2010

Things You Might Have Missed 2010: Vex – Thanatopsis

By Angry Metal Guy on December 3, 2010 in 2010, American Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Death, Reviews, Things You Might have Missed 2010, Black Metal, Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 1 comment

In my opinion this is one of the more painfully overlooked records of 2010. In fact, I’ve seen pretty much no press on this album at all, and yet somehow it has just been rockin’ my world since I got my hands on it. Released in September via Horror, Pain, Gore, Death Prod-uctions, Thanatopsis is largely reminiscent of the mighty The Chasm, but has plenty of originality to throw around. The riffs are sometimes blistering and blackened, laden with trem picking and melodic passages, and sometimes the band breaks it down to harmonious doomy, atmospheric parts. In both cases, everything feels in its place and the record flows expertly making for a fantastic listening experience that is both heavy and emotionally evocative.

Things You Might Have Missed 2010: Byfrost – Black Earth

By Steel Druhm on December 2, 2010 in 2010, Black Metal, Norwegian Metal, Things You Might have Missed 2010, Thrash Metal, Black Metal, 4 comments

Ahhh, my Immortal. Yeah, I love Immortal and I’m not afraid to admit it. Be it old Immortal, new Immortal, I love it all! I’m plenty keen on Abbath’s solo project I as well. Since Immortal and I can only record so much material and I always want more, I was happily surprised by the debut full length Black Earth from Norway’s own Byfrost (available on Painkiller Records). Hailing from the very same town as the mighty Immortal, Byfrost plays a style of blackened thrash so remarkably similar, that fans of the frigid ones can’t help but smile and thrash along. The vocal style of Heavy Harms (winning name) is nearly identical to that of Abbath and the overall song structures and riffing stylesÂwill remind you of Immortal and I equally.

Agalloch – Marrow of the Spirit

By Steel Druhm on December 1, 2010 in 2010, 4.0, American Metal, Avante Garde, Black Metal, Profound Lore Records, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Uncategorized, Black Metal, Progressive Metal, 9 comments

Agalloch is one of the rare bands whose music can provoke complex emotional reactions and truly move me every time I listen. From the bleak coldness of Pale Folklore to the creepily morose musings on The Mantle and the tense, uneasy nihilism of Ashes Against the Grain, their music overflows with emotion and feeling. Their odd and groundbreaking neo-folk, black metal, post-rock fusion has been a winning concoction time and again. From their small but fierecely dedicated fan base, there has been an almost palpable anticipation for new material from these Oregonian wood gnomes, and finally, they deliver Marrow of the Spirit. It goes without saying that expectations are ridiculously high based on the masterworks that preceded, but can they continue to operate at such a high level? I want to say yes unconditionally, but the truth is more like a yes, with minor qualifications

Things You May Have Missed 2010: Briton Rites – For Mircalla

By Steel Druhm on November 30, 2010 in 2010, American Metal, Doom Metal, Echoes of Crom Records, Reviews, Things You Might have Missed 2010, Doom Metal, 0 comments

Briton Rites is a heavy doom metal act hailing from Atlanta Georgia and their debut album For Mircalla came out of nowhere and really blew me away. Released by Echoes of Crom Records and features Phil Swanson of Hour of 13 on vocals and one of the heaviest, most distorted guitar sounds out there courtesy of Howie Bentley of Cauldron Born. Together these gents serve up some truly ginormous Cathedral, Pentagram, Witchfinder General worship of the highest caliber but with a style all their own. With a thematic concept largely dealing with cult vampire movies like “Captain Cronos” or “Crypt of the Vampire,” there’s enough doomy and gloomy atmosphere here to scare the most rabid werewolf and enough raw, heavy ugliness to convince a metalcore band to go back to playing pop-punk.

Things You May Have Missed 2010: Cradle of Filth – Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa

By Angry Metal Guy on November 29, 2010 in 2010, Black Metal, Peaceville, Reviews, Things You Might have Missed 2010, Black Metal, 3 comments

I can’t admit to being or having been a big Cradle of Filth fan. I had a friend who didn’t like either them or Dimmu Borgir and gave me Spiritual Black Dimensions and Dusk and Her Embrace on the same day. I exclusively listened to Dimmu and didn’t really like the Cradle record at all. So I got Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa with a bit of skepticism (at best). I mean, really, when was the last time that you heard anything good about this band? A band that on the Top 100 Ways to be Black Metal list is referenced about 8 times: “Don’t be Dani Filth”.

