Angry Metal Guy

Demonic Resurrection // The Return to Darkness
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Fundamentally good…
Label: Candlelight Records
Websites: demonicresurrection.in | myspace.com/demonicresurrection
Release Dates: EU: 02.08.2010 | US: American release date unknown

As world metal takes the stage, something that is happening more and more frequently these days, we’re going to be seeing more of these bands coming from places where metal just hasn’t ever shown its face earlier. Demonic Resurrection, as those of you familiar with Sam Dunn’s documentary Global Metal already know, are a band from India who play symphonic black metal. The third record in a trilogy The Return to Darkness is being released (as I understand it) as the band’s first international release via Candlelight Records. That Sam Dunn is a rockstar creating machine, it turns out. Though, when it comes to Demonic Resurrection, their music speaks for itself and if you give that music a stage that myriads of metalheads have access to, it’s not hard to see how they managed to break beyond their borders. Continue reading

Diabolic // Excisions of Exorcisms
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Sub-prime evil located, keep digging!
Label: Deathgasm Records
Websites: diabolic-deathmetal.com | myspace.com/diabolic666
Release Dates: Out Now!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, no matter how immersed one becomes in a specific music scene, you simply can’t be aware of every band in that scene and part of the fun in life is discovering new bands and eagerly delving into their discography. I was unfamiliar with the work of Diabolic although they have been cranking out extreme death metal since 1998 in relative obscurity. Around that timeframe, I was in my “all death is good death” stage so I’m surprised these guys got under the radar, but so be it. After a four year absence since their last platter, Diabolic now unleashes their fifth album, Excisions of Exorcisms and with this album, I’m getting onboard the Diabolic bandwagon, although not necessarily due to this album. Allow me to explain. Continue reading

Limbonic Art // Phantasmagoria
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — One man and his drum machine.
Label: Nocturnal Art / Candlelight
Website: myspace.com/officiallimbonicart
Release Dates: EU: 19.07.2010 | US: ?

I loved Bathory growing up. I mean, I REALLY loved me some Bathory! That crazy Quorthon and his one man band really tore it up while basically giving birth to the black, folk and viking metal genres all by his lonesome. However, A.B. (After Bathory), many one man bands rose up in the frozen, gloomy black metal basements of the world, some good, many not. Therefore, when I heard that long running Norwegian black metal act Limbonic Art was now essentially reduced to a one man project for co-founder Daemon, I was more than slightly uneasy about the release of this, their seventh album, Phantasmagoria. Further enhancing my unease was the advance word that the album would again feature a drum machine (a long running negative for this band). With unease and hesitation upon all our minds (or at least mine), here we go. Continue reading

Severe Torture // Slaughtered
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Severe torture, unless you like it ugly and brutal.
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: severetorture.com | myspace.com/severetorture
Release Dates: EU: 28.06.2010 | US: 06.29.2010

I have to admit right up front that I wasn’t overly familiar with Severe Torture and their cadaver of work prior to getting tasked with this review. I had heard bits and pieces of previous albums but nothing about them ever really grabbed my attention or made me feel the need to track down their material. So as I got familiar with Slaughtered, this Dutch death metal band’s fifth platter (or should I say splatter), I was pretty shocked by the quality of the material on display. Maybe I simply missed the boat on their earlier stuff but this is a solid enough release that I plan to go back to investigate much more carefully in the near future. Continue reading

Galar // Til Alle Heimsens Endar
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Your sources are showing…
Label: Dark Essence Records
Websites: galar.no | myspace.com/galarmetal
Release Dates: EU: 01.03.2010 | US: 03.01.2010 [as download]

It would seem that Angry Metal Guy is actually forming review themes, like some sort of ongoing process wherein I discuss the ups and downs of the metal scene while reviewing records, and even debate them with some of the other reviewers. Because reviewing is an ongoing process here, often times things get lumped into groups in my head that others might not see. But what’s interesting is how during this big debate about whether or not bands should really be striving for an original and unique sound I am basically reviewing Nàttsòl‘s new record and Galar‘s new albums side by side. Like Nàttsòl, Galar is a young Norwegian band that is working in the footsteps of Ulver. Released by Dark Essence Records, Til Alle Heimsens Endar (“Until the End of All Worlds”) is the second album from the band, whose first record Skogsvad was released in 2006 and I, incidentally, have never heard it. The record itself is based on the work of Snorri Sturluson’s “Heimskringla”.  Continue reading

