Doom_et_Al and Dear Hollow spice up the season with their Top Ten(ish) of 2022. Come for the selections, stay to harass them over same.
Amorphis
Gutvoid – Durance of Lightless Horizons Review
“A young act’s debut full-length can be exciting on many levels. You are there at the birth of something, the leaping off point for a career of unknown fortunes. Sometimes you can smell greatness even on the earliest works, and other times humble beginnings offer no hint of the great things to come. The promo material for Toronto’s Gutvoid aren’t shy about promising big things for this upstart death metal outfit. Words like “titanic” and “stellar” are dropped and much hype is created for Durance of Lightless Horizons. And there is some truth in the PR puffery (for once).” Durance of elevated expectations.
Moonshade – As We Set the Skies Ablaze Review
“Moonshade treads a fine line between derivation and imitation with their brand of melodeath. Primarily pulling from the teachings of such stalwarts as Omnium Gatherum and latter day Amorphis.” Moon landings and sponge rantings.
Horizon Ignited – Towards the Dying Lands Review
“”It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed some good ol’ melodeath,” so thought I as I opted to review Towards the Dying Lands, the sophomore full-length release from Finland’s Horizon Ignited. And, indeed, it has been—I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve really enjoyed new melodeath. And, of course, my well-meaning colleagues and cellmates here at Angry Metal Guy do tend to descend on all new melodeath entries like vultures, so I often have to rely on their opinions about new releases in the style, which are of dubious quality at best. All of this is to say I was fairly excited to begin listening to Towards the Dying Lands, which, it turns out, is a solid sample of the genre.” Melo bellows.
Record(s) o’ the Month – March 2022
One of the problems with the Record(s) o’ the Month post is that I, apparently, cannot escape the glass cage of emotion that has been my life for a few years. Unfortunately, said glass cage doesn’t have an internet connection and that makes it difficult to keep up with everything. In reality, Record o’ the Month posts take a lot of work. So, I’m here to fix that! March is hardly done and I’m posting the Record(s) o’ the Month!
Cryptivore – Celestial Extinction Review
“Nasty things can happen in the blink of an eye. A stroke, a car accident, a sucker punch that leaves you concussed and picking up teeth like so many spilled Tic Tacs… now feel free to add the songs of Cryptivore to that list of fleeting but brutal mishaps. Celestial Extinction delivers ten tracks in twenty-seven minutes, each one of which wastes no time beating your ass bloody and then fleeing the scene before anyone can hold it accountable. This is mixed martial songwriting, a blitzkrieg of techniques and styles designed to probe your feeble defenses until something yields.” You are what you beat.
Amorphis – Halo Review
Halo is Amorphis’s 14th studio album and 2022 marks the 30th anniversary since The Karelian Isthmus first graced this world, and at this point, Amorphis sounds like no one but Amorphis. After 30 years of Amorphis, will they ever bow before the might of Angry Metal Guy’s Law of Diminishing Recordings?
AMG’s Guide to Amorphis
In honor of the release of Halo on the 11th of February (that’s this Friday), from Atomic Fire Records, we here at AngryMetalGuy.com are giving you a rock-solid grounding in the band this website has stolen all its logos from.
Polemicist – Return of the Sophist Review
“Two years ago, due to the vulture-like voracity of my colleagues here towards the eternally decomposing corpse that is our promo bin, I discovered Zarathustrian Impressions, the debut album from Pennsylvanian blackened death scholars Polemicist solely on the fact that it was the last album not snatched up by my ravenous cohorts. It would be my colleagues’ loss, because despite being a back-heavy album with a questionable production, I was still impressed by what they had to offer musically, and even commented that they could very likely cast all eyes on them within a couple of albums.” The future is now, olde man!
Ischemic – Ischemic Review
“As 2021 continues to be the DLC to 2020 that absolutely nobody asked for or wanted, bands are using the downtime due to lack of touring and promotion to work diligently on their musical output. Some bands, such as Toronto’s Ischemic, are even going as far as to record and mix their own music, further driving home the fact that DIY can’t, and won’t, be stopped. Not by pandemics, not by lockdowns, not by lack of touring. It’s this admirable and, quite frankly, necessary approach that will eventually separate the diehards from the pack, and on the band’s self-titled second full-length, they didn’t let the pandemic get in the way.” Crisis management.
