“Five years since 2013’s solid and thrashy Unwelcome, Arsis make a pivotal return with sixth LP, Visitant. With a stable line-up in tow, Malone has masterminded a visceral, energized collection of tunes, set to catapult Arsis back to the top of the American melo-death pile.” Back to rule.
“AV Club ran a recent piece on the best ever back-to-back-to-back run on an album. That site may not be brutal enough for you malcontents, but you know who is? Me. Inferi. 2014’s The Path of Apotheosis stands on its own merits, but the 6-7-8 of “Destroyer,” “Onslaught of the Covenant,” and “Marching Through the Flames of Tyranny” made that record. Alone, each could have been a song of the year contender; together, they drove me to get “Inferi” tattooed directly on my heart. Needless to say, the Nashville quintet set the bar for follow-up Revenant at an unrealistic level.” Expectations and tattoos.
“There’s a fine line between genuine obscurity and an album that simply flew under the radar and remained a criminally overlooked corker, never quite attracting the attention and recognition it surely deserved. For this long-gestating second chapter of Into the Obscure, I present the strikingly brilliant 2004 debut LP from Germany’s Disillusion.” The unforgotten.
The Black Dahlia Murder is without a doubt a Top 5 band for me. I honestly don’t know when it happened. When I started listening to them I never considered them to be that special, they were head and shoulders over the melodeath glut that was being puked out in the early 2000s, but a […]
“But, after its layers upon layers of choirs, choruses, and orchestrations, Time I ended up being two great songs (“Songs of Winter and Stars” and “Time”) and three OK ones. But that was enough to keep appetites whet for its sequel. A sequel that never came… And still shows no sign of coming (except for the two random live performances). That’s why the title above doesn’t say Time II. Instead, we get a whole new album. One built around more talk, more delays, more anticipation, steamy saunas, and micro-hotel experiences. Welcome to the tangled forest that is Wintersun.” Suspicious package.
“Listening to Oniric Delusions this past week got me thinking about vanilla ice cream. It’s a dessert that’s not so much widely loved as universally accepted as a reliable standby to other, more complex dishes. Proper application of toppings however can transform this most mundane of treats into something special and unique. When I learned that Banisher hails from Poland and markets themselves as extreme death metal, I couldn’t help but raise my expectations at least a little.” Poland is for death lovers.
“Instead of my usual modus operandi of writing something about food and/or beer and relating it to the band and/or record in question, I’m switching things up a bit and kicking this off with mentioning my biggest issue with American melodic black-ish/death-ish crew Enthean’s new full-length Priests of Annihilation. Writing this review, I kept coming back to G.K. Chesterson’s idea that we don’t have a lack of wonders, but a lack of wonder. This record, as I see it, is a reflection of that.” Is technicality the enemy of wonder?
“It doesn’t take an encyclopedic knowledge of heavy metal to figure out where Foul Body Autopsy draw their name from. Which is good, because I certainly don’t have one. In fact, I didn’t even remember “Foul Body Autopsy” was a Necrophagist song until conducting research for this review, and the first time I actually sat down and listened to Muhammed Suicmez’s legendary tech death project was a few days ago when I found myself stuck in an airport terminal for five hours with a dead Kindle. Still, it only took a cursory listen of Onset of Putrefaction to reveal that FBA is far from mere Suicmez worship.” Does the apple fall far from the rotten tree?
“The dramatic fall from grace of the often maligned melodic death metal sub-genre is well documented among metalheads. Things were looking so damn rosy during the ’90s heyday.” Ah, those were the days.
“I’m always up for hearing music from bands who are pushing envelopes, crafting daring, original soundscapes of sheer genius that leave people slack-jawed and awestruck, inspiring young, budding musicians to pick up an instrument and pay homage to their ancestors. Morbid Angel was (at one point) one of those bands.” If you’re going to mimic someone, old Morbid Angel isn’t a bad way to go.