Things You May Have Missed 2010: Triosphere – The Road Less Travelled

By Angry Metal Guy on November 25, 2010 in 2010, AFM Records, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Things You Might have Missed 2010, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, 2 comments

Triosphere is a Norwegian progressive/power metal band that has gotten a little bit of play among fans of the genre, but isn’t actually super well known or discussed widely. Released on AFM, the band’s second full length The Road Less Travelled is a surprisingly interesting and fresh sounding power metal record in a genre filled with tired, tired, tired bands playing tired, tired, tired music. Instead, the band seems to have carved out a fairly unique place, partially due to the androgynous vocals of Ida Haukland. This isn’t an insult to her by any means, it’s just that I couldn’t tell if this was a male vocalist or a female vocalist and she’s one of the few female vocalists in power metal that I’ve ever heard that really do metal voice convincingly, instead of donning a dress and pretending she’s a diva. To the contrary, with solid backing from a band that can go between Dream Theater-flavored solos and Dragonforce-flavored blasts, she nails the presence the album needs to be convincing and unique at the same time.

Torture Division – Evighetens Dårar Review

By Angry Metal Guy on November 24, 2010 in 2010, 4.5, Death Metal, Reviews, Swedish Metal, 2 comments

Sometimes reviews are short because you don’t have anything to say about a band. I mean, something just doesn’t wake that ire in you because it sucks, but isn’t really great enough to really rant about. This is a problem when you set yourself informal word limits for every review, and this is even more of a problem when the issue with the record is that it’s too fucking good to even warrant much of a review, per se. So before the jump, even, let me say this: what are you waiting for? Buy this fucking record.

Things You May Have Missed 2010: Unitopia – Artificial

By Angry Metal Guy on November 23, 2010 in 2010, InsideOut, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Things You Might have Missed 2010, 1 comment

It’s that time of year again, when I dole out things you may have missed (and things that I haven’t reviewed). You must remember that we receive MASSIVE amounts of promos from all over the world, so it’s often that things just get missed. It’s definitely not intentional, but sometimes shit just gets missed. So, with that said, here’s something you may have missed…

The Ocean – Anthropocentric Review

By Angry Metal Guy on November 22, 2010 in 2.5, 2010, Eurocore, German Metal, Metal Blade, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Sludge, Hardcore, Post-Hardcore, Sludge, 5 comments

gotta say up front that I am not a big fan of sludge, I mean, you should be forewarned of this. So when I first heard The Ocean’s controversial (and apparently much hated) opus Heliocentric I was really happy about it. It was way more shoegaze or post-hardcore than it was sludge or anything really coming near to it. Short on the hardcore and tall on the clean vocals, I was impressed. I gave it a 4.5/5.0 and I stand by that (in spite of the incessant whining of jilted fans). So I was pretty interested to take a listen to the follow-up Anthropocentric. And my worst fears were confirmed: they pulled an Opeth. Soft record. Heavy record. Blech. Anyone else ever notice that this never works?

Sodom – In War and Pieces Review

By Steel Druhm on November 18, 2010 in 2010, 3.5, German Metal, Reviews, SPV, Thrash Metal, Thrash Metal, 4 comments

Sodom, sweet Sodom, ever so reliable and happily predictable. They’re the thrash equivalent of your favorite concert t-shirt. It’s always there for you, it’s comfortable, beer soaked and you go way way back together. Since 1982 these German metal-meisters have given us thrash and more thrash with very little stylistic variation or experimentation and for most long time fans, that’s just how we want it. After all, Sodom always specialized in simple, brutal and dirty thrash metal with punk influences and they were proud to be a thrash band even when thrash wasn’t “cool” anymore. I never had to waste time worrying if they would start exploring jazz fusion, ambient soundscapes or become self important about the message in their music. No sir, Sodom was just Sodom. Thankfully, the comforting non-progression continues on In War and Pieces, their thirteenth platter and they continue to deliver their battle tested (and themed) thrash lunacy.