Soilwork // The Panic Broadcast
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Commercial as hell…
Label: Nuclear Blast (EU | US)
Website: soilwork.org | myspace.com/soilwork
Release Dates: EU: 02.07.2010 | US: 07.13.2010

Wow. So, it’s been like 10 years since I’ve listened to Soilwork and it turns out that they don’t sound at all even remotely the same. Sometimes a band falls off your radar and you don’t even think about them at all and honestly, Soilwork is one such band. Now, it’s probably not a surprise to anyone else but I was in utter shock when I turned on The Panic Broadcast to discover that the Gothenburg sound had totally been replaced by eurocore! See, now you’re laughing at my ignorance, but I’m a bit surprised. See, in Angry Metal World™ the last record that Soilwork released was actually The Chainheart Machine in 2000. And back then, these guys were playing a not-entirely-novel, but very, very good version of the Gothenburg sound. Turns out in the much lamer real world Soilwork has had a bunch of records and gotten a new vocal style, a new sound and hyper-produced. Continue reading

Angelus Apatrida // Clockwork
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Enjoyable, hungry, not so sticky.
Label: Century Media
Websites: angelusapatrida.com | myspace.com/angelusapatrida
Release Dates: EU: 21/22.06.2010 | US: 06.29.2010

Angelus Apatrida is a Spanish thrash metal band founded in the early 2000s, that is now putting out it’s third record, but Clockwork is the first for one of metal’s biggest labels: Century Media. So when I got this record, I just kinda went “who?” and went on with my day not thinking much of it. The name, which roughly translates to “fallen angels”, means nothing to me and has been sorta flitting in and out of my brain and while I was surprised to stick this in and hear thrash metal screaming at me (that’ll teach me to not read the bio first), I wasn’t really sure that there was anything here that would stick. Continue reading

Thunderstone // Dirt Metal
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – They’re going through changes.
Label: SPV
Websites: thunderstone.org | myspace.com/thunderstoneband
Release Dates: Out Now Everywhere (I think!)

Whenever an established band parts ways with their original vocalist and brings in a replacement, long time fans rightfully get concerned. How will the new singer impact the band’s sound and style? Will he fit in or change the dynamic too much? That’s the situation facing Finland’s Thunderstone for their fifth album, Dirt Metal. After four pretty solid albums of Euro power metal with original frontman Pasi Rantanen, Dirt Metal starts the era of Rick Altzi on vocals. With this new era also comes the much dreaded and despised shift in sound and approach as well. Are you scared? Are you on edge yet? Read on.

Continue reading

Nominon // Monumentomb
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Classic death metal. Maybe a little too classic…
Label: Deathgasm Records
Websites: nominon.com | myspace.com/nominon
Release Date: Out Now Worldwide (on tour July 2010 in the US)!

It is a bit odd that I haven’t heard Sweden’s Nominom. They’ve been around since 1993, when I was just a wee metal lad, discovering the merits of Carcass, Brutal Truth, and their ilk. And while perhaps the name was heard in the venerable annals of metal, it is not recalled by this metallion. The ranks of metal run deep, however, so it is not a big surprise. Just in recent years I discovered the intense and ever-evolving Immolation, so there’s always a wealth of metal to discover, and new interpretations of heavy to be explored, to make me forget I have tinnitus before I go to sleep. Continue reading

Fatal Embrace // Empires of Inhumanity
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – Thrash like its still 1985
Label: Metal Blade
Websites: fatal-embrace.net | myspace.com/fatalembracemetalberlin
Release Dates: EU: 04.06.2010 | US: 06.08.2010

Trends often start off with a good idea or at least a respectable inspiration. However, through imitation and copying, that original idea becomes a trend and the trend gets boring, overdone and ultimately becomes a joke. The retro 80’s power metal trend is in full bloom and many would say the 80’s retro thrash movement has been overdone for years already. As someone who grew up in the 80’s metal era, I may possess more tolerance for this whole “retro” thing since it does this old heart good to hear a quality metal album that truly captures the sound, energy and spirit of a time long gone. Therefore, my review of The Empires of Inhumanity, the new release by German thrashers Fatal Embrace will be more charitable than what it would have received from other angry metal guys. In all fairness, these Teutonic shredders have been around since 1993 so they could rightfully be considered part of the original thrash movement rather than a retro band. Either way though, over four albums Fatal Embrace have demonstrated an unwavering dedication to the 80’s thrash style of Slayer and Sodom while foregoing all modern styles and current trends completely. Continue reading