2014

Steel Druhm’s Top Ten(ish) of 2014

By Steel Druhm on December 31, 2014 in 2014, Blog Posts, 68 comments

“As I walk through the valley where I harvest my grain, I take a look at my list and realize it’s very plain. Barring an oddity or two, this feels like the most predictable list I’ve assembled since joining the AMG crusade. I can’t even blame 2014, since it was a decent if not amazing year for metal during which we all learned to enjoy of deep sadness and worship at the altar of the all seeing Sphere of I-ruhn.” Brace yourselves, sheeples, a two ton Top Ten(ish) heavy thing is about to drop from the steely skies onto your eager eyes.

Grymm’s Top Ten(ish) Albums of 2014

By Grymm on December 28, 2014 in Blog Posts, 34 comments

“Man, so much has happened in 2014, aka my second year writing for Angry Metal Guy. Having my very own office away from the boiler room (which reeked of desperation, sadness, and decaying flesh… kinda like your local Abercrombie & Fitch with less Axe body spray), seeing familiar faces leave, welcoming in a new batch of talent… it’s been a pretty hectic year.” Grymm’s all grown up and has a man’s list! *Sniffle*…Where did the time go?

Things You Might Have Missed 2014: Black Anvil – Hail Death

By Mark Z. on December 24, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, Relapse, Things You Might Have Missed 2014, Thrash Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, Thrash Metal, 4 comments

“Three years ago at a Krallice show in New York, a band named Black Anvil took stage, struck an immense wall-shaking chord, and immediately captivated my unsuspecting ears with their hefty, head-crushing riffs. Unlike the post-progressive-neo-sludge-blueberry muffin-whatever I expected to accompany Krallice, Black Anvil was firmly grounded in the primal forms of extreme metal, somehow combining black, death, thrash, and doom without sounding like they’d spent the last decade huffing rubber cement and playing Celtic Frost records backwards.” Holidays go better with rubber cement huffing.

Vircolac – Codex Perfida Review

By El Cuervo on December 23, 2014 in 2014, Death Metal, Irish Metal, Iron Bonehead Productions, Reviews, Death Metal, 11 comments

“A quick note to begin: Vircolac’s Codex Perfida has been released on cassette tape. No joke. Straight-faced. And for the moment, it’s the only available physical format.” That’s what you get when you sign to Kim Jong-Doom Records.

Sans Soleil – A Holy Land Beneath A Godless Sky Review

By Dr. A.N. Grier on December 22, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, Not Metal, Post-metal, Reviews, Tofu Carnage Records, Doom Metal, Drone, Not Metal, Post-Metal, 6 comments

“How often do you think of an instrumental band that substitutes that wishful vocalist with the swooning leads of a viola? My guess is never. You never think of that. Well, the masterminds behind Sans Soleil thought about it for you.” My mom always says “if you have a viola, you have everything.”

Dimesland – Psychogenic Atrophy Review

By Kronos on December 21, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Avante Garde, Death Metal, Progressive Death, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Unsigned Bands, Death Metal, Progressive Metal, 6 comments

“Yep, this is one of those albums. There’s not a sphere to be had on that cover, much less a corpse, but it remains one of the more striking and subtly unnerving pieces of album art around. It’s not like other covers, and Dimesland is not like other bands. Psychogenic Atrophy is the Oakland, California quartet’s first LP, hoping to ride on the coattails of bizarre death metal bands like Gorguts and Pyrrhon that we all love so dearly. Yet Psychogenic Atrophy provides us with a plastic disc filled with a music that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike technical death metal.” No sphere to be had, but this is far from bad.

Things You Might Have Missed: Slugdge – Gastronomicon

By Saunders on December 21, 2014 in 2014, Black Metal, Death Metal, English Metal, Reviews, Sludge, Things You Might Have Missed 2014, Black Metal, Death Metal, Experimental Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Sludge, 9 comments

“I admire bands with the guts to take creative risks and incorporate different styles and influences into their sound. However, meshing different genres is often fraught with danger. Bold experimentation and genre splicing often results in bands going off the deep end, with the finished output dissolving into a stewy mess of incoherence and forced songwriting.” Ready for some slug themed extremity? Look at that escargot!

Things You Might Have Missed 2014: Wildernessking – The Devil Within

By Angry Metal Guy on December 19, 2014 in 2014, Black Metal, Reviews, South African Metal, Things You Might Have Missed 2014, Black Metal, 9 comments

“Wildernessking is a great band. Their sounds is well-developed, nuanced, interesting and even back to when they were Heathens, they had a choke-hold on the craft of song writing. That they continue to develop and have not garnered the attention of the big(ger) labels who should be clamoring to support them surprises me. Is it because they’re from South Africa and can’t be expected to tour? Is it because the world is riddled with luck and unequal chances and they haven’t gotten in front of the right eyes? Or is it because Angry Metal Guy didn’t get his ass in gear and review the band’s EP The Devil Within, the second follow-up to the band’s remarkable debut The Writing of Gods in the Sand? As a man who obviously has an inflated enough sense of self to believe that starting a blog to air his opinion out on the Internet was something that everyone would be dying to read, we’ll go with the latter. I’m here to make amends.” And amends are hereby made.

Things You Might Have Missed 2014: Mike LePond’s Silent Assassins

By Al Kikuras on December 19, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Things You Might Have Missed 2014, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, 5 comments

“Symphony X nerds rejoice! Then again, maybe you won’t. Symphony X bassist Mike LePond’s first solo effort was released in September of this year and those expecting LePond to stick to his primary band’s keyboard-laden progressive metal path may be sorely disappointed. If you are, get that geeky head out of your pale behind (if you can get up off it long enough between games of Skyrim)…” New Jersey knows metal, and Al Kikuras knows New Jersey.

Things You Might Have Missed 2014: Hannes Grossmann – The Radial Covenant

By Angry Metal Guy on December 18, 2014 in 2014, Death Metal, German Metal, Reviews, Things You Might Have Missed 2014, 18 comments

For those who don’t know Hannes Grossmann, you probably do know the bands he’s been involved in. He’s got Obscura, Necrophagist, and Blotted Science on his “list of things that make me cooler than you,” and one can only guess that The Radical Covenant is the Obscura record we would have gotten if Grossmann hadn’t decided to quit. And while I’m a fan of Obscura, I felt the band nailed it with Cosmogenesis and I’m not a huge fan of 2011’s Omnivium (anymore). Ironically, Grossmann said in his parting message from the band that the musical difference between he and founder Steffen Kummerer was the reason that he left the band. Apparently Kummerer was more invested in a Cosmogenesis sound, which could leave one expecting, then, I shouldn’t like this record as much…