time thinking about it. That’s not to say that there aren’t things to think about—I particularly enjoy the way that the rhythm section works together very well, reminiscent of Morningrise-era Opeth—it’s just that the music is catchy enough that you don’t have to think about it if you don’t want to.

Every track on here has something worth remembering and this record never falls into a rhythm that allows you to get lost in the songs as though they weren’t all separate entities. Instead, the band is very adept at writing and arranging and are able to create unique soundscapes and songs that you will remember and that you long to hear again. And with a clear, smooth production that doesn’t suffer from any of the downsides of modern production tricks and techniques (i.e., it sounds nothing like a record that you would expect to hear from a major label which seems to be enforcing a regimen of triggering on all of their bands these days), Stone’s Reach gives everything you want from a melodic death metal album without sounding rehashed or like a rip-off.

If you’re like me and suckled at the teat of melodic death metal as a young music fan, you probably also feel like the genre has lost its interest over time. Be’lakor lacks nothing and has everything except worldwide distro from a major label—so feel free to buy their record on iTunes or send check out their MySpace for info on where to buy it: you won’t regret it.

The Chasm // Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm
Rating: 4.5/5.0 – Excellent
Label: Lux Inframundis Productions
Website(s): enterthedeathcult.com

In a lot of ways one has to feel a bit bad for The Chasm these days. They have worked as hard, or harder, than almost any band in the underground and fought for ground the whole time. They finally managed to fight their way to a good record deal with a good label that subsequently collapsed and now they’re back at at ground zero. Well, not really ground zero, think Point A. But not even really Point A, because honestly Point A is “write good music,” which they’ve got down. However, as opposed to breaking up after getting knocked down, The Chasm have instead produced a record: 2009′s opus Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm, which doesn’t have the same kind of support that it should have despite its fantastic quality.

And quality does Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm contain. My, my does it contain quality. The name of the album probably gets across the basic fundamentals of what’s going on here. Translated for those who don’t know what an “abysm” is, it’s safe to say that it’s basically an abyss. All of the atmospheric implications of a name like Farseeing the Paranormal Aybsm are definitely realized within this epic offering from The Chasm.

What The Chasm has done on Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm is something that many black metal bands would be totally jealous of—they have offered a highly epic, atmospheric record with great riffs and rawness that is also artistically interesting and still heavy. At the same time as it calls back to the greats of heavy metal it creates a very unique set of boundaries for the sound of the album. In a lot of ways it’s very thrashy, but still nearly black metal in its execution. Long passages of this album have no vocals and there are tons of excellent epic riffs which strike out of nowhere with whirlwind ferocity. The changes are smart, the soloing is good and the vocals are fantastic.

Probably the weakest aspect of this entire album is the production—which is a bit raw by modern standards—but I think a lot of fans of more raw music will actually really appreciate this raw production as it adds to the atmosphere of the misty nature of the record. And while many of the songs threaten to get a bit long, played at the proper volume on a rainy, misty winter day or at just before the sun disappears completely and you will be totally entranced by the dark, gritty atmosphere that this album helps evoke.

Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm is a triumph for underground death metal in this day and age where death metal is becoming more mainstream and more “core,” and it’s a triumph for The Chasm who have shown once again that they are as resourceful as they are excellent.